Hello again, I'm needing to get a laptop/notebook to continue my music production with MC6 Touch.  After reaading scores of reviews on line I'm totally confused!  Any suggestions from the forum of laptop/notebooks you are using in the $400-$600 price range?  I'm only producing for my own enjoyment, no commercial projects, so absolute state-of-the-art computing isn't required. Would appreciate any insight provided.  Thanks to all and Happy New Year!
 
Mike
 
MC6 Touch, Off-the-shelf PC platform, Yamaha PSR-E-433, Blue Yeti USB mic

In that case.... any laptop on the shelf will generally do a fine job running the software.   I ran an off the shelf Dell duo core with Vista for years in my home studio and did lots of projects with it. I still have it and still am able to use it. I have since built a custom  DAW with the i5 chip in it.
 
Back to the topic.... yeah, most any modern computer has the specs to work fine. Buy one that has the features and specs you like.
 
The problem with every computer is in it's factory sound card. Most of them are not designed for recording music the way we do it with Sonar/MC.... so, get any computer you want, but pick up a dedicated, USB connected, musical interface that runs native ASIO drivers and has phantom power for a condenser mic. THAT, is what ultimately determines how well MC works on a given computer. The interface.
 
An off the shelf computer with a nice interface = a sweet studio starting point.

Thanks for the reply.  I'm using a Yeti Blue USB mic now and don't plan on buying another mic.  That being siad, do you still recommend a "dedicated, USB connected, musical interface that runs native ASIO drivers and has phantom power for a condenser mic?"  If so, do you have a suggestion?  Thanks again for any/all assistance.
 
Mike

Well, the Yeti, like almost any USB-mic, can make your road a little rocky, if you intend to do "normal" DAW work.
The day you want to record MIDI-keyboards, direct guitars etc. monitoring in sync and maybe sing on top of it, you may find that a USB-interface and a traditional mic would make your life a lot easier. 
You end up using two soundcards, the Yeti and the integrated one, which is usually problematic. You may find out it just doesn't work.
USB-mics are good in simple voice-over jobs and such.
 
But as mentioned, horse-powerwise most any modern laptop can handle the job.

So far, I've been able to record my Yamaha Keyboard, record acoustic guitar tracks and sing on top of these tracks and haven't noticed any problems. I don't/won't have an electric guitar.  I lay my tracks down separately, so far, so good.  I'm no doubt doing far more simplistic recording then you folks.  Just a great hobby I've always wanted to pursue now that I'm retired! Thanks for the feedback

As long as what you are doing is working OK... you should be fine.
 
It's been our experience, helping lots of people through the years, (6+years for me) that the USB mics are problematic for most of them.  The big issue is that the USB mic is seen by the computer as a sound card, which it is. Since it has no speaker output, your computer has to use 2 different sound cards at the same time. Quite often, those 2 sound cards have clocks in them that do not sync up and there are cases where the tracks start to drift apart as the song progresses. In addition, the factory card used to play the music gets overloaded when synths are introduced and you start getting dropped notes, clicks, pops, latency, and even complete audio engine failures in the middle of the music.  I'm not saying these thing will happen, just that they are likely to happen at some point the further you get into recording. Projects get bigger, you throw in a few synths, and before long, you run into these symptoms.
 
If you start to experience trouble with the USB mic, check here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Guide-SONAR-usb-mic-Samson-C01u-or-C03u-mic-m1618556.aspx
 
The info might be useful to you. The other option is to upgrade the gear to an interface & condenser mic.  I have never had issues with latency, pops, drops, since I have been running my interface. I can run projects with 20+ tracks, and multiple synths without a single hiccup. Some folks here have reported running 80+ tracks in a similar manner with no issues..... because the sound card/interface can handle the job.
 
So... in short, as long as what you have is working, keep going. No reason to buy anything you may not need. If you encounter issues, you also now know the solution.
 
BTW: post your music in the songs forum when you get some ready. I'd love to hear what you are doing.

I see that your mic is a 2-way device, which is much better than the 1-way USB mikes which force users to use 2 sound cards and cause so many problems with latency while recording.
If you're recording and monitoring in real time without latency, and there are no synchronization issues, that should be enough.
Try to find a laptop with a 7,200 rpm hard drive if you can. Most laptops have 5,400 rpm drives to save battery life, but (I've read) they don't stream as well as the 7,200 drives. That may not be as big a problem as it was a few years ago, but if the cost difference isn't great, go for the faster drive.

Hey folks, thanks for the info. My whole goal is just music for my own enjoyment as inexpensively as possible.  I started buy buying an acoustic guitar last year, took some lessons and learned enough chords to do the songs I like. Then I bought MC6 Touch to have someplace to record my guitar and singing. Last month for my 70th birthday I bought the Yamaha Keyboard to have another music option and as a Midi Controller for MC6 synths.  Since I have no other inputs besides the USB Yeti Blue mic and the Yamaha keyboard USB ,an external sound card doesn't seem needed.  Haven't sprung for speakers yet because I just download my music to my iPod. The laptop will free up the desktop for my wife! So far, no recording problems like you've suggested.  Happy New Year to all!!