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[drsigma]

Hello, everyone!

I'm planning to buy a laptop (running under Windows XP, because of the music software I use don't run under Mac) - I can't get a tower computer because there's no place in our flat to put it.
The thing is that the only laptops I'm seeing in stores here have dual core CPUs ranging from 1.66 to 1.8 GHz and only 1 GB of RAM. Do you think it's enough to run software like FL Studio 7 with lots of vst/vsti, Ableton Live 6 and Reason 3?
Or won't this amount of CPU and RAM be enough?

Thanks a lot in advance for any advice.

[Tozzy]

[drsigma]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply Tozzy.
I said "only 1 GB Ram" because I know that some vst instruments need 512 GB of RAM as minimum requirement, and if I want to run multiple instances of these vsti I will be out of RAM very easily. Plus, I've been working on a G4 Mac with 2x800 GHz and 1.5 GB RAM; when I use Reason 3 with a lot of effect or instrument racks, the computer becomes unstable and stops being able to process the song.
But I won't be running the three mentionned software all at once. If I wanted to do so, I would need a very powerfull computer.

[Tozzy]

I see. In my opinion, I think you'd get more for your money if you bought a PC because laptops are always more expensive and they are never as powerful unless you are willing to spend $$$$. Why not buy a PC instead? The decision depends on your budget I guess :).

It's difficult to determine if it'll crash with the software you want to run. All you can do is take it back to the shop, but there may not be such a policy.

[aBenteVent]

I run FL XXL 7, with 1 gig of ram and a 2 ghz processor, in Windows Vista. Vista hogs about half of my ram just idling. But even if I am playing 8 different vst instruments at once all with effects on them, I don't run into problems. FL might lag a little bit and i get a weird popping sound but its really minor compared to when I used to try the same thing to a lesser extent on an older machine.

I was actually worried about the same thing you are until I installed FL on my laptop, and now me very happy with it.
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http://trig.com/abentevent

[drsigma]

Thanks people for the replies!
I'm late for answering but i've been away for a while.
Tozzy, I would like to buy a PC instead of a laptop, but I lack place, our flat is a real mess and there's no place to put yet another PC (We already have 2, an old one for my brother to program on and a relatively newer for everything else: Internet, typing, games etc including my music work). But I really need to have my own computer and a laptop is the only option for me. So, as you can see, it's not a budget issue...

aBenteVent, you're saying you're running FL under Vista and you're having no problems? That's weird cos I've read and heard a lot of people who were bitching about Vista, having a hard time with it.
I'm having this popping sound you're talking about on the PC (2.4 GHz and only 128 MB RAM which is really not enough) and that's very annoying. I hope I wont get this on the laptop I'll buy. Anyway, when I get one, I'll try to have XP on it and not Vista which should make a big difference because I'm still convinced XP is a lot more stable than the new Win.

Once again, thank you everyone for your answers.

Cheers

[m4rt3z]

Well im running FL in Vista and have been for a good few months, no stability issues as such here operating system wise but FL7 has a few bugs that thankfully were mostly ironed out in FL7.3! I have a dual core with 1gb RAM but before that i had a 1.7GHz with 512mb RAM and ran FL with barley any problems! I mean i could load around 8-10 synths before i would get glitches but this is due to not enough RAM and because i was using a beta version of ASIO4All.

I think you might be getting clicking and popping if you don't have enough buffer in the ASIO panel. Try downloading and installing ASIO4All and setting it to max buffer/samples to see how well it runs, also try and invest in a 'proper' sound card dedicated to music making, not those Audigy or 'multimedia' sound cards and you should see a significant difference! Hope this helps and i know i might be a little late because you might have already bought the laptop but thought id throw im my opinion! :)

m4rt3z

[drsigma]

Hi m4rt3z!

Indeed, I have already bought my laptop, a Dual core 1.86 GHz with 1 GB RAM and I am having some trouble (lots of glitches and pops) playing heavy projects in FL7. It seems there are some issues in FL7 that need to be fixed, like the "Multi processor" button that seems to have absolutely no effect. If you say some problems have been solved in the newer version, I might try to update. I'm running other software such as Ableton Live 7 and Reason 3 with absolutely no CPU nor RAM issues.
Anyway, thanks for your reply.

Cheers.