Tip for laptop as DAW: check your hard-drive !

[Moon]

Good news: my 2 year old laptop was kind of a problem as a DAW. My first idea was to have a look for a new laptop, but.... €€€€€. Also, it looks like these days consumer laptops only come with Vista and that you can't find the XP drivers anymore. So... what do you do ?

OK, let's open the damned thing: chances are that you'll find a 5400 rpm HD in a laptop. I ordered a 7200 rpm model instead, had to wait 4 weeks to get it, but finaly got it and installed it in my laptop.

Result: boottime when from 1min15 to 45 seconds. This is not only due the new HD, but also due to the fresh install (actually a recovery that I've made shortly after I bouht this laptop 2 years ago). Note that the HD is running +/- 33% faster than the original.

A faster HD in your laptop is realy paying of !

Als notice that recent and even expensive laptops barely manage to start up in 45 seconds. So yes, I didn't needed that new Vista laptop and the current one will at least last for another 2 year. I hope by that time  Bill can solve the issues with Vista... 

Moon

[Oren]

When I went shopping for a laptop for my wife last year, we ended up with a Hewlett-Packard.
Dual-core AMD processor, 2gigabytes of RAM, Vista Premium, and the 5400rpm hard-drive. When I asked my computer technician about going with a 7200rpm drive, he suggested that it would generate too much heat (and a bit more noise).
He also suggested a switch to Ubuntu Linux when we got tired of Vista and wanted faster performance with the 5400rpm drive. Hewlett Packard has since offered a Linux O/S as an option in some of it's new computers.

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/321097-0-0-0-121.html   

[Moon]

Yes indeed: a 7200 rpm HD will produce some more watts of heat.. in theorie. I can't feel heat at the location where the HD sits, this in comparison where the cpu is located. So the effect of extra heat is minimal (in my case). Note that you do have an extra load on the batterie.

About the noise: you can hear the presence of the HD. It still is quiet though, the fan of the cpu is making more noise. Recent dual core laptops are mush quieter since the CPU need less power, so in newer laptops, the noise difference might be more noticeable. In case you're looking for an absolute quiet laptop, than an 7200 rpm HD is not the best option.

Moon

[Oren]

Yes,

If I had to do it again, I would go 7200.

It would seem that a separate SATA2 peripheral hard-drive would be a good addition....only turned on when  needed, keeping heat and noise to a minimum....fun, fun, fun 

[Laguna Rising]

Recent dual core laptops are mush quieter since the CPU need less power, so in newer laptops, the noise difference might be more noticeable. In case you're looking for an absolute quiet laptop, than an 7200 rpm HD is not the best option.

100 % agree on that.
I noticed that before.
Since my 'business' laptop is very quiet I use it with a bunch of freebies vsts when travelling
Cheers