Choosing a Laptop Computer
Some things to consider when buying a computer for audio measurement and analysis applications.
by Calvert Dayton, Rational Acoustics
A perennial question we get here at Rational HQ is, "What kind of laptop should I buy to run Smaart?" We have always studiously avoided recommending a specific make or model of computer to anyone (with the possible exception of our moms) because there's simply no such thing as a one-size-fits-all "right" answer to that question. Like any other technology decision, the definition of "right" depends a lot on exactly how you're planning to use it, how much you can spend, how patient you are, how much weight you're willing to lug around, really any number of factors.
But with that said, when buying a new laptop there's actually a mercifully short list of basic options to consider. In terms of hardware, it really comes down to a choice of:
2. Form factor – the size, shape and weight of the computer
3. CPU type
4. Graphics Processor and graphics memory
5. Other Stuff. (Hard disk size, RAM, networking, a built-in stereo line-in would be nice...)
6. Manufacturer. This one is of interest not just in terms of expectations for quality, reliability and service but also may determine whether accessories such as a docking station or swappable drives are available.
Let's have a look at each of these areas and ponder some of the factors that might shape one's decision-making when shopping for a new laptop. Many of the same issues would bear on choices for a desktop or rack mount machine however you tend to have a few more options for customizing those types of systems, so we'll focus on laptops for the purposes of this discussions.
Operating Systems
Skip this section if you already know which OS you want/need to use. I really don't want to wade into the Mac versus PC debate too much. Having spent significant portions of my computing career using both platforms I would have to guess I've spent roughly equal amounts of time cussing each of them. These days I use a Mac at the office and a home-built Windows XP at home. I move quite a bit of work back and forth between them with relatively little trouble and I am reasonably happy with both systems.
I chose a Mac for the office primarily because I need to run both Mac and PC applications. Mac's cost a little more as a rule but Apple's licensing terms only allow running their OS on their own hardware. I also needed to buy new software at the same time since we were starting pretty much from scratch, so there was no significant prior investment there to consider. If I didn't need to support both Mac and Windows users and/or we already owned a lot of Windows software, I might well have decided differently.
It's kind of an awkward time for Windows, as you might have heard, so it was nice to have another option. But Vista actually has some potentially interesting technology under the hood for pro audio applications and I imagine the folks in Redmond will get it mostly working sooner or later. They always do. Seems like it typically takes a full year, sometimes two, to shake enough bugs out of a new OS or a major revsion to achieve really usable reliability – as anyone who ran right out and bought Windows XP or Mac OS X (et al) on the first day could attest.
If the pattern bears out, Vista should just about be approaching that point now and I have actually found it to be pretty usable if you run as an admin and turn off that idiotic User Account Control feature (Apple definitely did that better). So if a Windows machine is what you need, don't let anyone scare you... too much.
Next: Form Factor -->