Laptops for MPowered Pro Tools

[SeanDerMan]

Hi all,
Thought I might as well post a thread on laptops that work well with MPPT. All the other PT sections have it, so why not here?!

Please post what laptops are being used/useful/useless. With as much specs as possible. This way we will know what works best and what doesn't work. If a Davec Performance Test (http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Number=335638) test can be performed and results given, even better.

I presume the Recommended Laptops for PTLE for WinXP (http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB32&Number=470179&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1) should work well on MPPT, but my guess would be there will be a horde of other laptops that work for MPPT that are not listed there.

Cheers!

[spkguitar]

I'm using the E-Machines 6811 from that list (Best laptops for PTLE (http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB32&Number=470179&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1)) with the M-Audio Ozonic and I'm getting great results. I haven't done a formal DaveC with it yet, but I did a "quickie" and stopped at 32+25 at 128 buffer. That's with no tweaks, coming right off the internal FW connection, and I really could have kept going for a few more tracks. I'm sure I could get better results if I did it properly and shut everything else down.

Specs are in my sig, but the condensed version:
eMachines M6811 with 512MB RAM
A fresh install of XP Pro (not a refresh of the factory disk image with all the other crap)
250GB Maxtor inside the MP-320F FireWire enclosure
M-Audio Ozonic
mPowered

[SeanDerMan]

Anyone tried the Compaq R4000 series, they are AMD based systems and seem like really good machines, wth good specs and great prices. Compaq R4000 series. (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cto/computer_customize_components.do?storeName=compute r_store&eppPrefix=&category=notebooks/compaq_presario/R4000_series&destination=components&productId=PN495AV#includedFeatures)
Don't seem to find anyone on the LE thread using this machine. Anyone with it and tried it?

[Jack Dawson]

A little feedback here:

PT MPowered
Firewire 410
Dell Latitude 505 laptop - as received from Dell
Celeron processor 1.5GHz
512M ram
Win XP Home SP2 - no tweaks
TI Firewire controller
Recording to internal drive or USB external
DaveC test = 20 audio tracks (CPU choked)

Hope this helps...

[JS Gaeta]

Just bought a Compaq X6000 and it seems to be working real well. It wouldn't work with the M-box because it has the 915 chipset in it, but it's working great with my M-powered PT and Firewire 1814!

[digidesigner]

PT M-powered
FW410 interface with 512 buffer
HP nx5000 laptop
512 meg memory
slow HD (4000 something rmp)
Pentium M1.6 gig processor

results:
32 audio + 11 aux all with comp/4EQ/mono slap/mono short/mono long delays

[SeanDerMan]

Hey JS, the x6000 are pretty souped up machines from the specs on the net. Can we have a Davec test run with results posted please.

Looks like the MPPT isn't as touchy as Digi Hardware products. Seem to be workin pretty well on a variety of systems.
Cheers.

[fabz]

Yakumo Notebook with AMD Turion64 ML-32 Processor
512 MB Ram, 80GB/5400rpm Harddisk, external 80GB/7200rpm Drive (Trekstore)
WinXP Home
M-Audio Firewire1814

25 Tracks with normal amount of Comps and EQs and Reverbs work pretty good.
I'm sure i could use 25+ but never tried.

I had some serious Problems with dropouts and distorted sound with my ENE1410 Cardbus-Chipset but i fixed it with a tool from ECHO and now it runs!!! I had to disable my WLan interface too. But now it rocks!

[SeanDerMan]

Anyone have the Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook and run MPPT on it? Seems like a good notebook, cept the fact tht it doesn't have dedicated graphics memory.

[Oz-boy]

hi all,

when trying to work out the performance of different machines it helps to use a standard testing system. i'd suggest that you try the DAVEC (http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Number=335638) test.

although some of you may think it's stupid to run a test with these plugins loaded it's not about creating a real world scenario ... it's about creating an even test ground (everyone has these 5 digirack plugins) so that we can get an unbiased comparison of different machines.

i'm very excited both by the power of the current notebook computers and also by the potential of the m-powered software ... i for one would really appreciate being able to accurately assess m-powered setups against their LE conterparts.

stew

[darkglass]

I recently sold my HP zd7000 which I was running PT6.7 and 002R. It worked just fine...until I tryed to do music with it. LOL. I have recently switched to Cubase SX3 and I only open PT to reminisce on my new system. I got the 410 just in case there were things that I would still want to do in PT... haven't found one yet. Anyways, the m powered software and 410 worked fine on the HP notebook.

[hjorte]

I'm a bit disappointed... read on:

DaveC test

Mbox - PTLE 6.7 on my laptop: 31 tracks
M-audio 1814 - PTMP 6.8 on the same laptop: 26 tracks

Apart from the 5 track difference (which IS disappointing), the M-Powered interface is very very sluggish compared to the LE. In the DaveC test above, when reaching 15 tracks, adding the next track takes from 30 secs to over 60 secs! On the Mbox/LE it was much quicker.

What's up? Do you guys see the same pattern? I upgraded to M-Audio but didn't expect to buy into slower performance.

Laptop is a Dell Inspiron P4 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 7200rpm drives and it works pretty well with the M-Powered software apart from the above.
/Henrik

[Oz-boy]

Henrik,

if we give digi the benefit of the soubt & assume (i know ) that the software performs the same, then the problem must be in the difference between the usb & firewire busses.

check your hardware setup and make sure that your firewire buss is not sharing an irq with anything else. try disabling all other hardware except the 1814 when you test the m-powered version. i assume you have m-powered & le setup on different boot partitions as they are not designed to exist on the same computer together.

if you can be bothered it would be great if you could really try to get to the bottom of this. i think many prospective m-powered owners would be interested to know how it's stacking up against le ... i know i would

do you still have the m-box and pro tools le?

thanks mate ... and good luck

stew

[hjorte]

Henrik,

if you can be bothered it would be great if you could really try to get to the bottom of this.



stew, i can't get to the bottom of this on my own. I need more input from users with similar setups and experiences - and maybe a comment from Digidesign.

About IRQ: i've done my homework already and killed everything that is not needed to run PTMP. On a laptop running XP with ACPI, you can't avoid sharing IRQs. So, at he moment the firewire port (IRQ 11) is sharing these IRQs:

IRQ 11 Dell 8200 (edit: I think this is the graphics card)
IRQ 11 Intel(R) 82801CA/CAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2482
IRQ 11 Intel(R) 82801CA/CAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2487
IRQ 11 Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

One of the USB ports are needed for the i-Lok. Killing the other USB doesn't make any difference.

Yes, i have two hard disks installed and can boot from either one. No, i don't have the Mbox anymore, but could borrow one for comparison issues.

Either the problem lies in the use of firewire (as you suggest) or the problem is simply a non-optimized version of PT for M-audio hardware.

/Henrik

[Fury]

I have a Thinkpad T41 with 1 gig of memory and a seperate Lacie firewire drive. It is almost USELESS at running Protools...Its laggy and god forbid if I try to use a decent plug in. This has forced me to try something more performance bases so I ordered and Alienware laptop....its damn expensive but hopefully it will work. These are the specs:

MJ-12M 7700 SYSTEM

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 560J Desktop Processor w/ HT Technology 3.6GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB Cache
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Warranty: 2-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service
Case: Alienware® MJ12m 7700 Case with 17" WideSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 LCD Display with Built-in Camera - Xeno Grey
Motherboard: Intel® 915P Chipset Supporting PCI-Express
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz - 2 x 1024MB
Graphics Accelerator: Alienware® MJ12m 7700 NVIDIA GeForce™ Go 6800 Ultra with 256MB of DDR3 memory
Hard Drive: Dual Drive Configuration - Non RAID - 120GB (60GB x 2) 7200 RPM ATA100 - Hitachi
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Secondary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD Combo w/Software MPEG2 Decoder
Primary Battery: Alienware® 7700 series Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack
Additional Battery: Alienware® 7700 series Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Wireless Network: Internal Wireless 802.11b/g miniPCI Card
Digital Audio Hardware: Intel® High-Definition Audio (24-bit, 192Khz) with 7.1 surround sound



My main system to record on is a nice performing home grown desktop with dual 19" LCDs...but this should allow me to game a little and record a little.

[Oz-boy]

hi again Henrik,

the only other thing i can think of is that you are running ACPI ... usually laptops run better in standard pc mode ... mine wouldn't run LE at all as ACPI! might be worth doing an image of your hd & reinstalling windows to see if that gives any better performance.

stew

[Ludicrous Speed]

what happened to this thread guys???

we need to keep this one goin

im currently lookin for a laptop to run my 1814 on...

im in australia and had some issues with an ASUS that i tried out...

heres my post about it

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=885428&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#885428

all of the specs and test results are listed here.

i would reallly like to buy this notebook IF it will run PTMP on my 1814 without any major issues..


any help would be great

Ludi

[Ludicrous Speed]

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