Hey group, my laptop is constantly blinking.  I believe I have a short running up to my screen.  I need to get a replacement but everywhere I go, I can't seem to find what I am looking for.  What I am looking for is, I really don't have a clue.  I am broke physically and monitarily also so I seek your advice. 
 
From what I can gather since I bought my last laptop and looking at others the i7 second generation is a processor of choice.  I have also been looking for 8gb ram expandable to 16gb.  The part I have read about that people seem to like is the 7200 hard drive.  They seem really hard to get from the factory. 
 
Anyone seen a machine like this or even different specs?  For a reasonable price.  I am currently using a hp 17" laptop dv9000, and it does everything pretty good except open cakewalk without an incrediblely slow startup.  I run producer expanded.  The thousand dollar mark give or take would be my goal, of course the less the better. 
 
Currently my internal sound card does not play well with cakewalk, so if you know of a laptop with an internal soundcard that can run on its own please post the make and model.  I usually use very small tracks by the way mostly just dink around with guitar and maybe a addictive drums and perhaps vocals,  please lend me your experience.  Thank you for any help or guidance.
 
 

So I am on the hewlett packard site and am looking at this laptop for 1100.00 what do you think it is lacking, would going to the next level of processor for 175.00 be worth it?   I did upgrade to 16gb ram.  Would having a faster graphics card help with cakewalk.
 
By far cakewalk is the only reason I am looking for better specs, if it were not for cakewalk I could run a much cheaper/slower machine and be just as happy.
 
 
 
Components
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB GDDR3 memory [HDMI, VGA]
• 16GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
• 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• NO mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
• No additional security software
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - Up to 6.0 hours of battery life +++
• 15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)
• FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN
• Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad

rocker41


So I am on the hewlett packard site and am looking at this laptop for 1100.00 what do you think it is lacking, would going to the next level of processor for 175.00 be worth it?   I did upgrade to 16gb ram.  Would having a faster graphics card help with cakewalk.
 
By far cakewalk is the only reason I am looking for better specs, if it were not for cakewalk I could run a much cheaper/slower machine and be just as happy.
 
 
 
Components
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB GDDR3 memory [HDMI, VGA]
• 16GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
• 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• NO mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
• No additional security software
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - Up to 6.0 hours of battery life +++
• 15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)
• FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN
• Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad

As always the power you need is based on the grandiosity of your projects and SW synths. I don't use  a whole lot of tracks, my voices come from the Tyros or Motif and occasionally Superior Drummer and I keep things simple and always under 16 tracks so that machine would be fine for me.  but I am looking for a powerful laptop to do it all. with a 15" screen. I want more than I need.  That said anything under 150us  of DPC  without spikes has worked well for me. I don't chase latency unless i have to which is rare considering my low project bloat.  


If you are going to run a lot of SW synths and EFX and 40+ tracks.....You may need an audio only Notebook Ala Dell Precision or HP Elitebook. I am looking at Sager and MSI right now as even  the Dell outlet doesn't have anything right now that would compare price wise.  

There are no integrared soundcards that are good in DAW work. If you want to make music fluently, you need an external audio interface. No alternative to that AFAIK.

Very interesting stuff guys and thank you for your post.  I have had many computers for 21 years and never can keep up with them.  And truely just skate by.  I guess if I didn't blow all my money on guitar gear I could spend more time researching computers.  So I am really thankful guys like yourself share your thoughts so I can get somethng suitable for my needs.

  I just ordered the v-studio 100 yesterday.  So I can use that as my interface.  I am really just a home planker.  I love to play guitar, I like running addictive drums, vocals and I would like to take up bass through the eleven rack just to lay some general tracks.  Other than that I am pretty generic, I like 78-80's classic rock.  15 tracks would probably cover anything I ever attempt. 

Are there any brands of laptops that their integrated sound cards would allow me to sit on my couch with just my laptop in the evenings and listen to what I did earlier in the day.  That has always been my dream but, I have always gotten cracking and dropouts and it just made it impossible to leave my stand alone interface and work just from the laptop on the couch. 

Thanks again for your thought.   I will check out Sager and MSI,

rocker41


Very interesting stuff guys and thank you for your post.  I have had many computers for 21 years and never can keep up with them.  And truely just skate by.  I guess if I didn't blow all my money on guitar gear I could spend more time researching computers.  So I am really thankful guys like yourself share your thoughts so I can get somethng suitable for my needs.

  I just ordered the v-studio 100 yesterday.  So I can use that as my interface.  I am really just a home planker.  I love to play guitar, I like running addictive drums, vocals and I would like to take up bass through the eleven rack just to lay some general tracks.  Other than that I am pretty generic, I like 78-80's classic rock.  15 tracks would probably cover anything I ever attempt. 

Are there any brands of laptops that their integrated sound cards would allow me to sit on my couch with just my laptop in the evenings and listen to what I did earlier in the day.  That has always been my dream but, I have always gotten cracking and dropouts and it just made it impossible to leave my stand alone interface and work just from the laptop on the couch. 

Thanks again for your thought.   I will check out Sager and MSI,

you can playback  your work on any laptop's internal card again if it is not to complex. I run Sonar on a M11x Dell i5ULV 1.6Ghz  Not exactly a speed demon but it can play back the cakewalk X1 demos and my stuff well enough. 

Rocker is right, Get a decent audio interface. Most of the majors are great nowadays. 

I really hate being consumed. For past several days I have searched and searched again. Ebay, amazon, here there and everywhere in between. I finally pulled the trigger and placed an order for an Hp. Thanks for everyone who offered assistance. I think I will be happy with this pc for a few more years at least. dv6t Quad Ed • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (low cost upgrade to windows 8 pro when it comes out) • 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) • NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 memory [HDMI, VGA] • 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) • 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection • System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit • 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - Up to 6.0 hours of battery life +++ • 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080) • FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner • HP TrueVision HD Webcam • Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) • Backlit Keyboard with numeric keypad • Laplink PC mover I got all of this for around 1100.00. Currently I use a 17" Hp now and it has been pretty good for the past 4 years. A little slow with cakewalk and addictive drums but other than that, pretty well. This new one is better in every way except it for the smaller screen, but I believe it is a better quality display. This combined with my new v studio 100 interface and I am thinking I should be good to go at least for a few more years. Thanks again

should not have an issue there....I disable all Hard drive "smart" stuff. 
Im still running on a 775 MB with a Q6600 and Just installed 64 bit version of X1 Expanded. Was using 32 bit, 

If I can create drop free tracks on this I will hang with it and buy a good Notebook
I am looking at Sager and MSI .