aidanodr
abacab
Well I hope that the OP has success with the drive caddy in his laptop, and that this discussion did not discourage him from trying it out.
Anyway .. re derailing .. I take the points made, bu I am happy with my dell for what I do.
I think you make a good point. If the laptop we have works for what we do, then we are good.
I hope you can get some mileage out of your current one!
I think Jim is a fine guy and a straight shooter, but from his perspective of building computers for professional composers and performers, nothing short of perfection is acceptable. That is OK! If I was a working professional, I definitely would want Jim available for my tech support. He will bend over backwards to support customers after the sale. Try that with a big box store, LOL!!!
I got very frustrated with my first off the shelf PC, and determined to learn how to build my own, and have done so ever since. My primary DAW is a desktop, but I do have a cheap ACER laptop, Core i5 mobile with 4GB RAM, with ASIO4ALL that can run Sonar and Studio One. I do not perform, or record with it, but it allows me to work with soft synths just fine as far as playback when on the go. I do not setup massive projects loaded with effects either, or run massive sample libraries. It works for what I do, as a mobile office, and as a hobby music studio.
I am not a fan of laptops for various reasons, but I do own one. I had to carry one for years as a mobile office, because my job was on the go. They serve a purpose, but are definitely not optimized for audio!
I will add that it was amusing when Cakewalk published an article in the eZine about a year ago, showing that the majority of Sonar sessions were launched with ASIO4ALL as the audio device. That says a lot about what the majority of Sonar users were using ...