$800-$1000 laptop for music production?

[seriouschiz]

Hello everyone!

 

My dad is looking to buy a laptop for a home studio. (I already asked him about building a PC instead, but he said he wanted it to be portable.) He's just getting into it, so he doesn't need top-of-the-line stuff. Just something that will work consistently.

 

These are the three that he's sent me so far:

Laptop 1, Laptop 2, Laptop 3

 

I also wanted to look at some AMD-based laptops, but I'm not sure where to start with those. Any suggestions?

 

Also, if you have any recommendations for affordable peripherals to go with it (pre-amps, mics, etc.) feel free to leave those too!

 

Thanks!

[5x5]

While the T470 is a very very good business laptop, it's not ideal for music production. None of those are.

His best bet is actually a larger and more powerful laptop.
Personally, I would highly recommend either the Lenovo Legion Y540, Asus A15 or the MSI Bravo 15

[Dappner]

2 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

While the T470 is a very very good business laptop, it's not ideal for music production. None of those are.

His best bet is actually a larger and more powerful laptop.
Personally, I would highly recommend either the Lenovo Legion Y540, Asus A15 or the MSI Bravo 15

I would agree in terms of that you need a good amount of storage and cpu processing power, but not a dedicated GPU....

I'd go for a laptop with a bigger screen size, 1 TB ssd storage, and a 6 or 8 core processor that turbos to like 4 GHz.

 

[5x5]

1 minute ago, Dappner said:

I would agree in terms of that you need a good amount of storage and cpu processing power, but not a dedicated GPU....

I'd go for a laptop with a bigger screen size, 1 TB ssd storage, and a 6 or 8 core processor that turbos to like 4 GHz.

 

Well, you can't really get a powerful CPU without a dGPU these days. Unless the OP is willing to wait a month and get a proper 4700U-based laptop, he only has gaming models to choose from

[berberries]

for music production.. I'd actually recommend to get an older Macbook Pro 15in maybe 2013-2014. The newest in the pre-usbc macbooks. they should run around 1000USD at this time. 

 

Why? Most audio software, music software or dj software are either mac specific or works better on mac. theres a reason why most musicians use macs

[Dappner]

8 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

Well, you can't really get a powerful CPU without a dGPU these days. Unless the OP is willing to wait a month and get a proper 4700U-based laptop, he only has gaming models to choose from

Yea Fair enough. My first instinct would have been a mac pro but that's not in the budget.

[5x5]

1 hour ago, Dappner said:

Yea Fair enough. My first instinct would have been a mac pro but that's not in the budget.

a MBP, while good, is very expensive and I'm very hesitant to recommend older ones simply because of the poor reliability of models (See Louis Rossmann for further information)

[seriouschiz]

I looked at Macbooks at first, but I'd like something more modern, and modern macbooks aren't in his price range. 

[RostHaus]

I always preferred using older HP elitebooks. as graphics are pretty unimportant. 

 

I think my last bigger HP that I traveled with was a 8470p, that I put the i7 3840QM in it, 32gigs of ram, and a couple ssds. Ran my entire Native Instrument without a hitch.

 

My current music production laptop is overkill, a new Lenovo Y740. thats maxed out.

My actual studio tower is nearly a decade old. with minor upgrades over the years, SSDs really gave it a whole new lease on life.

 

My personal opinion is to either go for a slightly older i7 business class laptop and max out the ram.

or buy a SFF prebuilt. swap in an i7 if needed, get an ssd, max out the ram. It'll have space for a proper sound card, depending on how far he wants to take it.

[RockyP2000]

This is seriouschiz's dad.  Wondering what ports I should be looking for?  Do I need a thunderbolt 3 port?