Laptop setup for live playing

Hi everybody, as my laptop is getting old I’m beginning to look at new machine for live playing. I would like to have 3 screen output (preferably with some external device). Can anybody recommend some good computer and is triplehead2go still the best option for multiple screens? Thank you.

Hello,

Search around Alienware product.Really good product.
I would depnds also on your requirement :
Generative ? Video mixing ?

Depends on your budget anyway.
And with laptops, TH2Go is the best and costless solution.

DS

MSI GT660 with nVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M 3D 1GB DDR3 VRAM
sounds quite promising

i myself have now since 15 months an GT 627 nVIDIA Geforce 9800M GS 1 Gigabyte DDR3 VRAM and am quite confident.
the only thing:
*it only has 3 USBports
*the VGAconnector doesn’t have nuts to fix the male connector. on the other hand this helps preventing broken mainboards…

and of course a TH2go, yes

from my personal experience: avoid any ASUS mainboards.

True ! Kalle has a good laptop, isn’t it ?

i have a desktop alienware, and it’s really good. When i’ll buy a new laptop it’ll probably be an alienware, but these machines are really expensive, so it also depends on budget

Thanks everybody, will check these machines out. My budget is up to 2000€ included TH2Go (guess best would be the digital edition. right?). I’d like to use it for both generative and videomixing too.

Hello,

It can fit into your budget.

You can find TH2Go around 300 - 350 €
Then a nice Alienware is around 1500 €.

DS

Yes! What would be the best configuration for that price?
I’m looking at
Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M
6GB Memory (1x 2GB, 1x 4GB DDR3)
320GB SATAII 7,200RPM
And then I couldn’t find any distributors in Spain, so i guess I’ll have to go UK or something.
Thanks again, you’re really helpfull.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/es/es/domestica/gaming_great_deals/fs.aspx?refid=gaming_great_deals&s=dhs&cs=esdhs1&ST=alienware&dgc=ST&cid=41193&lid=1069630&acd=130098046220560

As io post, this the right website.

Then you can choose. You specs would be around 1650 €.
But with only 4Gb RAM. Which is quite enought.

just a word about the HDD, buy a very big, but cheap disk in your laptop, then upgrade to an SSD disk and use the old one in an external case as data storage.

today there is no part on a laptop that makes that much difference in overall usability feeling than a SSD. i updated my old dell 9400 with one and it was like a new machine. i know they are expansive, but it is absolutly worth the money!

i can recommend the Intel 160GB X25-M G2 for about 350 euro. my brother just bought a samsung MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB 256GB for 390 euro on ebay and is also very happy with it…

and for the laptop, i would go first for the screen as its the most important interface between you and the laptop. so go for high resolutions. i got the sony vaio F11 which has a very good 1920x1080 16,4" screen, 3kg weight, nvidia 330GT 1GB, 6GB Ram and i7 QM720 for about 1200 euro. only drawback is the fan noise… but sony just released the F12, its worth to compare, as the alienware laptops have such an overdone design…

uh noisy laptop very bad, send to me for proper disposal…

Thanks for recommendations tonfilm, Sony Vaio seems to be interesting option. For video output into TH2go you use usual VGA connector? Should I get digital edition of TH2go?
thanks

i didn’t try to connect a th2go. but you can use the digital version with a HDMI to DVI adapter. as for the general decision between analog or digital edition you should care more for the output. but as you can use DVI to VGA adapters on the digital edition, it seems to be the more general version of the both.

i have no laptop at all)

Thanks, btw I’ll be using Svvvvitcher definitely!

yes tebjan, ssd rocks. another option … i still like macbook pros as windows machines because they are fast and solid metal. there are custom frames on the market to exchange the dvd drive with a second (original) HD. giving you the speed of an ssd plus storage in one laptop. even raid is possible i heard.

I am looking for a new laptop as well and wanted to share my findings. (Already posted on shoutbox, but might get lost…)

http://www.mysn.de/detail.asp?bestellnr=adnz0001&userid=1hb9debe27hf0a8g22l7fgpu611102einw8fh2nqu6d5f9d6&KategorienOrder=010;020;010;060;010

On components:

  • 480M only if you are very rich (adds 600 €… and heat)
  • 740QM has best price/performance ratio itm
  • 8 GB Ram for sure
  • Seagate 750 GB for storage
  • Samsung 128 GB for performance
  • who needs wlan… ;)
  • About Blueray burner not sure (110 €)
  • TV card (129 €)… if it has a s-video in this would rule… on such a machine…

I end up around 1900 € without blueray burner and TV card. Could save another 290 if I leave out the SSD for now.

Cons:

  • weight 4,8 Kg incl. Power supply (uff!)
  • runs on bat only 1,5 hours when idle, about an hour when using it…

future:
Will be avaible in Q1 2011 with non-glare display and Nvidia Optimus (= much longer run on battery). I will wait for that.

If you are low on money and happy with last generation GFX i would take a look here: http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/dell+vostro+3700+rot+n37011r