Cheap laptop for live recording

PolarityMan

Anyone got an idea of minimum spec required for recording 16 channels via firewire? I have reackmounted my audio interface and would really like to have something mobile to record with. Unfortunately my laptop has usb rather than firewire...anyone know anything with a TI firewire chipset that is cheap and cheerful these days?

Under £200 preferred

guitarfishbay

How do you get your 16 channels?

Is it 8 on a FW interface then 8 on ADAT?  You can probably pick up a used Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (USB) for not much more than £200 and just use the same laptop and ADAT you use currently.

spark240

I have a HP laptop with FW connection , Id be looking to move that on around your budget, I did use it with Studio One

Shall I PM you full specs later? 

PolarityMan

guitarfishbay said:

How do you get your 16 channels?

Is it 8 on a FW interface then 8 on ADAT?  You can probably pick up a used Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (USB) for not much more than £200 and just use the same laptop and ADAT you use currently.

yep its a saffire pro 40

PolarityMan

spark240 said:

I have a HP laptop with FW connection , Id be looking to move that on around your budget, I did use it with Studio One

Shall I PM you full specs later? 

If you can find the chipset that would be great..they seem to be pretty picky about it

spark240

Ok, will do.

Danny1969

 I have done many many live 32 track recordings using a Tascam DM4800 via FireWire into a dell latitude xt which is a 1.3ghz low power processor with 2gb ram 

The drive I recorded to was 128gb Ssd connected via USB 

 It's a very reliable system which we still use today.  I expect you could pick one of those up on eBay for less than £50 nowadays 

PolarityMan

Can only see spares on there for a dell lattitude xt currently but ill keep an eye out.

guitarfishbay

PolarityMan said:

guitarfishbay said:

How do you get your 16 channels?

Is it 8 on a FW interface then 8 on ADAT?  You can probably pick up a used Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (USB) for not much more than £200 and just use the same laptop and ADAT you use currently.

yep its a saffire pro 40

To my knowledge the first gen 18i20 is pretty much the same thing on USB.  You could probably get a second hand one, and sell the pro 40, and not have spent very much.

PolarityMan

thats also a tempting solution, ebay sees them going at around £200 mark.

digitalscream

I did exactly this (including Firewire) with a Toshiba laptop that cost me about £130, plus another £50 for a SSD. As I recall, it was a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM.

Don't underestimate the screen resolution; I'd say you want a minimum of 1440x900...the "standard" 1366x768 is going to seriously cramp your style in a DAW. If you have room, a 1080p external screen would be a massive help.

PolarityMan

Im not looks at editing, as long as i can arm tracks and set it to go I can comp etc somewhere with better facilties. Did you have any trouble finding a laptop with a compatible chipset?

digitalscream

PolarityMan said:

Im not looks at editing, as long as i can arm tracks and set it to go I can comp etc somewhere with better facilties. Did you have any trouble finding a laptop with a compatible chipset?

Not at all. The one I had was a Toshiba Tecra M10, like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-Tecra-M10-1K1-14-1-Laptop-Intel-Core-2-Duo-2-10GHz-2GB-RAM-160GB-HDD-W7-/172488098310?hash=item2829178206:g:EfcAAOSw-0xYcpwF

(note that the one in that auction doesn't have a charger)

Worked brilliantly with my TC Impact Twin (DICE II chipset, which I think is the same as the one in the Saffire Pro 40).

PolarityMan

You used linux too right?

digitalscream

PolarityMan said:

You used linux too right?

At the time, I was using Win7. I did run it under Ubuntu Studio later, though, and it definitely seemed snappier under load. For what it's worth, DICE II-based interfaces work fine under Linux, so the Saffire Pro 40 should do well.

PolarityMan

Ibhave an exremely aged toshiba sattelite. Im wondering if that might manage under linux.....if i can find it.

spark240

This is mine.  HP Elitebook 6930p 2.66GHz 4GB 160GB, also has a docking station and psu.

spark240

Has this gone away then...?

PolarityMan

Not yet..going to try something first but only opportunity is band practices once a week so a bit of a lead time....

spark240

Cool...