Best Laptops for Music Production

Best Laptops for Music Production

Dell XPS 15 XPS9560-7001SLV-PUS

Dell XPS9560-7001SLV-PUS 15.6' Thin Bezel display, 7th Gen Core i7 (up to 3.8 GHz), 16GB, 512GB SSD, Nvidia Gaming GPU GTX 1050, Aluminum Chassis

Check current price

 

Dell XPS9560-5000SLV-PUS

Dell XPS9560-5000SLV-PUS 15.6' Ultra Thin and Light Laptop with 4K Touch Display, 7th Gen Core i5 ( up to 3.5 GHz), 8GB, 256GB SSD, Nvidia Gaming GTX 1050, Aluminum Chassis

Check current price

 

ASUS ZenBook Pro UX550VE-DB71T

ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 Thin & Light Ultrabook Laptop, 15.6” Full HD NanoEdge Touch, Intel Core i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050 Ti, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD, Backlit KB, Fingerprint, Windows 10 - UX550VE-DB71T, Black

Check current price

 

MacBook Pro 15

Apple MacBook Pro MGXA2LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (NEWEST VERSION)

Check current price

What is the best laptop for music production?

What do you have to look out for. 5 models that are really good suited for music production. So what makes me the expert? I worked in a computer store for 10 years, next to that I have a degree in software engineering so I know a little bit how computers work and how to program computers and program hardware next to that, I have a friend and that friend owns a computer store and he updated me on everything I needed to know for a laptop for music production in this year when portability is a convenience and not a necessity choose a desktop PC speed and money-wise you’re worst off with a laptop manufactures do compromises in speed in order to fit the components of a laptop in that small space when it comes to specs for computers for music production then I’ve divided them in four categories.

The first one is the budget category and with budget computers you can also make music then we have the mid-range category and that is about the i5 processors then we have the high-end category and that is the category that we’re talking about and then the last category. That is the most fastest category but that is also the category that is ridiculously overpriced. First of all the processor choose an i7 processor or an i9, i9 is of course better but more expensive and my recommendation is to choose an Intel processor the problem is with AMD that there are some compatibility issues with some MIDI controllers and also Thunderbolt is only an option for Intel processors second of all the memory 8 gigabytes is the bare minimum but in a lot of laptops you can’t add memory or change memory later on so choose 16 gigabytes to be a little bit future-proof make sure that you have a hard drive that is fast enough to read multiple tracks at the same time for your DAW the problem is that a lot of laptops come with spinning magnetic platter hard drives that have a spinning rate of 5400* rpm that is too slow for your DAW make sure that you have at least 7200 rpm or better even a SSD and SSD by the way is also good for the battery life of your computer make sure that you have enough hard disk space ,265 gigabytes is far too little you will probably run out of memory after installing your DAW and your sample packs 500 gigabytes is the bear bear bear bear minimum.

Even one terabyte is on the low side the problem is you will run out of space eventually it’s not a question. If but When you run out of space and yes they are expensive fourth of all the screen preferably 17-inch 15 inch is the bear bear bear minimum. Make sure that you have an external monitor connector for example via HDMI especially when you’re choosing for a 15 inch monitor so you can connect big ass screen to your laptop make sure that you have a backlit keyboard so he can read the letters of your keyboard if you don’t have enough light when you’re producing okay it sounds really stupid but for Apple it isn’t a simple USB connection on your laptop a lot of Apple computers only have a USB-C connection and you can only hook up a regular USB thumb drive or your key, your dongle for example that you need certain plugins and certain DAWS with a converter cable, really annoying because that is always the accessory you forget to grab when you bring your notebook somewhere then a thunderbolt connection on your laptop for an external sound card for example. The problem is a lot of laptops don’t have a thunderbolt connection it’s really convenient to have an external mouse like a logitech side-scrolling mouse or an Apple Magic Mouse side scrolling you do a lot in DAWs and yeah that touchpad is fine for just a little bit of internet but to use it a lot it’s not really RSI proof don’t forget to subscribe to the channel if you already haven’t and hit the bell button to get notifications. I have compiled a whitelist of laptops that are built to last so especially suited for music production first of all HP with their elite book series.

Next up is Asus, then Dell and of course Apple with their MacBook series if those brands offer extended warranty: buy it you will thank yourself later there is a reason why those notebooks are so expensive they use more quality components like hinges or motherboards when something is broken they can probably fix it after two or three years that is definitely not the case with laptops on my blacklist those things are built to be cheap and meant to be broken after a year and warmth for example, they can’t really cope with that and warmth you will definitely produce with your processor when you’re making music items on my blacklist our Acer msi lenovo and samsung gaming laptops are especially suited for music production right? well yes but not specifically they are designed to withstand heavy workload and that’s good for music production but they have really advanced graphics cards in them you don’t take advantage of that when it comes to music production.

Maybe for 3d modeling or gaming but not music production so you pay a little bit or a lot extra for that advanced graphics card you don’t really need.

The first model on my list is a Dell XPS 15 model it has six cores CPU speed of 22 gigahertz 16 gigabytes of memory 512 gigabytes SSD and a monitor of 15-inch worth mentioning is the aluminum body so the build quality is pretty good the second model on my list is also a Dell. The Dell XPS 15 again but another type with 6 CPU cores 29 gigahertz 32 gigabytes of memory one terabyte SSD over PCIe a 15 inch monitor and of course that same aluminum body. The third model on my list is an HP EliteBook to be precise the 1050g1. It’s an i7 processor of the eighth generation again with 6 CPU cores 2.

6 gigahertz 32 gigabytes of memory 1 terabyte SSD over PCIe and a 15 inch monitor. The fourth model on my list is an Asus Zenbook ux5500vd. That is an i7 processor of the seventh generation so that is slower than the 8th with 4 cores 28 gigahertz 16 gigabytes of RAM 512 gigabytes SSD and a 15 inch monitor. The last item on my list is an apple notebook the MacBook Pro 15 inch they didn’t really specify which type it was on their website. The processor is an i7 processor of the 7th generation so it’s the older generation so it’s somewhat slower, 4 cores, 29 gigahertz of speed 16 gigabytes of RAM 512 gigabytes SSD and a 15 inch monitor it has a USB-C only connection so you need an adapter cable for that. If you want to connect with regular USB devices and it has their famous aluminium body there are two big cons to that apple macbook first of all it has a really special keyboard apple designed a really unique way of making a keyboard to make it smaller the problem is that a lot of people can’t type with that keyboard second of all it has a really big touchpad that seems to be an advantage but you need to touch that touchpad in order to type on your keyboard that touchpad causes a lot of accidental touches.

bye