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Re: Computer good enough for Live Looping?




The specs look pretty good.  2GB is the minimum I would get, processor speed 
is good enough.  It looks like you can upgrade the RAM to 4GB.  It doesn't
have a firewire port so you will need a USB audio interface.  The cheapest 
price I found was $444.99 at Newegg.com.

Here's a review:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/527437/review/probook_4520s.html

The problem with recommending computers for audio is that while on the
surface the specs may look fine, trying to run an audio application
with pro audio hardware at low latencies can uncover problems that
you won't notice with business software.  Things like the video card
and the motherboard chipsets can effect how low you can tune your
latency and you won't notice this until you try or you can find
someone with similar needs that has posted a review (I couldn't
find any).

So make sure you have 30 days to return it and be prepared to test
what you're interested in within that time.  

With that warning, it looks like it should be fine for Mobius and
Bidule and I would assume the Virtual EDP.  Loopers aren't particularly
demanding of CPU but they do love memory.  I don't have Windows 7, 
does anyone know how much memory it consumes?  2GB is fine for Windows
XP but if Windows 7 is going to consume 1.5 GB just siting there then
you may have to get more.

For advanced video and audio processing beyond looping, you might
need more horsepower.  This is obviously a low-end machine designed
for people running Word and Excel.  I don't know what all is involved
with video processing on a laptop but I probably wouldn't go with anything
less than a dual-core with 4GB.

Jeff