Hugh Mann
I keep seeing you post this kind of advice. I gotta say I don't fully agree with it. Its misleading and some what self serving since you are, apparently, in the business of selling the type of high end machines you recommend. Your statement:
>Off-the-shelf PC laptops are fine if you're working with ASIO buffer sizes of 256-samples or above<
This is simply not true. Your statement is said as an absolute truth, and it isn't. I use a dell inspiron 7000 with a 7th gen i7. I can get latency down to 48, if im just playing drums with it. 64 with drums and synths playing together. I play ezdrummer and bfd off of a roland v drum set and I get no hic ups or stutters. I'm using a focusrite solo 2nd gen. Prior to that I used a Toshiba laptop in the same way, with no issues either. Got that one down to 64, but its an older laptop. I also use Kontakt and a variety of vst synths. I play in a band live and just bring the laptop and controller. No issues. I did configure a few things on the laptop, but not much. I set it to high performance, put it in airplane mode, disabled a few services, and I'm good to go.
Believe whatever you want... but it is absolutely true.
I've recently tested numerous off-the-shelf laptops (including the Dell XPS-15).
The MacBook Pro (which I don't sell BTW) is the
only off-the-shelf laptop with a 7700HQ CPU that could play complex sample libraries (under heavy load) completely clean at a 64-sample ASIO buffer size.
NOTE: I'm not talking "babying" the machine playing three note chords or a programmed drum part that's pulling 4 voices of polyphony. I'm talking the ability to fully play whatever you want, with numerous simultaneous advanced libraries loaded/layered/split/etc... and being able to hit the sustain pedal and play heavy polyphony parts (with zero glitches).
Your Dell with a 7700HQ
can not do what I'm talking about completely glitch-free.
If you haven't disabled CPU throttling (SpeedStep, C-States, etc), your odds of glitches are even higher.
The reason why is
DPC Latency... and has nothing to do with my opinion/bias/etc.
Even with everything possible disabled on your Dell, its DPC Latency is going to be 200-500uSec.
That is NOT low enough to play back heavy loads (completely glitch-free) at super small ASIO buffer sizes.
The smaller the ASIO buffer size, the more critical low/consistent DPC Latency becomes.
Load up Ableton Live with your audio interface set to a 48-sample ASIO buffer size.
Now bring up Live's audio preferences. Go to the Audio stress-test section, bump the CPU load up to 80% and start the test-tone. Your Dell won't sustain that test-tone indefinitely without glitching.
Open Ableton Live at a 48-sample ASIO buffer size, load up The Grandeur and run the type of stress-test I mentioned. Step on the sustain pedal and gliss up/down a 61-key keyboard about 5-6 times. Now let off the sustain pedal and immediately play a two-hand chord. As I mentioned, it will glitch. It may not happen every time... but you can absolutely get it to glitch. It's easy to see/hear for yourself.
A well configured desktop machine can do both of the above tests... with absolutely zero glitches.
Why?
Because there's a lot more control over components, controlling heat, the ability to disable any performance- throttling, and the ability to lock all CPU cores at the highest TurboBoost frequency.
The physics of small/tight enclosures necessitates performance-throttling.
This is why "mobile" CPUs exist. Ever wonder why a NUC uses "mobile" CPU and laptop components?
Currently, Mac OSX deals with performance-throttling FAR better than Win10.
I'm not a fan of laptops... because they simply don't deliver the level of performance that I want/expect.
A laptop that runs a desktop CPU is the closest you'll come to the performance of a desktop machine.
They are expensive, bulky, and have short battery-life.
BTW, Does your Focusrite actually go down to a 48-sample ASIO buffer size?
Focusrite audio interfaces (compared to the likes of RME and MOTU) are known to use a larger hidden safety-buffer... which results in higher round-trip latency.
You might actually want to look in Ableton Live (at the audio output latency) and see if it matches the 2.65ms "Output Latency" to which I'm referring in the above examples.
As far as my post being self-serving, I've been a Cakewalk user and forum member since the CompuServe days.
I'm going to guess I've helped more folks over the past 20+ years than yourself.
Yes, I made clear that I'm biased... and it's well known what I do for a living.
There is nothing factually incorrect with anything that I've said.
If your intention is playing advanced sample-libraries under heavy load (at super small ASIO buffer sizes)... and you're set on using a laptop, you'll do better with a MacBook Pro than any off-the-shelf PC laptop.
And yes, a well configured desktop can breeze thru the above (because the level of control over components/configuration)... and do it at significantly lower CPU use than any PC laptop or Mac.
ie: The 8700k (desktop CPU) with all six cores locked at 4700MHz will smoke the 7700HQ (mobile CPU).
All this said, if you're happy with your Dell, fantastic.
But we're talking about two very different circumstances... and levels of expectation.