Looking for the right laptop for my new Focusrite Pro 24 dsp

Pay careful attention to which Firewire controller is on the laptop.
DICE-II with a non TI chipset Firewire controller is almost begging for problems.
 
Also, make sure you can get DPC latency under control.
With some units, there's literally nothing you can do to get DPC latency spikes under control.
If you're shopping for an off-the-shelf unit, take a flash drive with the DPC latency checker with you.

What kind of performance expectations do you have?
 
If you're wanting to work at ultra low latency settings, especially with Firewire, very few laptops will meet your needs.
ie:  My several year old Aluminum MacBook Pro (2.4GHz Core2Duo w/TI Firewire - runing Windows) handily outperforms most new i7 (mobile) based laptops when using a Firewire audio interface at a 64-sample ASIO buffer size. 
Note that this is not due to the MacBook Pro being "faster"... rather its due to the crap FW controllers on most laptops.
 
If you want to use an off-the-shelf laptop, you'd be much better off using one of the latest generation USB 2 audio interfaces (Fireface UC or the FastTrack Ultra 8R) as these deliver great low round-trip latency performance... and you don't have to worry about Firewire controller chipsets.
 
Unless you absolutely need a laptop (traveling), I'd avoid them.

Since you are using a Saffire Pro which is a Firewire interface then you are stuck with using firewire so the comments above are really of no use to you....

That said just about any laptop off the shelf will "work" especially with Focusrite drivers (they are very good and rock solid! I just hope thew Windows drivers aren't a "problem" after installing the Focusrite drivers- a lot of these problems have gone away with technology and OS advancements though).

I just posted a few links on another forum that have to do with making an external hard drive transfer data via ESATA laptop card increasing data speed from 800MBs to over 1.5GBs, also connecting a PCI card(like you would on a desktop) using an external PCI card box that connect to your laptop via an adapter card.... this allows a laptop to transfer data at speeds that some desktops are running at (of course a full blown tweaked desktop still can't be beat).

So in my opinion just about any laptop computer will work now-a-days.... I have mixed in Sonar on a $500 laptop from Radio Shack and it worked fine (for what we were doing at the time). So if you are a beginner and want to go mobile using a laptop... don't go crazy and buy an expensive machine... start out in the middle or even lower middle and then when you have your feet wet.... you can decide to upgrade or just use what you have.

Thans man. That was very helpful.

Since you are using a Saffire Pro which is a Firewire interface then you are stuck with using firewire so the comments above are really of no use to you....

 
Hi Jason,
 
FWIW, You are giving very poor advice.
The chipset of the FW controller is absolutely *paramount* to achieving good performance.
To say otherwise... or to down-play this factor is setting the OP up for failure.
Saying that the Focusrite drivers are "good" has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Plenty of quality FW audio interfaces (with fantastic drivers) perform terrrible with a crap FW controller.
One can go to any support forum (for any DAW application) and do a search for folks having problems with FW audio interfaces.
In the vast majority of the cases, the end user was not using a good TI chipset FW controller.
With a tower/rack/cube, the end user simply adds a good PCI/e TI chipset FW controller... and the problem is solved.
With a laptop, that may or may not work.  The express-card controller is usually the same chipset as the crap FW controller.
Thus, adding a TI chipset express-card FW controller doesn't circumvent the original problem.
 
If the OP were running a good USB 2.0 audio interface... and wasn't overly concerned about running heavy loads at ultra low latency settings... than many laptops would suffice.
 
Have you ever tried installing a MOTU Firewire audio interface with a Laptop that's using a Jmicron FW controller?
You infer it would work just fine in your post.  The fact of the matter is... it won't even install... let alone work well.
 
OK... simple test for you.   
Show some video of any $500 laptop running a Firewire audio interface where you're playing back "Guilty" or "Catch Me If You Can" (from the Sonar 8 or 8.5 content DVDs)... completely glitch-free at a 64-sample ASIO buffer size.
Note that these projects are not super heavy loads.  My several year old MBP can do this with ease.
Show the video...
 
@OP:
I'm not telling you what you want to hear...
But you need to know the factors involved with laptops and Firewire.
The issue is extremely well documented across many different audio forums.
If you want to use a Lenovo laptop, use a USB 2.0 interface like the FastTrack Ultra 8R... and it will be smooth sailing.
 
Regarding eSATA:
Connect a Samsung F3 1TB HD (in a nice eSATA enclosure)... and that'll net you ~135MB/Sec sustained.
Some laptops come stock with eSATA... some don't.  If yours doesn't, then you can get an express-card eSATA controller.
Of course, that totally rules out the possibility of using an express-card TI chipset FW controller (which does solve the above issue with some laptops - depends on the express-card controller).
 
FW 400 HDs will top out at or just below 40MB/Sec
FW 800 HD will top out at ~70sMB/Sec
USB 2.0 will top out at ~ mid 30sMB/Sec
eSATA will give you the full speed of the HD.  Use an F3 and you'll get 135MB/Sec.  Use a Seagate .12 and you'll get 125MB/Sec.
Use a WD Black and you'll get 100MB/Sec.
 
 
 

to add to it,

Ughh
there are numerous issues with newer laptops. you have to realize that laptops are designed for the masses, the thought of using a laptop as a workstation anymore
is well the manufacturers dont get it...
because of this many issues have popped up in present laptops.

1) if there is firewire it wont be TI and chances of it working are extremely thin. Usually (Ricoh, jmicon)

2) most laptops dont have firewire, so the only option is adding an Express card with TI chipset.
however this rarely works. it has a lot to do with how the bios is written, and how Vendor ID is dealt with.
""Also known as a VID, a vendor ID is a unique number assigned to each computer hardware device that helps a computer identify the hardware being installed in the computer. Most vendor IDs start with 0x, for example, 0x9710 or 9710 is an example of a Vendor ID. Other Vendor IDs may be the first few letters of the company's name or an abbreviation. ""

this is one of the reasons the RME works better than a stock Fireiwre express card. it has a specific vendor ID where most firewire cards are read as non specific.
they still dont work in at least 50% of laptops however

3)designed for long battery life. again this is the cry of the masses give us long battery life, give us "green", give us really good wifi.
so ther are a good deal of things in the bios that are designed to SAVE power not use it. and put power where it should not (wifi)
thus making the Express slot under volted most of the time. (vendor ID tells the bios to up the voltage for the RME)

the Firewire port (if ther is one) can also suffer from this or suffer from sleep states whisch is my next statement.

4) C-States (various states of reduced power to the Processor) aka sleep states.
see this thread
[link=http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/465221-c1e-c3-c6-eist-speedstep-turbo-boost-core-parking.html]http://www.gearslutz.com/...oost-core-parking.html[/link]

with the laptop bios you do not have the options of turning these off (our laptops have custom bios' wrote with these off and other things)

5)DPC latency. you can download a program called DPC latency checker..
this never use to be an issue (well at least not as previlent as it is now) you can be an issue with Desktops as well.

DPC issue can come from numerous problems. WIFI is the big one, (disbale in windows doe not always fix issue) others are ACPI battery (this can be disabled in windows) as several other tweaks
but often even after doing all the windows tweaks you still have a laptop thats near useless.

DPC can and will come from the video card of the laptop (or desktop) onboard intel video or dedicated video can still cause DPC.
2 of our laptops we had to lock down the video card to its slowest speed (fine for audio) (again in the bios you can't do this any other way)

there is a lot more to this but i think i have already said too much.

now with that said i have seen a small handful (very few) who say that have laptop x working with firewire.
how well i cant say. To me being able to run @ 64 buffer or at most 128 with a 40-50 track project and effects and VSTi is my idea of working.

YMMV.

Anubis, can you please indicate precisely what kind of a laptop do you use?

yes keyword is 3yrs old.

with each new revision of laptops things have become worse and worse.
the last go around for us the replacement/new rev laptops we got would NOT work.
after 7 revisions of a custom bios we finally have things dialed in.

so the new laptops far outperform the older. older laptops particularly those with TI firewire will work
new laptops forget it. unless Apple or custom built.

My 5 year old laptop works with firewire real well too... now if that laptop's monitor back lite worked.... and if that laptop's keyboard worked I'd be all set.  I had to use a external monitor and keyboard to get my lkast backup off it... but it still boots to windows.

My 6 month old laptop doesn't work well with fire wire.


best regards,
mike