Pro Laptop for Sonar DAW: Recommendations? What to be careful with? What to stay away?

Out of the box my wife's IBM Lenovo T420 runs Sonar. WITHOUT disabling anything the DPCLAT was in the green and very low. This is an off the shelf laptop that was under $1,000 Can. I think modern computers are so powerful now that the day's of custom building a laptop is in the past. IBM seems to put together a nice package that has become a best seller.

 The schools have finally given up on Mac.s and all the teachers have Think Pads now. Our tech friend say's the components are well matched and not just hobbled together like brands like Dell and Acer do. 

Her's is just an i5 with 6 Gigs of RAM so upgrading to the models with i7 and More RAM and your good to go. The Hard drive can always be upgraded easily too.  

Thanks, gat19g

Whats your budget?
 

 I'd go up to 2000 EUR, a little higher if needed. So we're talking about a serious laptop.

What are your needs?
 

I'm aiming at being able to track live sessions with a track count of 20 (but some headroom in case I need more later)
The machine should also work at low enough latencies for running several soft synths / samplers in a creative session outside the studio bounds, (or maybe even a live performance)

 
What software are you running?
 

Basically what's listed in my signature: Sonar X2a, ProChannel modules, IK plugs, various other plugs, various NI Kontakt player instruments, some older IK soft synths ...

How many USB ports will you need? Do your run drum pads, MIDI controller ect.?
 

2x USB for USB interface, plus 2-3x more for mouse, MIDI controllers (but those could go via a hub).
Potentially also a firewire port (as I'm still tempted to swap my VS-100 for a Focusrite interface with ADAT I/O)

For $1000+ go mac book pro ( install windows 8 on it if you need to).
 

Never thought of that option. Would that be a dual boot thing or would it mean removing all of the mac world (sorry, but so far I haven't owned a mac, so regarding macs I'm a total noob)

 
Or maybe an ultrabook or hybrid tablet (e.g. lenovo think pad or Microsoft Surface Pro)
 

Any suggestions welcome. I'd appreciate if you'd copied some specs here because I would have to track down the model in Europe which may mean I might not be able to get the same one and have to search for a similar one ...

Under $1000 you should look into a laptop with an intel processor (preferably a core i5 or i7). A good ATI or Nvidia graphis card is fine. Something in the ATI 6000-7000 series. For Nvidia a Geforce 500 or 600 should be what you aim for. If you are going with on-board graphics then make sure you are getting the latest 3rd generation intel processor. Don't get an APU from AMD. You need as much raw cpu power for music and APU split up the APU power between cpu and gpu. Graphics cards do not matter as much in your situation but you still need a good graphics card, plus it makes your system for flexible down the road.

 
Now, this is my biggest concern as I did have problens with the graphic card in my new desktop DAW. Nvidia 6xx just didn't work (caused audio drop outs after 2-3 mins)

Make sure your OS for windows is Windows 8. Windows 8 has much less latency problems than 7.

Answer the first three questions and I will be able to narrow down my recommendation for it. BTW, do you have a portable USB audio interface? You should if you are using a laptop for live.

 
I currently own a VS-100 and an Octa-Capture, but might change that either to 2x Octa-Capture (as the VS-100 is not rack mountable and there's only 14 INs w/ VS-100 and Octa-Capture) or some other solution where I swap both for something with ADAT I/O options ...
 
Many thanks for all your input.

The laptop itself is based around a CLEVO machine, which I believe are used by a number of different DAW workstation providers.

The top-end Clevo shells are heads and shoulders above the average "off-the-shelf" laptop.
The price reflects this...   

Where you get into issues with typical off-the-shelf units is when trying to run substantial loads below a 256-sample ASIO buffer size.  Just because a system's DPC latency is "in the green" does not mean it's capable of this.  "In the green" can be up to 500uSec... which is actually pretty poor performance.
ie:  A well configured SandyBridge-E/IvyBridge tower will have DPC latency that idles below 10uSec... with peaks ~24-28uSec.  You won't find that in *any* off-the-shelf laptop.
The smaller the ASIO buffer size you intend to (effectively) use, the more critical DPC latency becomes.

A typical off-the-shelf laptop is made for the general-purpose user.
This user is much more concerned with long battery life than achieving the utmost in performance.
It doesn't take a screaming machine to surf the Net, run MS Word/Excell, get on Facebook, and do light photo editing.
The power-management features in laptops is what causes higher DPC latency.
In most off-the-shelf units, there's little you can do to rein-in higher DPC latency.  
BIOS parameters are often hidden (not exposed) to simplify the machine... so a novice user doesn't foul it up.

Another thing to keep in mind:
An i7 CPU has four cores vs. the i5 which has two.
BUT... look at the clock speed of both CPUs.
A fast clocked i5 can outperform a slow clocked i7.

Unless you absolutely need the portability of a laptop (travel often via plane), I'd recommend a Cube.
All the speed of a full tower... with none of the limitations of a laptop.
You can get a small rolling padded case that holds the Cube, small monitor, and mini wireless keyboard.
A little more cartage than a laptop... but a whole lot more firepower.

Hi Jim,

Just a quick question, if you don't mind, seeing as you recognised the CLEVO brand (as I thought you would). My CLEVO is the P150EM, would that class as a "high end" model?

Sorry doods... back on topic please :-D 

Thanks, gat19g

This is a lot of useful information. And yes, I still have an aweful lot of researching to do.

Just a quick question, if you don't mind, seeing as you recognised the CLEVO brand (as I thought you would). My CLEVO is the P150EM, would that class as a "high end" model?

Your unit is one of the better laptop shells (using mobile CPU).

It's not one of the "beefy" higher end Clevo shells (that uses a standard desktop CPU).
Those laptops are $3000+ well spec'd

Cube w/ a touch monitor, how cool would that be.  Then pick up a cheap MS tablet (coming soon) if you need a lappy.

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