Celerons still a poor choice?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

I started another thread a few days back asking for feedback & opinions
on what to look for in an XP laptop DAW. I got to thinking - I've
always heeded the advice to stay away from Celeron CPUs, but have
things changed in recent years? Have celerons closed whatever gap they
were behind (poor grammar, I know) or is there still a big difference
in number-crunching performance in DAW apps? There's still a noticeable
price difference in the laptops I'm looking at.

Anyone using a celeron with good results? Particularly a laptop?

THanks,

Mikey Wozniak
Nova Mobile Productions
this sig is haiku

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On 4/1/2005 4:48 PM, novamusic wrote:
> I started another thread a few days back asking for feedback & opinions
> on what to look for in an XP laptop DAW. I got to thinking - I've
> always heeded the advice to stay away from Celeron CPUs, but have
> things changed in recent years? Have celerons closed whatever gap they
> were behind (poor grammar, I know) or is there still a big difference
> in number-crunching performance in DAW apps? There's still a noticeable
> price difference in the laptops I'm looking at.
>
> Anyone using a celeron with good results? Particularly a laptop?
>
> THanks,
>
> Mikey Wozniak
> Nova Mobile Productions
> this sig is haiku
>

Wait for laptops that have SATA drives if you can.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"novamusic" wrote ...
> I need to buy a laptop in the next couple of weeks, so I
> can't wait. Will SATA drives be backward-compatible
> somehow, thru an adapter card or similar workaround?
> How long before they are out?

SATA drives have been out for quite a while already.
Unlikely that there will be any sort of adapter for laptop
machines as there is no extra space for such stuff in there.

The bottom line is that you need a drive that is fast enough
to keep up with the bit-depth x number of tracks you will
be recording. The standard 4200 IDE laptop drive may be
fast enough for 16-bit x 2 track. Maybe not for 24-bit x 8
tracks, etc.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

novamusic wrote:
> I started another thread a few days back asking for feedback &
opinions
> on what to look for in an XP laptop DAW. I got to thinking - I've
> always heeded the advice to stay away from Celeron CPUs, but have
> things changed in recent years? Have celerons closed whatever gap
they
> were behind (poor grammar, I know) or is there still a big difference
> in number-crunching performance in DAW apps? There's still a
noticeable
> price difference in the laptops I'm looking at.
>
> Anyone using a celeron with good results? Particularly a laptop?
>
> THanks,
>
> Mikey Wozniak
> Nova Mobile Productions
> this sig is haiku

There was a time when certain software app's would only work with
Pentiums. You still see a few of "minimum requirements" that specify
Pentiums. If you know what software you plan to use, check their
requirements.

My experience is that it is a hit & miss game. Most laptops do not have
the ability to change their IRQ settting which tell the processor which
peripheral or hardware is trying to talk to it. A general rule is to
try to get the best spec's you can get. I just read a review that said
Cubase SX 3 didn't run well on a 2.8 GHz processor. I've had occasional
problems with Cubase SX 1 on a 2.4 GHz. I believe that if you can go to
a computer company that is audio specific and has worked out the bugs,
you are better off. It is more expensive but if different softwares
don't work well then no amount of corner cutting is worth it. I special
ordered a Dell Inspiron 5100 with XP pro, Firewire port, the
aforementioned 2.4G processor about a year and a half ago thinking it
would rock without question and have still struggled with it. It is
currently at Dell having the M-board, processor, Hard drive and Ram all
replaced on it (I did purchase the extended warranty). Call tech
support for the software you are planning on using and ask them if you
can. I would personally lean toward the Pentiums.
peakester