The mother of all budget portable RETAIL DAWs!

1) MSI A6400-042US They are available only at Office Depot and the price has been permanently reduced to $550! 2X USB 3.0 and 2X USB 2.0, Intel Core i5-2410 CPU with embedded Intel HD 3000 GPU(more on this later). DPC latency in the 70's.
2) Seagate Momentus 750 GB 7200rpm HDD $90 at CompUSA/Tiger Direct
3)8 GB Centron DDR3-1333 RAM $76 also at CompUSA/Tiger Direct
4) Custom BIOS from MSI user forum that unleashes all hardware parameters on this machine... small donation via PayPal(in my case 15 euros).


This machine's video RAM comes locked down at 64MB. With this custom BIOS I changed the dedicated RAM to 512MB and the max to the theoretical limit of the Intel HD 3000 spec of 1.7 GB!
So, for a grand total of $716, I have a very capable machine that can take anything I throw at it, without a hiccup. I have tons of internal storage (Komplete 7, Superior Drummer, Addicitve Drums, etc. and more on a partition). I have my sample library on a WD My Passport Essential SE (USB 3.0) external drive. Very fast no dropouts.


So, if you're on budget, or just want to save a chunk of change on a very capable portable rig, I highly recommend this machine. It doesn't come weighed down with bloatware and it actually has very useful OEM software such as MSI's version of Time Machine(you can disable it of course).


My typical usage includes running Ableton Live with the iPad2 as a controller using TouchAble via ad hoc network. Very stable even with the dreaded wireless adapter on.