Hi guys,

I am in studio one and fl studio and in the need of a new laptop.

On the studio one page is says:

1. The CPU:

The CPU or processor of your machine is going to be the most important factor when it comes to system latency and the ability to process audio. When using effects plug-ins and running at a low Device Block Size, you will want to have the most powerful processor that you can afford. It is recommended that you go with an I7 processor or higher with 4 cores or more. Make sure that the processor supports Hyperthreading and that it natively runs at 3.0 Ghz. or higher. When we say "natively" we are referring to the speed at which the processor runs, prior to invoking any type of "turbo" technology. This is because at certain temperatures, your system might be set to disable any "turbo" technology or over-clocking. This means that when your system gets too hot, it will be limited to the native speed of the CPU.

Now, the new generation laptops havent really got a 3ghz processor running them ( in a laptop its difficult to find).

On the Fl studio page it says:

CPU: The CPU is the primary factor in your ability to run FL Studio with large complex projects. Yes FL Studio utilizes multi-core CPUs but, beyond a certain point, more is not necessarily better. Read the section: 'The logic of audio processing' in the manual to learn why. In light of this, the best value for performance is usually to be had a few levels down from the top models. We don't normally recommend spending more than $600 on a CPU only for music production. 300 to $500 USD is the sweet-spot.

• Intel - The i9-9900K, i7-9700K and i7-8700K (and non-K variants) are stand-out processors with: 1. 6 or more cores. 2. Reasonable prices, 3. Reasonable heat output ~ 95W TDP and 4. the fast single-core performance (this is super important), win-win-win-win.
• AMD - The Ryzen 9 3900X, 7 3800X, 7 3700X & 5 3600X with their 12, 8, 8 and 6 cores (respectively) are now providing performance to rival Intel in DAW usage scenarios. Particularly now with very fast single-thread speeds. More winning!

Choose your own - Search for a CPU with the fastest single-core performance you can afford, in a package with 4 to 8 physical cores. Here's how we grade multi-core scores for CPUs with 8 or less cores - Weak: Less than 4,999. Medium: 5000 to 8,999. Strong: 9000 to 14,999. Very strong more than 15,000. For example: An 8 core CPU (14,400) with a single core score of 1800 is probably less well suited to music production than a 6 core CPU (12,000) with a single core score of 2600, since much of what happens with audio-processing can't be computed in parallel. Ideally, you need a CPU in the Strong or Very Strong category.

Don't understand these calculations though.

I found these laptops:

Clevo-computer (cheap 2000 dollar but plastic and only one i could find with 3ghz minimal):

• Intel Core i9-9900 | 16MB Cache | 3.10~5.00 GHz | 8C/16T | vPro / HT | TDP 65W
• Windows 10 Home
• 32GB ( 1x 32GB ) DDR4 2666MHz Samsung
• 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD M.2 | PCIe 3.0 x4 | NVMe | R/W 3500/3300 MB/s

Really dont like the plastic keyboard and stuff though.


Dell XPS 17 9700 (new model dollar 3500):

• 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10875H --> (2,3ghz native speed)
• Windows 10 Home
• 32GB DDR4-2933MHz, 2x16G
• 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

Dell Alienware m15 (dollar 3500)

• 10e generatie Intel® Core™ i9-10980HK
• Windows 10 Home (64-bits)
• 32 GB, DDR4 2666 MHz
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2070 SUPER 8 GB GDDR6

Can you guys help me? What would you do? Other proposals?

Or any experience with these cpu's.

 

You absolutely don't need 3Ghz, nowadays CPUs are more than powerful enough without needing sheer clock speed. I have a I7-8750H (2.2ghz) and Logic Pro X runs smooth as butter.

Clevo is complete garbage, do not buy. As a technician these are built like trash. XPS or Alienware are good choices. The i9 is overkill, but if you can afford it, its extremely powerful. But, a mid-range i7 is good enough

 

dependas on the software you liek to use, try Avenger and tell me how many voices you can play

 

hp z book
--

or lenovo or other hp without OS...DELL for notebooks, i got no experience with it
DELL workstations were always great
--
on cpu questions we have special
@taskforce over here , hopefully he will chime in soon

 

Last edited: Jun 12, 2020

Definitely don't get the one with the 2070 Super. Unless you're planning on gaming with this laptop, buying one with a dedicated GPU is a waste of money. Your DAW will not be using it.

 

"buying one with a dedicated GPU is a waste of money. Your DAW will not be using it."

Sorry for my reply:

I'm using this setup for 5 years almost
I have a DELL Inspiron 7559 with i7-6700HQ
I put 2 new SSD-s inside 1 TB m2 & EVO 850
It has Intel HD 520 and a GTX 960m

The 960m can be used with Ableton 10 and once I tried Cubase Elements 8 and it was using it as well.

Basically if I use the same setup with the Intel HD the project lags.
With the GTX 960m Acceleration it runs smooth it is important to have a "gaming" GPU in your laptop if you can see it is running at "4480x1440" My DELL 1440p monitor and the laptop screen at 1080p with no problems at all SPAN can run at 60 FPS easily and I can stack more plugins without a lag.

 

Last edited: Jun 12, 2020

You guys rock, thanks for your replies.

@Zander so the 3ghz studio one story they have on the website is outdated? Could very well be, was only information i could find from them. Wat is your view on single core speed?

These are the cpu' s i am choosing from now:
See images

So basically the alienware with 10980hk is best, however no 3ghz. There is my point of doubt. studio one is my go to daw


@pizzafresser do some gaming, but in dell etc is impossiblet to get cpu without.

@Moonlight yes, hence my question. Just want to have have 100 realtime tracks with plugin, mastetchannels etc. Without need to freeze. Just wanna invest in complete control of projects with lots of kontakts, waves, fabfilter, all the heavy stuff.

 

Z-Book studio G5 works very well with Studio one / Ableton

 

@Haliax what is your cpu in the z book?

 

I've two actually

1.
I7-8850H @ 2.60Ghz / 12 threads
64GB RAM

2.
I7-8850H @ 2.60Ghz / 12 threads
32GB RAM


My main DAW machine is a liquid cooled Ryzen 3700x desktop, 32GB RAM and RTX 2070 super. I use one of the laptops for putting ideas down when I'm not at my desk

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 12, 2020

important thing to be aware regarding laptops is, the actual sustained CPU frequency,

most laptops cpus tend to boost but also throttle down due to thermal or power limitations, so for ex. i7-9750H runs at 2.6GHz stock, can boost all 6 cores (12 threads) up to 4GHz and boost single core up to 5GHz - IF the thermal and power conditions are met,

therefore you should choose laptop based on cooling efficiency, which is often tricky because not always thickest laptop has biggest heatsinks and heatpipes, but also most thin laptops tend to spin fans at very high rpm causing incredible higher-pitched noise OR simply drop cpu clocks to prevent overheating - both options you definitely won't like,

problem is, majority of well-designed-cooling laptops are done that way to handle also a powerful expensive graphics card which makes them unbelievably expensive, so you need to seek for compromise there - I'd usually seek for cheap but decent gaming-grade laptop with at least 16GB ram,

another matter, since you are looking for a laptop is - are you planning to carry it around? because the more powerful components (higher clocked/boosting cpu, dedicated graphics card, bigger and higher resolution display, more RAM sticks etc..) consume more energy and so the laptop battery won't sustain hours of intensive use - I personally prefer "weaker" laptop and "stronger" desktop to have best of both worlds

 

and then you want to use a notebook ? I bet the fans will go like a aircraft starting.
But it depends on what 100 realtime tracks. 100 monophonic sytnth will tacke the cpu quite different to 100 polysynths plus effects.
Do you really NEED a mobile computer ?

 

Yes, need to be able to carry it with me. Am not often in a single place anyhow.

Which cpu out if my disclosed pictures would you guys personally take not keeping in mind the brand it'll be placed in. Will probably heat up anyway.

 

how much did you pay for ? hp z book g5
--

op hp z book i would buy....all this other mentioned are experiments and some even toys against a true pro workstation
even its no dedicated audio workstation notebook....
--
further , match youre desired cpu up with a proper notebook...not so easy like build a custom desktop

-- sry de-railing thread op im silent now

 

About £1700 last year I think

 

You're totally overthinking the 3ghz thing. The laptop will boost up as soon it's needed. Any decent laptop will come with manufacturer set overclocking settings anyway, so you can set it to turbo.

Asus TUF's can be pretty good, that's what I have, they're fairly well priced for that sort of thing and apparently toughened to some military spec, apparently. I constantly hear the Razer ones are the best overall high spec laptops.

 

A bit of history
PC's used to have a turbo button which is ironic because on the early machines it did the opposite of what you think it would do. It would limit the processor speed so older games would run at the intended speed.

 

these are nice, but make sure to check the price as well.

 

I would go for something like this..
Asus ROG Zephyrus G GA502

it has the amd ryzen 7 4800hs which has a tdp of 35w and a passmark result of 18848 which is more than the intel one.. 16gb ram and a 15.6" ips display, one 1TB ssd and a nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and it is "only" 1500€

 

Last edited: Jun 29, 2020

Asus ROG Zephyrus G GA502 is the beast. You won't regret it.