1) there is no reason not to get 32GB ram
2) don't underestimate importance of sufficient connectivity without need of usb hubs etc...
3) new Intel 12th gen CPUs supposedly work better on Windows 11 but AMD seems to be left over for now - I guess you want both W10 and W11 compatibility
4) usually stronger gpu means better overall cooling design, so something like 3060 might be fine - be aware new gpus are on the way this year
5) weak cpu means less power consumption and less heat and less noise - finding good compromise is tricky

on a side note - M1 Macs are cool, but base models are weak shits and speccing them up makes them ridiculously overpriced, oh and add costs for Thunderbolt docks which get you $500 up because of Apple being jerks

 

Not sure if they deliver to your location in Europe but I've bought a number of laptops and desktops from PC Specialist in the UK.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/recoil-V-15/

I just put together this beast of a configuration for £2045:

Processor (CPU) - AMD Ryzen™ 9 Eight Core Processor 5900HX (3.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) - 64GB Corsair 3200MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card - NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive - 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive - 2TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3300 MB/R, 2900 MB/W)

 

This >>> https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configurator/3xs-scan-performance-17-studio-laptop

 

in that case, I'd probably pick 1TB Samsung 980 Pro and 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSDs (7000/5000 and 3500/3000 R/W) to make it more futureproof

 

Spoken Like a true rusted-on Doze user in denial.. let's bolt a server room of GPU chassis onto a laptop? what complete bollocks.

More Bollocks. Resolve runs Lighting fast natively as does, FCP, Affinity (No adobe products ever!!!), Logic, Bitwig, Reaper & Studio One
Its simple there's tons of Native Apple silicon products available, more than you would ever need.

X86 is old dead technology.. I would never suggest to anyone to buy outdated technology. Anyone buying a laptop based on available "wares" is getting bad advice IMHO.

Aside from one line that says.. I'm going to use a stripped-down Win 10 (why?)
All those application requirements scream buy an M1 MacBook pro.. propaganda? No mate really good advice not to buy Dead outdated x86 technology.

 

i would pay money not to have to work on a mac machine after steve jobbs left the building.

pc is what everyone is using.

 

I guess I´ve seen this about 1000 and prolly more times since I regged here and on the sister site.

The mod of this thread ask specifically about a PC system he is considering buying and advice and guidance regarding the same.

He didnt ask for MAC setup. So stop this PC Versus MAC nonsens.

 

Personally never seen a case where a powerful system would make you a better at producing. Let me put it this way. If you have it in you, you can do it on an old dual core with old plugins and sound as good as the best out there.

 

Thanks so much everybody for your replies. I really appreciate the time you put in to get back to me.

I have to admit that I have always exclusively worked with Windows and so the Mac world is completely new to me.
I don't like Microsoft neither do I like Apple and I wish we would live in the perfect world already where Linux would be what we have to choose ;-)

I was fearing that the Win vs. Mac discussion would come up again, and possibly it's rightly so.
I am open for anything that meets the requirements sufficiently.
Seeing as many of you suggest to go with an MacBook Pro/Max M1 I have made this table to help me clarify the pros and cons.
Please let me know your thoughts on this or if I'm missing any important points.





Here are my thoughts on the points:
1. clear winner: From what I have configured at the moment a Mac would cost me about 1500€ more totaling at 4100€ which is quite a lot above my budget.

2. clear winner: From reading you guys and recently having had a friend over with his MacBook M1 with highest specs I agree that it was just dead slient. Pretty convincing and outstanding work from Apple there.

3. DRAW: I never really had major stability issues with my Windows machines once setup properly. I know about the rumours that Macs never seem to have stability issues but some of you mention the Finder or similar "easy-on-CPU" softwares to have problems? I'm pretty certain the a well-setup MacBook M1 should run flawlessly.

4. clear winner: It's obvious that I will have to learn my ways around OSX, especially when it comes to deactivating telemetry and such as well as using the sister's cookies.
I'm still positive that this learning curve – however steep it might be – should not get in the way of my choice of laptop.

5. clear winner: This is one of my reasons I never looked into Apple stuff, seeing as you can't (easily or at all?) upgrade your components.
I remember that they used to (or still do?) solder RAMs and other components to the mainboard. That's just not user friendly and I for one highly dislike this attitude.
It would come down to making sure to configure the laptop with sufficient RAM, HDD space, etc. From the get-go.

6. clear winner: I know my ways around windows very well and I am aware that there are more cookies out there for win than for mac or linux systems.

7. Knowing that friends always sell their macbooks for good money even after 10 years of use makes me think the longevity / resell factor works better for Mac machines

8. I have to admit that not having any standard USB Type A plug onboard is desastrous. I understand Apple's appeal to aim for the future but realistically there are too many devices (especially audio equipment) that still utilize USB Type A. Having to carry around adapters is annoying but can of course be done.

 

Last edited: Jul 10, 2022

You are absolutely right.
After seeing all the replies I'm afraid I might have dismissed the Mac option too early though and so I believe I should be open to it even though Apple products are really not my cup of tea.

But yeah, ...when looking at the "Gaming" Laptops out there that people use for making music and editing videos with them what are your suggestions.
As I've written I am leaning towards ASUS machines and I would love to have your opinion on these.
It's possible that in the end before making my final decision I would try to compare my Win Laptop choice with the Mac M1 option.

Couldn't agree more with that but the machine will be for my partner and I'm trying to be as future proof as possible. She already is working with a laptop that is a dual core i5 but trying to edit videos (especially 4k) with that machine is a pain and it's just time for a proper upgrade for her, especially one that will hold up well in live performance situations.

 

Well, about stability I would give a +1 to the macbook. I've plenty of windows machine, some of them worked very well with little set up and others were incapable of performing live without issues after a lot of setup trial and error, etc (and i assume could be me not setting up correctly). Since I work with apple os (hackintosh and mbp 2012) haven't had any stability issues neither in desktop situations or live performances. The only times that happened was bc of cracked stuff (soundtoys running thorugh 32 lives).

It certainly goes down to what's best for you, imho the learning curve of osx can be daunting at first but you'll get used pretty quickly. Yes you'll spend a bit more money on a mac but won't spend time dealing with microsoft updates, set up, and all that stuff, if you don't see that as a problem and are willing to work with that.
With a m1 macbook you wont get much noise, get a portable computer and a very capable one, whereas with windows you'll sacrifice that.

Honestly for me, if im going the laptop way I would go for a macbook m1

 

I've always done Windows desktops and Apple portables. I personally much prefer using Windows as an OS, but that's mainly because I've used it a lot more and for a lot longer. I build my own desktop studio machines (and my gaming rigs too) and enjoy spec'ing and tweaking so I have something that's exactly what I'm after..

That said, for audio / video work on the go, I really wouldn't consider anything other than a MBP - I know it's a bit of a cliché saying "Macs just work", but I've literally never had would let me down during a session / show, and especially now with Apple Silicon sending their performance through the roof, there really isn't any other game in town as far as laptops for creatives go imo.

When I'm travelling, I still use a mid-2014 15" MBP. It was the top-tier spec at the time, and it's literally only now starting to show its age, and that's only on very programming / vsti-heavy projects.
For tracking live performers in the studio, while also using half a dozen or so vsti's (SD3, Kontakt, Battery, Omnisphere, U-he, Arturia stuff mainly) it's still perfect.
Whatever studio I'm working in, I just show up, connect to their convertors and displays, and I'm ready to go in 30 secs flat.

If I want to track someone in a hotel room / rehearsal space / random location, I just bring an Apollo Twin with me for the Unison pres.

Then if I want to edit / mix on the plane / train ride home, I don't need an interface (MacOS Coreaudio just works) - I just plug in cans and work away.

I'm prob gonna upgrade to an M2Pro MBP soon (likely a bumped-up spec 14") because as I said, with synth & plugin-heavy projects, my trusty old one is def starting to show its age a bit, but I could happily keep using it for at least a couple more years before that really started to become a workflow-interrupting issue.

My machine is also old enough now that I don't get OS updates (apart from security/ maintenance obvs) - I'm on Big Sur forever now. That is a bit of an annoyance with Apple products, in that you do reach a point with any of them where they'll not get the latest and greatest OS'es, but you're likely to be at the point where you're considering an upgrade anyway by the time the cutoff happens. (As an example - IOS15 still supports the iphone 6s, which came out in 2015. The upcoming IOS16 will drop support for anything below an 8. I don't know that many people who keep a phone for 7+ years).

Also, I dunno if you've spent any/much time with a MBP, but if not, go to an Apple store, and just actually physically touch and use one - there are very, very few Windows laptops that actually feel as nice to hold and use. May seem minor, but if you're spending a lot of time with it, it matters.


Not saying there's not great Windows laptops available, and yes you can spec one a bit higher than a top-tier MBP (with all the power draw, horrible battery life and fan noise that will entail) but as a complete package for any kind of creator, I personally find Apple extremely hard to beat.

 

Last edited: Jul 10, 2022

I'm impressed how a member ask advice about hardware, stating clearly Which OS he chooses, but 80% of the answers are about the OS....

 

Last edited: Jul 10, 2022

The problem is new updates are less cpu friendly. On old systems install old plugins. They run better.

 

you probably dont

that's probably not really possible.

1)
what is possible, is to buy the best price performance feasible on the budget, Now!
2)
Buy a last generation machine @half the price. And update in 2 years to a new(er) machine, Then!

Either way

Hp
HP ZBook Fury
Most Powerful, full CPU + GPU configurable, most important parts
user upgrade/replace-able, i.e. Ram, Drives, (ports?) 15"-17"
you can configure the specs yourself, get the smallest drive & Ram and upgrade for much cheaper
later, Best drives Samsung , SKhynix.
if you go intel (if amd is even available right now) you dont need the tightest timings on ram, just get 32gb or more
*get TB3 version if available (more (cheap) parts available like Mac Abandoned UAD Gear)

ZBook Studio
Powerful, Full CPU + full but "throttled" GPU, most things are soldered to the MB, but it´s lighter and thinner 14"(?)-17"(?)
YOU MUST Configure what you need, non upgradeable. only buy if SUPER DEAL.

ZBook Firefly
Cheaper, thinner, smallest & Lightest, mostly U Processors and soldered parts, mx grafix or SOC. 14"

Despite what the macbots tell you, most of the better workstations are quite silent in most
use cases, but they will get loud if you hit "GPU + CPU" intensive Tasks.
But they will get you what you payed for, Power!

the silent & efficient fans/cooling system is actually no joke
dont forget the G8 is still a killer

if you want a 2nd recommendation ask

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2022