hi there, I'd like to upgrade my old laptop. I'm buying a Dell Inspiron 16 with Ryzen 7 8840U but was wondering if these "U" CPUs are good for music production. any thoughts?

the laptop in question

 

A few things that would make me look at something else (laptop or desktop).

• Skimps on ports
• Gets warm to the touch and loud under load
• Must be plugged in for heavy workloads (creating/mixing)

My daughter & her husband had Dell laptops that would over heat & throttle anytime they stream HD video, played games or did anything that required performance. They ended up buying a console for gaming. Son-in-law used laptop for school (BCIT) only after that.

If you need a laptop (a must), look at ASUS or Lenovo for Windows and a new or refurb MacBook Air/Pro.

 

Last edited: Dec 3, 2024

thank you!

would something like this Lenovo IdeaPad 5 be more suitable?

 

Not sure. about these types of laptops in general. For light to medium workloads it is probably okay if you are on a hard budget. The current creator & portable workstation ranking will be something similar to the following:

• Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 basic or Max
• Apple MacBook Pro 16 M3 basic or Max
  
• Dell XPS 17 (9730)
• Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2
• Apple MacBook Air 15 M3
• HP Spectre x360 16 (2024)
  
• Lenovo ThinkPad P52
  
• Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition
• Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro
• Asus ZenBook Pro Duo

Good luck finding your fit.

 

thank you, this is completely another budget tho, they are more than twice of the price. but thank you

 

For the price you get a fast CPU that is enough to make music.
Max. boost clock speed: Up to 5.1 GHz Base clock speed: 3.3 GHz

 

Shit, even with "newer" ryzen? newer meaning zen3 & zen3+

that's always a good point, used or refurbished
you'll have to look closer but acer
They do great things in the "lighter" segment, when gaming isn't or less important
Things like 16/10 & 3kx2k, not the thinnest or best but great middle ground

Actually the biggest difference is the cooling in those segments 500-800

 

I have a DEll G15 at home that I use among other things for music production. So it's pretty much the same as the G16. But mine has an intel CPU i7 13th gen, so not the one you're looking at specifically. I reckon the result shouldn't be drastically different anyway.

Mine has 2 SSDs, so the music prod gets its own (and own OS). I never experienced any overheating, even in summer. And if you feel it's getting hot, there's a G hotkey (stands for gaming) that turns on all fan at full speed. Dell did a solid job with heat dissipation on this one. The laptop is definitely not the thinnest you can find and vents/fans are placed where they should.

Where it gets a bit trickier is with music prod itself. You'll have to do a bit of work to optimize and get it all smooth. Nothing to bad that being said. I am not familiar with the ryzen CPU you're looking at but on the intel one, you need to make sure that all CPUs are unparked, especially if you do real-time stuff like playing the guitar/bass or mixing with low latency. Then I also found that turning off defender avoid getting sudden spikes for no reason. DPC is average (about 900) but honestly it has never affected my workflow. Same if you use latency monitor, the laptop is probably going to fail the test after a while, but in practice everything works as it should as long as I make sure defender is off and all CPU are unparked.

I have pushed it more than once used it for 6 to 8 hours at a time, with heavy processing like rendering multiple tracks with max oversampling etc, and it's handled it all without a hitch. My primary DAW is reaper and it works well with this laptop, but I also tested Live12 and Cubase 12-14. Cubase 14 is definitely an improvement performance wise but it's still lower performance compared to reaper obviously (but that's typically the case with most systems anyway).

The build quality is excellent for a plastic laptop, you can feel it. The material feels premium, and the screen is very sturdy. However, even though it's a laptop, portability is definitely not its strong suit. The charger is a massive brick, almost as heavy as the laptop itself, so carrying it around for long periods (like 30+ minutes of walking) is certainly not ideal! The laptop is bulky and heavy, and it’s best suited for stationary use.

I’ve been buying Dell laptops for decades, and they have always been reliable. That said, I’m not entirely sure I’d choose this model again. It’s not bad by any means, but these days, I might give the Lenovo Legion series a try instead. My 2 cents

 

Th

Thank you!!

 

Hello,
cpu U's are not very good for audio, I have a Ryzen 7 on a mini pc, which I tested with audio in general, daw and various plugins, when you need resources it's not very good, for the rest, burocracy, internet and everything else it's top.
In my opinion, Mac is still the best solution for laptops, but since you're looking at PCs, an H cpu would be better.
I work on a desktop outside the network, my son has a Mac laptop M3 which works really well, PT on board, we tested Win10 on the Mac and there too it was ok.
Better to spend a bit more and have a good cpu, for audio, and better finishes and various ports.

Have a nice day.

 

thank you for your replies

so I'm avoiding these "U" CPUs, thanks for the advice

the laptops I'm choosing from are these now:

Dell Inspiron 14 R7 8840HS - 750€
ASUS VivoBook i9-13900H - 850€
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 14" Intel Core Ultra 7 155H - 900€

trying to understand if I really should pay for these extra power CPUs, idk

 

I have Dell Inspiron 7566 from 2016
I used it until 2022 june & I bought my Desktop PC but...
Last week I was wondering if I can still use my laptop...because now I have so many new tracks/music so I want to start Dj-ing again with Traktor
So as I pressed the power button nothing happened...I was freaking out than I figured:
You just have to press & hold the power button for like 30 seconds...after that you just wait a few seconds press the power button normally and wow it turned on & booted into Windows 10

I was surprised: I have a 4TB Sata III SSD I put into my laptop and it worked 7 was able to recognize run without issues, formatting etc
Still amazing & works smoothly
I highly recommend using ThrottleStop all the time (autostart with boot up) you just have to find the right settings for your laptop
It basically undervolts your laptop so it will run much more cooler & fans will work less much quieter but giving the same performance extending your laptop's life somewehere here I made a post long time ago what were my ThrottleStop settings still works everything I'm very happy

So I can support & confirm DELL laptops are well made & can't kill them

 

You can also configure it yourself and the more money you invest, the faster the CPU.
www.asus.com/laptops/for-home/vivobook/vivobook-16-oled-x1605/
https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-vivobook-16-oled-m1605/

The clock frequency is too low, you need a faster CPU and that will be expensive, so you won't get anything fast for 800 EUR. Intel Core i9-13900H ---> - clock frequency 1.9 GHz

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2024 at 10:34 PM

For Windows, the best bang for the buck is Lenovo second hand
Check Reddit :
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/c...used_thinkpad_to_buy_in_2024_for_34_years_of/

 

To give you an idea of the price, here's the offer: 3.4 GHz would be a significant improvement.

Dell XPS 13 OLED = 1.399,00 €
Snapdragon® X Elite, X1E-80-100 (12 Cores, bis zu 3,4 GHz, Dual-Core, Boost bis zu 4 GHz, integrierte NPU)
www.dell.com/de-de/shop/dell-laptops/xps-13-laptop/spd/xps-13-9345-laptop

There are 4 options for you:
a. Save money
b. Keep your current laptop
c. Buy a real PC
d. Buy used

 

Last edited: Dec 7, 2024 at 9:06 AM

Yes...Even recent Dell Inspiron laptops have heating issues. Dell XPS laptops usually fair better.