Hello, 
I want to be able to travel and open my sonar projects on the road.
Just for minor tasks a nd some vsti or virtual instruments.
I also want something very light.
Will the Samsung Ultrabook Series 5?

Let me know asap as I am planning to buy one today as I travel back to Mozambique tomorrow morning.

Thanks
Joni

there is no reason at all why you wouldnt get great performance from that laptop...!

There is more than one model within that Samsung Ultrabook Series 5 series designation, so you should look up specs for the EXACT model designation.


I did look up results for one that I found, and it looks like that has 4 GB of integrated memory, with a single slot for adding additional memory - of the DDR33 1600 type.  IF this is accurate, then if you went with this model I would suggest picking up 1 $B strip of DDR3 1600 memory to give you a total of 8 GB, which will help performance with Sonar.


It also appears that this model's motherboard does NOT have its own dedicated graphics chip, rather, it seems to rely on the graphics capability of the CPU itself.  This means that graphics memory will be allocated from your available main memory, which reinforces my suggestion of picking up that additional 4 GB strip for a total of 8 GB.


The i5 CPU should be plenty fast enough, and even though some memory would be used by the graphics, that should leave you enough memory to handle Sonar with reasonable performance, particularly for travel purposes.


The above is the opinion I have for reviewing the specs from the following link:


http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Samsung-Series-5-530U3C-A01DE-Ultrabook.77219.0.html

As noted in the above review, there is at least one other older model, still called a series 5, so be sure you know which one of these you are purchasing.

Bob Bone

I forgot to add that the model I looked up comes with 2 USB 3 ports and a single USB 2 port, so make sure that you either use the USB 2 port for your audio interface or make sure the audio interface you use can handle being plugged in to a USB 3 port.  Mine cannot, so this is something you will want to check on (or just know that you will use the USB 2 port for your interface).

Bob Bone

thank you.
can’t sonar work with the laptop’s build in audio interface?

Of course SONAR can work with your internal sound chip just keep in mind the Cakewalk admonition about using it ( from http://www.cakewalk.com/S...spx?dm=mme&man=Realtek ) :

Please note: Realtekaudio cards are generally provided with your computer. They are designed for general media playback and, though they will work with Cakewalk software, you would get better performance using a device designed specifically for audio recording.

For a recommendation visit your local pro-audio or music store


You have been warned.

djoni,

I've used my internal sound card for my laptop at times, and it's worked ok. Nothing great, but it works for both recording and mixing.

I do have a mini line 6 device for travelling.

All my interfaces are small and portable.

Thanks. I will try it and post results.
I am only planning to use to re-edit, re-mix, or re-compose midi stuff on the roads.
Really not thinking about recording audio.
If this works well it will be fantastic.

The other option would be a macbook pro 13 with bootcamp. Anyone tried this?

thanks
joni

Go ahead and see it if works for you with the internal sound chip - just be prepared to deal with some sort of external interface if you have a bunch of trouble (there is also the ASIO4ALL option).

Bob Bone

thanks robert. 
I didn’t get to buy it this time. But I’ll buy it soon in South Africa in a few weeks.
Will let you guys know how it goes.
regards,
joni