Hello,
Building a new remote laptop and am down to two options:
PC AudioLabs MC7s or new Apple MacBookPro running in Bootcamp (probably will never see Apple OS boot).
My main concern is third party driver conflicts that steel CPU even if just for a moment. Dennis and I discovered reason my current rig could not run Ravenna successfully is because the third party trackpad/mouse driver would spike the CPU every 8 minutes or so causing failure with Ravenna. This computer should have been find being a Dell Precision 4600 workstation, but no means of fixing this issue as I have the latest drivers installed and can't work without trackpad and mouse. This has kept me from moving from RME UFX+ interface to the Hapi.
So before I pull the trigger, anyone have experience they want to share? Thank you.
PC AudioLabs verses Apple MacBook Pro
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The Merging Technologies team cannot be held responsible for support queries logged on the public forums. If a support query is logged here and only here, it may not be found and dealt with by the appropriate team.
To ensure that your support issue or bug report is dealt with properly and in good time, please use the link to the tech support request form page on the Merging website.
Make sure to let us know what version you are using when you send your mail. THANKS!
Re: PC AudioLabs verses Apple MacBook Pro
...no one does remotes...?
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Thomas Grubb
- Posts: 275
- Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 02:20
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Re: PC AudioLabs verses Apple MacBook Pro
I’ve recently bought a 2015 15 inch MBP recommended on the Merging list - once the tweaks were done and the card-reader removed from the configuration, it ran with no spikes and very low latency. My previous 2015 13 inch MBP was fine with Windows 8.1, but I couldn’t get it 100% stable with Win10 (99.9%, even with the tweaks!). Recording onto a Thunderbolt LaCie or USB3 SSD.
I don’t know about the current MBP machines, but hopefully they are better with no card reader. I’ve also never heard the fan with either machine.
Cheers,
Tom
I don’t know about the current MBP machines, but hopefully they are better with no card reader. I’ve also never heard the fan with either machine.
Cheers,
Tom
Thomas Grubb
manomusica.com
Melbourne
manomusica.com
Melbourne
Re: PC AudioLabs verses Apple MacBook Pro
Hi draudio2u,
What did you get in the end?
What did you get in the end?
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ljudatervinning
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Tue May 05, 2015 00:00
- Location: Sweden
Re: PC AudioLabs verses Apple MacBook Pro
Personally, I gave up on MacBooks since they are no longer made for professionals (No upgradeability, limited connectivity, no change of batteries, etc)
I hope Merging will add Lenovo P-series to their list.
I am currently using P50 with great result.
I hope Merging will add Lenovo P-series to their list.
I am currently using P50 with great result.
Pyramix Pro 25th / Ravenna MAD
win10 Pro 1909 / Nvidia RTX 3080, 4 monitors
win10 Pro 1909 / Lenovo P50, 4K
win10 Pro 1909 / Nvidia RTX 3080, 4 monitors
win10 Pro 1909 / Lenovo P50, 4K
Re: PC AudioLabs verses Apple MacBook Pro
We have a bunch of laptops here, but we only use them for editing on the road and occasionally as recorders for small recordings (Less than 16 channels)
We've had good luck with the Lenovo W540. They are old, but seem to keep on working Running Win7pro with an M.2 drive as boot and the internal SATA as a record volume. I actually tricked these out for Masscore back in the day, but they were a little too finicky for the other guys to use.
We also have the Dell M4800. Same caveats as the W540, same configuration.
Recently I bought an Acer Spin3 SP315-51. Same caveats about recording, but a perfectly good post production machine. Quad core i7 with Hyperthreading and 12G ram. Good keyboard and an M.2 slot for a second drive. I have this setup for dual booting with W10pro and W7pro. Tough to find some of the drivers for W7, but nothing a little googling didn't turn up.
But for recording, I've gone over completely to normal CPU's on mATX motherboards. The brain damage with going smaller was been a fool's errand. Same with passive cooling. Fine for low track counts or 1FS, but for the stuff we do there is just not enough horsepower in the smaller systems.
All the best,
-mark
We've had good luck with the Lenovo W540. They are old, but seem to keep on working Running Win7pro with an M.2 drive as boot and the internal SATA as a record volume. I actually tricked these out for Masscore back in the day, but they were a little too finicky for the other guys to use.
We also have the Dell M4800. Same caveats as the W540, same configuration.
Recently I bought an Acer Spin3 SP315-51. Same caveats about recording, but a perfectly good post production machine. Quad core i7 with Hyperthreading and 12G ram. Good keyboard and an M.2 slot for a second drive. I have this setup for dual booting with W10pro and W7pro. Tough to find some of the drivers for W7, but nothing a little googling didn't turn up.
But for recording, I've gone over completely to normal CPU's on mATX motherboards. The brain damage with going smaller was been a fool's errand. Same with passive cooling. Fine for low track counts or 1FS, but for the stuff we do there is just not enough horsepower in the smaller systems.
All the best,
-mark
*********************
Mark Donahue
Soundmirror, Inc.
Boston, MA
mark@soundmirror.com
www.soundmirror.com
*********************
Mark Donahue
Soundmirror, Inc.
Boston, MA
mark@soundmirror.com
www.soundmirror.com
*********************
Re: PC AudioLabs verses Apple MacBook Pro
Having just recently changed from a different software platform, I did not buy any new hardware when moving to pyramix.
I run a Lenovo B51-80 i7 on Win10, and a HP ProBook 450 G3 i7 on Win7 for location recording. Both are two years old and were back then already on the cheaper side of things.
Both work beautifully and reliable with Pmx Native Pro and RME Madiface XT to record 64 tracks at 96kHz.
Even my 11 year old cheap lenovo whatever could record 32 tracks @ 96kHz via USB2 (!) for hours and hours without any trouble.
I never understood the need for high-end machines in audio recording, especially when work is not plugin-heavy and does not feature tons of vsti.
Have a robust chipset, solid drivers and a reliable harddrive. And don't use it for anything else than audio.
For fun I ordered a cheap i7 passive cooled machine directly from china: 16gb ram, 2x 512gb SSD, i7-7500U. When testing it with 64 tracks at 96kHz it was still at 12% CPU load and the drives seemed happy too. As PMX Native does not support more input tracks anyway, I'm happy.
But of course I don't do more than 96kHz or any DSD.
'
I run a Lenovo B51-80 i7 on Win10, and a HP ProBook 450 G3 i7 on Win7 for location recording. Both are two years old and were back then already on the cheaper side of things.
Both work beautifully and reliable with Pmx Native Pro and RME Madiface XT to record 64 tracks at 96kHz.
Even my 11 year old cheap lenovo whatever could record 32 tracks @ 96kHz via USB2 (!) for hours and hours without any trouble.
I never understood the need for high-end machines in audio recording, especially when work is not plugin-heavy and does not feature tons of vsti.
Have a robust chipset, solid drivers and a reliable harddrive. And don't use it for anything else than audio.
For fun I ordered a cheap i7 passive cooled machine directly from china: 16gb ram, 2x 512gb SSD, i7-7500U. When testing it with 64 tracks at 96kHz it was still at 12% CPU load and the drives seemed happy too. As PMX Native does not support more input tracks anyway, I'm happy.
But of course I don't do more than 96kHz or any DSD.
'