Laptop Selection

[krek0016]

I am in the market for a new laptop, mainly for listening to music, web-surfing etc. The only intensive thing that will come up in the future is that I may want to get into composing my own music with an electric keyboard/vocals to create demo CDs or something, but I do not have any experience doing this on a computer and I don't know what to look for.

Does anyone have some recommendations or experience of what kind of system requirements I should look for in a laptop to do this?

 

[TheStu]

Well, if you are willing to actually spend money instead of going for the absolute cheapest machine you can find, then I would say look into the Apple MacBook. Since it ships with GarageBand, you can use that for your music composition. It has a nice UI that is easy to familiarize yourself with, and although it is not quite as powerful as AcidPro or other such things, based on what you seem to be looking for, that should work really well.

Plus, OS X is, IMO, an excellent choice if you are doing everyday stuff like email, music, movies, surfing, ripping, burning, all that.

 

[krek0016]

I really like the MacBooks, although they do seem a little expensive for what you could get with the same specs on a Dell/Toshiba etc.

Is 1GB ram adequate for composing music, or should I spring for the extra 150$ and upgrade to 2GB?

 

[heymrdj]

2GB IMO. OSX and Vista to me are on the same level, both need respectable amounts of RAM to do their job efficiently.

 

[TheStu]

From what I just checked, you at best save $100 or so by going with another manufacturer, so long as you actually match the specs up. The MacBook comes with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo with the 4MB cache, 1GB RAM, 802.11n, 80GB hard drive and the 13" screen.

Anyway, I think that for what you get, the MacBook is an excellent value, which is why I got mine, it was cheaper than anything else