Laptop Recommendations

[RubyKaster]

Hi, I'm looking into getting myself a laptop to record/mix/master music on the go. For reference, I'm a serious musician so I don't want something I can just install free software on and have it be "just about workable", I want something that can potentially run full song projects with potentially a couple dozen tracks, each with insert and send effects. I'd also like it to be able to do some very light gaming, like Slay the Spire, Hades, Isaac, that kind of thing.

 

I had found a HP Envy 14 that looked ok but I'm worried by the 4 core 11th gen i7 and the lack of dedicated GPU. The integrated graphics aren't a deal breaker as long as it can run those games at 60-100fps reliably and I saw that this cpu was listed as "one of the good ones" in the LTT video on how to buy a laptop a few years back but the landscape has changed so much with 12th gen I find myself a bit lost.

 

Here's the HP I found in case anyone wants to give it a look over: https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/product.aspx?id=3T167EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB#technical-details

 

Any help is appreciated. I'd like to keep my budget at or below £1000, £1200 at a push but if I *need* to save up for a Zephrys G14 class system at £1799 then I can wait a while, even though I'd rather not.

Edit for more specs and nice to haves:
Ideally something with 12th gen intel for Thunderbolt so I can connect an IO dock for USB audio interfaces/midi pianos/speakers/etc. I imagine I'll need at least a high end i5 if not i7 but I honestly have no idea because I dont know 12th gen that well.

I dont want to rely on an eGPU for gaming because I have a very capable desktop at home, so I want the laptop to be able to do what I need it to as-is.

Mechanical keyboard would be ideal

I *really* don't care about Windows Hello facial recognition or any of that stuff, Im happy settling for good ol' password security.

No bigger than 14"x11" (36cm x 28cm) so it can fit in the pouch on my instrument bag. I'm already carrying 2 bags around so I dont want to have to carry a 3rd with me.

[Guest]

This doesn't have thunderbolt but I think it'll work for what you need .https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Swift-SFX14-41G-inch-Laptop/dp/B09JZFZJCJ

 

This does have thunderbolt but is a little more.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Swift-SFX16-51G-inch-Laptop/dp/B09JZH33D7

[RubyKaster]

12 minutes ago, Cool_Evlo said:

This doesn't have thunderbolt but I think it'll work for what you need .https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Swift-SFX14-41G-inch-Laptop/dp/B09JZFZJCJ

 

This does have thunderbolt but is a little more.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Swift-SFX16-51G-inch-Laptop/dp/B09JZH33D7

So do you think the integrated graphics on the HP I linked would be a problem? I've heard acer laptops don't have the greatest rep in the world and if I can find room in the budget I'd rather get a 12th gen CPU over a 30 series GPU if I can get away with it.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, RubyKaster said:

So do you think the integrated graphics on the HP I linked would be a problem? I've heard acer laptops don't have the greatest rep in the world and if I can find room in the budget I'd rather get a 12th gen CPU over a 30 series GPU if I can get away with it.

I don't know about music production and if you need a good graphics card or not. I do know that those laptops can run pretty much anything (spec wise) and that the AMD one has a really good CPU.

[podkall]

 

[podkall]

24 minutes ago, RubyKaster said:

So do you think the integrated graphics on the HP I linked would be a problem? I've heard acer laptops don't have the greatest rep in the world and if I can find room in the budget I'd rather get a 12th gen CPU over a 30 series GPU if I can get away with it.

Let me try to help you here...

 

So you want a laptop that's compact but has powerful CPU and RAM and whatever for music production but also can run simple games?

 

Lot of the games you listed I believe don't need a strong PC unless I'm in the wrong here.

[RubyKaster]

3 minutes ago, podkall said:

Let me try to help you here...

 

So you want a laptop that's compact but has powerful CPU and RAM and whatever for music production but also can run simple games?

 

Lot of the games you listed I believe don't need a strong PC unless I'm in the wrong here.

that's pretty much it. Im not going to be doing any major gaming at all on the laptop because I have a Ryzen 7 5800X and a 3070 in my home desktop, this laptop is 90% for taking music projects with me so I can record with other people and work on stuff away from home in a studio one of my friends has built. I want it to be able to run some light games just in case I take it with me on holiday in the future but the kinds of games I'd be playing in those instances won't require many resources at all, like the most demanding games Id run are Rocket League or Hades or something like that, nothing AAA. My main concern was whether I would need a discrete GPU at all to run those games at good frame rates (60-100fps) or if I could reroute all of that budget into a higher end 12th gen cpu.

 

While delving into the Acer route though I did come across a couple interesting laptops if you could answer some questions on those too.

I found an Acer Nitro with an i5 12500H https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-58-black

an Acer Nitro with an i7 12700H https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-58-black-nh-qfmek-001

an Acer Inspire with an i7 1240p https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-aspire-7-laptop-a715-51g-black

and an Acer Inspire with a 1260P https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-aspire-7-laptop-a715-51g-black-nh-qhwek-001

 

Im not very familiar with the Acer lineups so I dont really know if any of these are any good, and I dont know if the 1240/1260 would be significantly worse than the 12500/12700H.
All 4 of these are fairly tempting because they run 12th Gen and have discrete graphics, even if it's only a 3050, but I honestly dont know what the practical difference between the £999 and £1399 system would end up being like so some help would be appreciated there.

If you think Im barking up the wrong tree in the first place then please feel free to steer me somewhere else, any help is appreciated.

[podkall]

10 minutes ago, RubyKaster said:

that's pretty much it. Im not going to be doing any major gaming at all on the laptop because I have a Ryzen 7 5800X and a 3070 in my home desktop, this laptop is 90% for taking music projects with me so I can record with other people and work on stuff away from home in a studio one of my friends has built. I want it to be able to run some light games just in case I take it with me on holiday in the future but the kinds of games I'd be playing in those instances won't require many resources at all, like the most demanding games Id run are Rocket League or Hades or something like that, nothing AAA. My main concern was whether I would need a discrete GPU at all to run those games at good frame rates (60-100fps) or if I could reroute all of that budget into a higher end 12th gen cpu.

 

While delving into the Acer route though I did come across a couple interesting laptops if you could answer some questions on those too.

I found an Acer Nitro with an i5 12500H https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-58-black

an Acer Nitro with an i7 12700H https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-58-black-nh-qfmek-001

an Acer Inspire with an i7 1240p https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-aspire-7-laptop-a715-51g-black

and an Acer Inspire with a 1260P https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-aspire-7-laptop-a715-51g-black-nh-qhwek-001

 

Im not very familiar with the Acer lineups so I dont really know if any of these are any good, and I dont know if the 1240/1260 would be significantly worse than the 12500/12700H.
All 4 of these are fairly tempting because they run 12th Gen and have discrete graphics, even if it's only a 3050, but I honestly dont know what the practical difference between the £999 and £1399 system would end up being like so some help would be appreciated there.

If you think Im barking up the wrong tree in the first place then please feel free to steer me somewhere else, any help is appreciated.

So, I'm gonna start with the least important things to move them out the way.

 

Seems like integrated graphics if you have the right ones can run slightly demanding games,

so the answer your integrated graphics question, Intel Iris Xe can run games,

 

in fact, here is a video of someone running lot of games on Laptop with Intel i5-12500H: (Rocket League starts at 34:16)

 

I'm not an expert but I would think that there is definitely a laptop within your budget for your need.

 

As for the laptops you mentioned, the first 2 laptops have apparentaly way stronger CPU while the 2nd laptop is way stronger than the first laptop,

so the Nitros are better than the Inspires.

 

Only for the CPU let me see the other specs,

GPUs are an overkill for your requirement allthough you probably wouldn't mind playing AAA games on your laptop,

the thing you might mind is the 512GB storage being devoured by the AAA game,

 

for RAM seems like it has the required 16GB, I don't know if you ever go over 16GB of RAM in your music work,

that be something you might know.

 

So basicaly the Nitros are pretty nice, however there could be a room to cut since you don't need a 30 series RTX GPU.

 

Also, do you have a specific brand you favour?

[RubyKaster]

34 minutes ago, podkall said:

So, I'm gonna start with the least important things to move them out the way.

 

Seems like integrated graphics if you have the right ones can run slightly demanding games,

so the answer your integrated graphics question, Intel Iris Xe can run games,

 

in fact, here is a video of someone running lot of games on Laptop with Intel i5-12500H: (Rocket League starts at 34:16)

 

I'm not an expert but I would think that there is definitely a laptop within your budget for your need.

 

As for the laptops you mentioned, the first 2 laptops have apparentaly way stronger CPU while the 2nd laptop is way stronger than the first laptop,

so the Nitros are better than the Inspires.

 

Only for the CPU let me see the other specs,

GPUs are an overkill for your requirement allthough you probably wouldn't mind playing AAA games on your laptop,

the thing you might mind is the 512GB storage being devoured by the AAA game,

 

for RAM seems like it has the required 16GB, I don't know if you ever go over 16GB of RAM in your music work,

that be something you might know.

 

So basicaly the Nitros are pretty nice, however there could be a room to cut since you don't need a 30 series RTX GPU.

 

Also, do you have a specific brand you favour?

There's no particular brand I favour other than knowing Acer Predator, Dell/Alienware, HP and Asus ROG are the biggest players along side Apple

 

Im fine with 512GB of storage for now as long as there's a second easy to access M.2 slot to put a 1-2TB drive in in a few months, and 16GB of RAM should be enough and again, as long as it's upgradable I'll upgrade next year if needed.

 

The 3060 probably is overkill considering I don't play any AAA games even on my main PC but from what I can tell, if I want a better CPU then I have to get a better GPU because nobody makes a laptop with an i7 12700H with a 3050 as far as I can tell.

 

Im currently leaning heavily towards the 12500H/2050Ti Acer Nitro https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-58-black because it's at a decent price point even if it is pushing it a bit and from what I can tell the 12500H is *about* equivalent to a beefed up Ryzen 5 5600 which afaik is a pretty good chip. I would just jump on the 12700H but that £1400 price tag is getting dangerously close to "just save for a zephrus tier laptop" territory for me.

 

I *would* like something that didn't look so... gamer-y... but I don't really have the budget to be super picky I guess.

 

Looking at those Xe graphics is actually kind of impressive so I might be tempted by something without a discrete GPU at all if I could find something with a 12500H or higher with no GPU, but obviously wouldn't say no to a discrete GPU even if it's a low tier one.

 

If you have any recommendations off the top of your head for a 12500H or better System with a lesser GPU that would blend in in a crowd of macbooks let me know because I'd be super interested. Otherwise I'll probably jump on one of those Nitros.

[hishnash]

If you had not mentioned gaming I would suggest the M2 MBA with as much ram as you can afford (and 512 GB SSD) for music production this will destroy anything else in the same price range.  

[RubyKaster]

1 hour ago, hishnash said:

If you had not mentioned gaming I would suggest the M2 MBA with as much ram as you can afford (and 512 GB SSD) for music production this will destroy anything else in the same price range.  

honestly, how bad are macbooks for super light gaming? like as long as it *can* play those games I'd entertain getting a second hand macbook or something. I'd prefer a windows machine but we're actually entering a world where Macbooks are the affordable option which is terrifying.

[Imbadatnames]

For music I’d just get a MacBook and logic tbh. 

[hishnash]

1 hour ago, RubyKaster said:

honestly, how bad are macbooks for super light gaming?

The perfomance is not an issue, for light gaming (something that you would do on an intel iGPU) the M1 7 Core GPU will work really well (as long as you get 16GB of ram). The main issue is the catalog of games, as long as you are ok playing something else there are still plenty games to play on Mac so as long as you are flexible in what you play you should not have to many issues. 

 

1 hour ago, Imbadatnames said:

For music I’d just get a MacBook and logic tbh. 

Yer Logic is good given it is a single purchase not a subscription like many other products in the space, if your a student (have a educational email in most countries) you can also get the `Pro Apps Bundle for Education` this includes logic but also apple other pro apps. 

From a music prod perspective macOS has a very strong eco-system not just in the main editors but also all the little auxiliary things like plugins digital instruments and recording equipment.  One thing you should expect on macOS is tools and apps you use will typically cost money, there is not the free-ware ecosystem you have in windows, individual developers who make apps for apple platforms tend to charge for them and unlike making apps for windows can make a good living from doing so even just as a single Indi dev. 

[RubyKaster]

2 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

For music I’d just get a MacBook and logic tbh. 

Logic's good but I already own a license for CuBase and a couple VSTs which is what I use on my Windows machine which is why I want to stay with Windows. CuBase does work with mac but the compatibility for other stuff like games is still a concern. If macbooks really are the best option I can go for one but I'd rather go for a windows machine with a 12500H or better.

[rikitikitavi]

Looks like your only concern with macOS is gaming compatibility, so here's a youtuber who goes over native games on Apple Silicon:

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrMacRight/featured

 

Unless it is some latest AAA, you are probably fine. You can filter your Steam library by platform to check.

 

Also there are ways to play Windows-only games (with CrossOver or Parallels), however performance can differ drastically. 

[podkall]

7 hours ago, RubyKaster said:

Logic's good but I already own a license for CuBase and a couple VSTs which is what I use on my Windows machine which is why I want to stay with Windows. CuBase does work with mac but the compatibility for other stuff like games is still a concern. If macbooks really are the best option I can go for one but I'd rather go for a windows machine with a 12500H or better.

 

One question I'd ask is why do you want a 12500H or better CPU?

I don't know about how demanding music production is, but do you really need the newest of the newest CPUs that launched this year?

 

Anyways I'm not sure if I'm very good at shopping laptops,

but I found:

The Acer Nitro

And Dell Inspiration 14 Plus: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/inspiron-14/spd/inspiron-14-7420-laptop/cn74306sc

 

Which has 3 variants (which changes price), with i5, i7 or i7 and RTX graphics card, it also seems small enough to fit in your bag.

 

Again, I don't know what is enough and what is overkill for music production,

one thing one could say is that if I can buy the fastest option in my budget than it's okay,

 

I'm not the one to tell if this is a good thing to get, or if it is better to buy something that is slightly slower but has really good cooling solution,

 

you feel me?

 

On the bright side you can ask here, if you found a laptop you like, you can ask if it's a good laptop.

[RubyKaster]

6 hours ago, podkall said:

 

One question I'd ask is why do you want a 12500H or better CPU?

I don't know about how demanding music production is, but do you really need the newest of the newest CPUs that launched this year?

 

Anyways I'm not sure if I'm very good at shopping laptops,

but I found:

The Acer Nitro

And Dell Inspiration 14 Plus: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptop-computers-2-in-1-pcs/inspiron-14/spd/inspiron-14-7420-laptop/cn74306sc

 

Which has 3 variants (which changes price), with i5, i7 or i7 and RTX graphics card, it also seems small enough to fit in your bag.

 

Again, I don't know what is enough and what is overkill for music production,

one thing one could say is that if I can buy the fastest option in my budget than it's okay,

 

I'm not the one to tell if this is a good thing to get, or if it is better to buy something that is slightly slower but has really good cooling solution,

 

you feel me?

 

On the bright side you can ask here, if you found a laptop you like, you can ask if it's a good laptop.

I mostly want to make sure I future proof the laptop so I can keep using it 5-6 years from now with no issues and I think 12th gen processors will have a better longevity than 11th gen, but music work can get a bit strenuous on CPU and RAM mainly when you use a bunch of effects and automation which is pretty common.

 

I did have a thought last night, how good are the Black Friday deals usually? Like if I could get the £1799 XPS 15 with a 3050 and i7 12700H for even like £300-400 off somehow then I'd be more than willing to wait for 2 months to make sure I get something that I absolutely know will do everything I want for a long time. I know they also do a version with the i5 12500H and Iris Xe graphics for £1549 so if that would come down by £200-300 then I will definitely wait.

[rikitikitavi]

4 hours ago, RubyKaster said:

I mostly want to make sure I future proof the laptop so I can keep using it 5-6 years from now with no issues and I think 12th gen processors will have a better longevity than 11th gen

12th vs 11th doesn't really mean 'future proof' in your case. You might find a much better deal on 11th, and either save or beef it up more (better GPU will give you more fps than better CPU, since you care about gaming). What is your expectation of battery life or do you always keep it plugged in?!

 

Projecting 5-6y of usage means very little. Either you know that your software requirements don't change much or you go for as much headroom as possible or sensible. Of course check the model lineup (chassis etc) reviews for durability.