Re: Quiet general purpose + music laptops?

On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:55:55 +0100, Jim Lesurf wrote:

I am looking to buy a new laptop and there are some specific preferences
and wishes I have for its properties. Alas, the info I find on the web
generally omits some of the key details of interest to me. So I am
hoping people here can advise and suggest a laptop or two that may suit.

The main preference/requirements are as follows...

So it would be nice if it were (mechanically)
quite quiet. Ideally silent, although I have the impression that may be
too restrictive. This is to minimise audible noises from the machine
(and its PSU) when in use.

These remarks are based round experience with a 15 month old Lenovo R61i.
It has 1.6 GHz Core Duo, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB disk, DVD RW, 3 x USB, 3.5mm
mic and headphone jacks, card slot, built-in bluetooth and wifi (both
unused), POTS connection for internal model, RJ45 for 100 Mb/s wired net
(my usual connection.

The PSU is totally silent. The disk is audible when spinning - it whirrs
slightly and I can hear the heads moving. It less than half the noise of
the fans. The combination is only really audible in a quiet room and
scarcely noticeable when the stereo system is on. I think disk noises are
amplified by the plastic case since I never hear the disk in my desktop.

I'd be happy for it to have SSD rather than conventional HD is that
helped reduce the noise, although I suspect the noise might be dominated
by the fans anyway. Advice/ideas on that would be welcome.

If you're really that bothered, consider a netbook because it won't have
fans at all and SSD is usually an option.

Since a main use will be for sound I'd like it to have SPDIF output
(ideally optical), and input would also be desirable.

I suspect you'll need an external sound card for that.

And to have a CD/DVD writer.

It would have to be a really cheap and nasty laptop these days to not
have that.

If the internal sound system isn't ideal I will probably
attach an external USB DAC, but I'd obviously find it more convenient
(and cheaper) if I didn't need that.

I'm using a cheap & cheerful ION U-Record, originally bought because it
was cheap enough to ditch if it didn't work with Linux/Audacity. It
handles 44.1 Khz sampling with no trouble and works well with Audacity -
however it does have a Burr-Brown ADC in it despite its price. It has no
audio output. I don't need that. Reasonable "USB sound cards" with audio
output start at around double the price unless you can put up with one of
the Terratec Audions, which all seem to use 3.5mm stereo jacks.

I've not looked at any other sample rates than 44.1, but then I'm only
interested in transcribing my vinyl collection.

No particular need for a lot of internal space on the HD/SSD as I can
use external. So I guess the order of 50GB would be fine.

160 Gb seems pretty standard these days.

Perhaps 1GB or 2GB of RAM.

Again, 1 GB seems pretty standard for laptops and netbooks.

The CPU, HD/SSD etc should be fast enough for general stereo
audio uses or the BBC iPlayer.

My 1.6 GHz core Duo is plenty fast enough for anything I need it to do.
It runs iPlayer, vlc and HD video without a glitch.

It would be convenient if it was 'x86' type to make things like
installing software simpler. Also my current plan is to start with
Xubuntu/Ubuntu plus ROX for general use, although I may change that
after experiment. So the hardware should be OK with choices like these.

I run Fedora 10 (the i386 version) with no issues at all.

If there are any specific shops/retailers you would recommend for the
above I'd be interested to know about them.

Mine came from Dabs. I'd deal with them again any time. Prices, range
available and delivery are all good.

FWIW I have recently got a 'Shuttle' small form factor machine/system
working nicely for similar purposes. That is totally (mechanically)
silent, but I am using it dedicated for audio playing. So I'd like the
laptop for more general purposes as well as for further audio
experiments.

I got a Roku Soundbridge M1000 recently and like it a lot. Its
mechanically and electrically silent and offers RCA connectors for
analogue plus coax and SPDIF digital outputs. Its freestanding: once set
up it runs without needing a computer connection unless you're streaming
to it. It has both wired and wifi connections and a telnet interface so
its trivial to configure from a Linux box. It can stream off a Linux
system running an mt-daapd (Firefly) or a Squeezebox streaming server.
Last but not least it handles internet radio, which was primarily why I
bought it.

HTH


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |
.

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