Laptop for recording question

That list doesn't give any good reasons for the ranking. Unless you consider Garage Band a reason.
I have to agree. The author presents his list but doesn't justify it. He's not too worried about grammatical errors, either.
 
You can get a good laptop- i7 for $500
I'd look into Dell, you can find closeouts on the website and walmart, etc.

Anyway- here's your problem- the hard drive
I'd recommend a small SSD
and then you'd need an external drive that's fast and has the best connection possible- like SATA or USB3.0 to connect
While none of the software out there recommends you record on a system drive on a laptop- and they also don't recommend external drives- if you get a fast one and connect it right you should be fine.

BUT- most people slack off- use a slow external drive or their system hard disk to record then wonder why it's shitty and slow and glitchy.
 
I use a 7 year old Dell S1740 Studio Laptop.

Intel T6600 Core 2 Duo @ 2.20 GHz/ 2.20 GHz
4GB RAM
2x 500 GB 7200 RPM drives (only record to secondary though)
SIIG Firewire ExpressCard w/TI Chipset (dedicated Firewire bus for my Sapphire Pro40)
Windows 7 Home Premium x64

Runs Reaper and all of my plugins for both pre and post processing and mixing without any issues.

Don't really need to overthink this one. As has already been expressed, just about any modern laptop will run Reaper without any issues. For the record, this same laptop ran PT9 and PT10 also without any issues. A little slow on initial PT startup, but after that it performed like a champ.
 
The OP said: "really know shit about computers". So, I think it's OK to assume he does not know that recording is only a part of music production process, unless he is going to ship the tracks to someone to mix and master and pay them for there work. Assuming he really wants to learn how to record and at least produce a demo, he will also have to have some production capabilities for mixing/mastering (a.k.a production). I'm starting to regret jumping into this, as one of my goals in helping others is to educate. I'm not saying I am an expert, but I have many years as a software engineer programming on the Microsoft platform and have been frustrated by inadequate gear for my profession. My Mac Book Pro has never failed me and just works vs. the many Windows machines I've had over the years, including building my own machines. I've learned going cheap sometimes lead to frustration and ultimately failure to accomplish the intended task. Music recording has come a long way and yes, you can find a Windows machine that works...maybe... But more often than not the user will have to know what they are doing an turn off all the crap Microsoft installs for general purpose computing. Macs just work. They are a little more expensive, but you get what you pay for, including generally better and more consistent hardware and device drivers. I routinely record, mix and master 16 tracks on my 2012 Mac book Pro w/I7, 16 GB Ram, and 1TB of SSD. I spent roughly $1000 putting this machine together from a used mid-2012 machine. It is a joy to use when recording as I through the screen up on a 40" TV, can use an iPad across the room to control the DAW (or the Board Mix). Sorry if my spelling doesn't come up to par, as I am not a typist and/or English teacher...too bad this thread (and the board) are becoming less accepting of alternative opinions...maybe that's the reason Cliff doesn't frequent it as much!
 
Assuming he really wants to learn how to record and at least produce a demo, he will also have to have some production capabilities for mixing/mastering (a.k.a production).

If he wants that, he'll have quite a few things to be concerned with, like sound card, monitors and at least some room treatment. Not to mention a lot of learning. And the computer is probably the least of his worries.

I'm starting to regret jumping into this, as one of my goals in helping others is to educate

I don't think anyone treated you poorly in this thread or objected to your trying to present your opinion. So I don't see what to regret here.

I do object to statements that I consider cliche and, frankly, false or misleading. Namely, the whole "just works" thing. I have three Windows machines currently - an Atom-powered Surface (which is my main computer for the day job and for live use), an 8 year old Asus notebook and a Core i7 Intel NUC at home for some more complex mixing/mastering. The latter is the size of a Mac Mini but beats the crap out of it in terms of capabilities. The former is a tablet with the convenience of a touch screen, but with the ability to run Ableton. And all three "just work". For years. I didn't do anything in terms of tweaking the Surface. The NUC required installing Windows, which is easy to do these days. The Asus did require some work, which is needed for many Windows machines to work reliably over the years. Right after I bought it, I uninstalled all the OEM crapware. Granted, for a person who knows nothing about computers, this may be tricky somewhat, but more than double. It you can stop by a Microsoft Store and make it a Signature PC.

I've had tons of problems with Apple products though - mostly iOS based, but Macs, too. They also have problems with device drivers, applications crash, they get slow etc. And hardware failures aren't that rare. They are very good but not immune to problems.

They do provide ports useful for music production that may be difficult to find on PCs though.
 
Any modern laptop will handle recording just fine. I have an eight-year-old Windows 7 PC with a Core Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM that runs Reaper without breaking a sweat.
Hey Rex, I just started using Reaper and after recording a few tracks and adding some of Reapers effects it barely runs. I have a newer laptop but I was wondering if I need to do something different. I watched the video on the Reaper sight and he was showing how to consolidate your files so they aren't all over your hard drive. Would that help? I have just been recording an not selecting any specific placefor it to go so its just going to my hard drive. I have another newer laptop I'm going to try that has an intel core i7 but I was just seeing if you had some advice? This DAW stuff is new to me and all Greek! Took me forever to get Superior Drummer into my DAW!
 
Hey Rex, I just started using Reaper and after recording a few tracks and adding some of Reapers effects it barely runs. I have a newer laptop but I was wondering if I need to do something different. I watched the video on the Reaper sight and he was showing how to consolidate your files so they aren't all over your hard drive. Would that help? I have just been recording an not selecting any specific placefor it to go so its just going to my hard drive. I have another newer laptop I'm going to try that has an intel core i7 but I was just seeing if you had some advice? This DAW stuff is new to me and all Greek! Took me forever to get Superior Drummer into my DAW!
I'd take a good hard look at what else is running on your computer and how much hard drive space you have available. If you have a lot of stuff running or you're running out of drive space, things will slow to a crawl.
 
I'd take a good hard look at what else is running on your computer and how much hard drive space you have available. If you have a lot of stuff running or you're running out of drive space, things will slow to a crawl.
OK, I will. Thanks
 
After browsing through this thread, it raises a few questions for me. I'm going to be upgrading my recording computer from my laptop to a desktop next month. My question is, will a desktop with 4.0ghz processor and 8 gigs of ram be sufficient? Maybe upgrade to 16 gigs of ram? I run reaper with a few plugins like EZ Drummer 2. I've never had an issue with my laptop to be honest, but I'd like a lil more horsepower for more in depth stuff as I get better at recording/mixing/mastering.
 
Whatever you buy, wipe it and load just the OS, otherwise you'll have background processes that you don't even want (HP I'm looking at you and your bloatware) soaking up a good portion of your memory with junk you'll never use.

Buy the laptop cheap, make sure it's 64-bit, and replace the stock memory sticks with high speed low-latency stuf and max out whatever the motherboard can take. This will take some research on your own.
 
Whatever you buy, wipe it and load just the OS, otherwise you'll have background processes that you don't even want (HP I'm looking at you and your bloatware) soaking up a good portion of your memory with junk you'll never use.

Buy the laptop cheap, make sure it's 64-bit, and replace the stock memory sticks with high speed low-latency stuf and max out whatever the motherboard can take. This will take some research on your own.

I always wipe if it's a name branded preassembled purchase.

The tech who does our network maintenance might build me one instead of me buying preassembled stuff. The specs I remember him talking to me about were along the lines of:

256GB SSD for the OS, programs, and plugins.
1 terabyte HDD with 7200 speed for storing files such as IRs, midi loops, pics, etc.
4.2ghz quad core processor
16GB ram
Can't remember the rest of the stuff we talked about, but that was the more important parts. So I'm hoping this will be better off than using my laptop.
 
256GB SSD for the OS, programs, and plugins.
1 terabyte HDD with 7200 speed for storing files such as IRs, midi loops, pics, etc.
4.2ghz quad core processor
16GB ram
That SSD by itself will make anything without an SSD look as slow as a snail.
 
I have a Dell Precision M4500, core i7, 16gb ram and kicks ass for about 400 these days, 2012 model?
All I did was put a SSD in it, (Solid State Hard Drive), for the system, and took out the Cd-rom, added
a 1tb second drive, for storage/recording, In addition to that, I put a 32gb Micro SSD (msata), drive that
I run all of my VST's on. It all works flawless, with Pro Tools and Reaper.
 
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