Been long time searching for Windows Laptops which are stable for Films Scoring.

its strange that no one is using any laptops setup for mobility when in comes to windows laptops
maximum of them are using Apple powerbook.

Why is so that still Windows laptops are not that great for music and film scoring
if any one using it and knows any stable windows laptop setup
then please share it to the world.
lets keep this thread alive by adding names of laptops which you have used and are good to go for

only share the laptops which really are good and robust for film scoring and music production.
not for just playing loops.

there has to be alternative to powerbook.

not everyone is a MAC fan out here.

 

Look at the Lenovo 'Workstations'. You will still be in the Macbook Pro price range. Just under Windows.

Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Samplitude/Sequoia, Reaper?

New or refurbished from Lenovo with warranty, you can't go wrong. A new custom configured P1 Gen 2 32GB OLED etc...@
$4500.00 can be had for $3144.00 as just one example. This one is Xeon based. There are 9th & 10th gen Core CPU options.

Dell Latitude Workstations have been mentioned as well. Still in MacBook Pro range by the time you configure a laptop that can handle heavy sustained workloads.

 

Hey thanks for the recommendations but are they stable enough performance wise or its just pricewise smilar to macbook
as whom ever i have asked has just said nothing you can compare to macbook, which was really strange to know.

 

Please provide some facts, because i never had any problems on Windows since 2000

 

heard positive things about MSI GT76 Titan:
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT76-Titan-9SX/Overview

Latest pro or home version of Windows you should be fine.
1809 and 1909 versions of Windows 10 is stable

 

Alienware M-15 takes everything I've thrown at it. heavy video/audio editing, music, no problems...

 

The Lenovo is stable for sure. The new Dell workstation series does not seem to offer anything pass the 8th gen i7 with limited memory options. Dissapointing.

I own a Lenovo Workstation/Server that has never let me down. Lenovo made systems for IBM before buying out that division & rebranding to Lenovo.

 

Forgot to mention this custom built production laptop: Rok Box MC M7 S Configuration
As Configured $2699

 

Stable
Audio
and
Windows…

Some times things just don't add up. ;) But seriously Before spending Apple money on plasticy looking and clunky feeling PC Notebooks you could just buy a MacBook Pro and run Windows on it using BootCamp. Even though I am not a fan of Apple products for desktop computing, I think their notebooks are unriveld in terms of design, display and aesthetics.

 

A stable system under Windows 10 is possible & a reality for me. MacBooks are in the used-to-be categery and, being cemented there with the direction that Apple is taking their professional line. Longevity, ruggedness, upgradibilty are all hit & misses which should not be there for such an expensive computer line. Now the T2 chip is causing another layer of hassles for professional creators.

I have a MacBook Air (early 2014) running Logic Pro X for mixing only. Had to figure out to dump unneeded apps & settings. Upgraded to Catalina without any issues so, I was lucky there.

Still prefer my desktop for serious work & unlimited power. If I were to by another laptop, I would personally go far a Windows workstation laptop built for engineering & high end video production. In the same price range of a MacBook Pro with more power & ability to upgrade. Oh yeah...no need for dongles & hubs.

On a side note...You can now build an all AMD production desktop from a third to half the cost of the upcoming Mac Pro. $2600 to $3600 vs a starting price of $5999. This will run Catalina.

 

Last edited: Dec 10, 2019

(I got nearly to never a Crash with my Windows PC´s)

I believe in the head of many is the believing :Oh he uses a Macbook he must be a professional.
2. With Bootcamp comes the compability to Windows. So a Mac user can use Windows stuff.
Not so easy possible the other way around (with VM it's possible but that’s a story for a different day Or a Hackbook)

By the Way I Used a Hp Probook 4530s as Hackbook (macOS on normally Windows machine ) with Logic Pro X for a long Time (Today a Desktop Win 10 with Reaper )
Only Problem with Laptops in general are 2 thing (Specially for Film Composing)
You are really limited with Hard drive. If you want more, you have to buy a new bigger one and export all of your old files to the new one or you have to buy an External one which led to the second Problem
Most Laptops got poor ports (1-2 USB ports, 1 Firewire, 1 Thunderbolt port ) USB- Hubs are bad for latency (And I got some very strange behavior with USB-Hubs and Midi devices )
(And Laptops are Pricier than PC with the same CPU-Power .)

Laptop
Name _________________________CPU Bench_____Price
Intel Xeon E-2286M @ 2.40GHz____18338______$623.00 USD
Intel Core i9-9980HK @ 2.40GHz___17612______$583.00 USD
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 2700U___________8877_______NA

Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X______________31912______$579.99 USD
Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.60GHz____20198 ____$489.99 USD
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X_______________24567_____$379.99 USD
AMD Ryzen 5 3600________________19870_____$189.99 USD

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 10, 2019

Its usually people that introduce problems with wrong drivers and wrong understanding of their equipment.
Any i7 based laptop from the last 2-3 years with 32gb of ram has you covered.
Though for serious film scoring you need a workstation not a laptop.

 

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, Prozessor € 579,-*
ASRock X470 Taichi Ultimate, Mainboard € 259,-*
SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 570 PULSE, Grafikkarte € 169,90*
G.Skill DIMM 16 GB DDR4-2400, Arbeitsspeicher 2*47,99*= € 95,98* total 32GB
Patriot P200 1 TB, Solid State Drive 3*98,90* = € 296,70 total 3Tb SSD
WD WD40EZRZ 4 TB, Festplatte € 99,90* total 4TB HDD
be quiet! PURE BASE 600, Tower-Gehäuse € 74,90*
Seasonic Focus GX-550W, PC-Netzteil € 89,90*

€ 1.665,28 = USD 1.845,55
..... And 15 Bucks for a Win 10 Pro Key
( https://www.ebay.de/p/Microsoft-Windows-10-Pro-32-64-Bit-Einzellizenz-FQC-09131/8032261537?iid=273911815945&rt=nc )

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 10, 2019

Very good!

The Radeon Pro WX cards will also work for Hackintosh builds.

 

Found this while Googling for something else.

Lenovo ThinkPad P53 Review

 

bit expensive US$ 3,999.99
https://www.amazon.com/GT76-Noteboo...qid=1575983150&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1

 

literally every laptop nowadays is stable with default preinstalled drivers, and eventually updated only with manufacturer-provided BIOS and driver updates,

most of stability issues is caused by internet connection - be it clunky Windows updates and misconfigurations, Microsoft automatic driver updates, malware etc..
- if you can properly set up your workstation (be it laptop or desktop) to be "offline" most of the time, and only temporarily let it access internet for rare updates, then it should work reliably unless dying from some unexpected hardware failure (which can happen with any device, not matter how many apples it will eat)

few manufacturers like HP, DELL, Lenovo etc.. are providing "enterprise-grade" devices - what it primarily means is, there is better long-term support for them, being able to provide outdated hardware for longer time period - with casual gaming laptops (from MSI, ASUS, ACER etc...), you will have big trouble finding spare parts after year or two, they're basically pushing changes every year and for ex. new chipset every year makes problem when restoring backups etc..

you need to decide what laptop specs are important to you
- is it graphics card? if so, do you need overpriced professional tier card like Quadro, or you can get mid-end "gaming" tier card?
- how much RAM is acceptable for use, is it less than 32GB, is it more than 32GB ?
- how much internal SSD (because forget HDDs, it's almost 2020) storage and what speeds you need (NVME 3GB/s or SATA 0.5GB/s) ?
- need Thunderbolt3 ? to be eventually used with external graphics card?

as far as I can say HP ZBook Studio series are high-end Windows laptop workstations, probably can fit your needs

 

For film score minimum 32gb ram.
Here a good notebook at an excellent price.
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/CUK-MSI...GeForce+GTX+1660+Ti+6GB&qid=1575990792&sr=8-1

 

totaly agree to all other points
But

An HDD in 2020 will still cost 1/4 of the price of an SSD
So are there uses for a "slow drive "
I think there is
Backups, Samples which are rarely used, Low budget PC’s If every cent Counts, Video(Watching) and other Stuff ,
so basic everything low performant I would do on an HDD

And with SSD It's still the problem with QLC,
I think (maybe I'm alone here)
MLC is the best you can buy (Price -Performance)
SLC is better but not for a normal price.
TLC is bad (Writing cycles and Performance are not as good as MLC )(heavy depending on build in Controller)
And QLC is BS² (Sorry for the harsh language )

QLC is cancer (100 writing cycles to kill a Cell is extreme bad) (to relate there are spare cells )
And now a funny thing some QLC are slower in writing than HDDs

I think a good SSD with MLC or SLC is a great Performance booster for a PC.
TLC are a Cheap compromise (For the right Price ) they are ok
And QLC should be avoided.

 

there's 3 things you want to pay attention to :
- CPU
- RAM
- transfer speed.

you want a CPU powerful enough to handle several instances of plugins
you need enough RAM AND ...with enough RAM you want your sample libraries to load & read fast & easy.

Black Magic makes a good 4 SSDs thunderbolt rack unit for video/audio, nice to store your soundbanks and orchestral libraries.
from what I've seen so far, the i9 seems to be a good (the best?) option if your planning to use your station on the long term.

however - again, form what I've seen - 64Gb of RAM is the minimum, below that, forget orchestral pieces in one place ( in the same session )