reliable theatre laptops
- Thread starternatebish
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Surprisingly I to am looking for the same thing, and haven't found anything good yet.
DuckJordan
Touring IATSE Member
NickVon
Well-Known Member
for reliablity and laptops that "just work" i recommend IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads. I use a T400 for our laptop.
OS: WinXP Pro 32bit
It runs MS Office (powerpoint/word/excel, NOT outlook), Google Chrome
Multiplay, VLC player, Yamaha Studio Manager/LS9 Editor, Windows Media Player, Cyberlink DVD,
We also use Screen Monkey; however, with large video files in a large screenmonkey sessions the laptop does get a little clunky.
If you are looking for a PC for theatre i would up your budget by about 200$ or so, the cheapest laptop you want to look at i think is around 850, from a quality company. I would stay away from the "consumer" brands as there is so much junk that they throw on their system that just clutter it up. IBM/Lenovo is nice about not doing that.
My personal computer is a Lenovo Ideapad Y510 for a more budget oriented decision. Still running great. Typing this on it right now in fact. (though had i the money at the time I would have gone for more business side Thinkpad instead. Haven't looked recently but i think Lenovo is one of the few companies still offering older window's OS's That said I reccommend if you look at a IBM/Lenovo solution look at Win7 64bit
my 2cents
PS the Wifi antennas and networks adapters/drivers on IBM are great.
OS: WinXP Pro 32bit
It runs MS Office (powerpoint/word/excel, NOT outlook), Google Chrome
Multiplay, VLC player, Yamaha Studio Manager/LS9 Editor, Windows Media Player, Cyberlink DVD,
We also use Screen Monkey; however, with large video files in a large screenmonkey sessions the laptop does get a little clunky.
If you are looking for a PC for theatre i would up your budget by about 200$ or so, the cheapest laptop you want to look at i think is around 850, from a quality company. I would stay away from the "consumer" brands as there is so much junk that they throw on their system that just clutter it up. IBM/Lenovo is nice about not doing that.
My personal computer is a Lenovo Ideapad Y510 for a more budget oriented decision. Still running great. Typing this on it right now in fact. (though had i the money at the time I would have gone for more business side Thinkpad instead. Haven't looked recently but i think Lenovo is one of the few companies still offering older window's OS's That said I reccommend if you look at a IBM/Lenovo solution look at Win7 64bit
my 2cents
PS the Wifi antennas and networks adapters/drivers on IBM are great.
Last edited:
gcpsoundlight
Active Member
for reliablity and laptops that "just work" i recommend IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads. I use a T400 for our laptop.
OS: WinXP Pro 32bit
It runs MS Office (powerpoint/word/excel, NOT outlook), Google Chrome
Multiplay, VLC player, Yamaha Studio Manager/LS9 Editor, Windows Media Player, Cyberlink DVD,
We also use Screen Monkey; however, with large video files in a large screenmonkey sessions the laptop does get a little clunky.
If you are looking for a PC for theatre i would up your budget by about 200$ or so, the cheapest laptop you want to look at i think is around 850, from a quality company. I would stay away from the "consumer" brands as there is so much junk that they throw on their system that just clutter it up. IBM/Lenovo is nice about not doing that.
My personal computer is a Lenovo Ideapad Y510 for a more budget oriented decision. Still running great. Typing this on it right now in fact. (though had i the money at the time I would have gone for more business side Thinkpad instead. Haven't looked recently but i think Lenovo is one of the few companies still offering older window's OS's That said I reccommend if you look at a IBM/Lenovo solution look at Win7 64bit
my 2cents
PS the Wifi antennas and networks adapters/drivers on IBM are great.
I Agree, the IBM's are great, it is little things like a keyboard light so you can see all the keys at night or in the dark.
On-board recording inputs of most laptops are pretty awful. I have measured the signal to noise ratio on some at 55 dB (80 dB would be OK). In other words, HISSSS. Consider using a USB sound interface, or better yet, buy a laptop with a fire wire jack. Fire wire is great if you want to do multi-track recording.
All I can say for Toshiba is that it can handle a lot of painful falls and many programs. I've had a Toshiba Satellite for a year and a half, and apart from the many useless programs to make my comptuer look cool (rocketdock, a waste of memory), I have the whole CS5 master collection (a lot of space, i dont even use it all), Sony Vegas, and Audacity.
Point is: it can handle many, many, many, many programs running at the same time.
AND. i've dropped it a few..many times. I take it to school almost every day and I havn't had a problem with it.
*I'm not suggesting this one, I know little about the efficiency of other laptops. But my suggestion from personal experience is get an external hard drive if you know that you're going to download things like crazy.
Good luck on the search!
Point is: it can handle many, many, many, many programs running at the same time.
AND. i've dropped it a few..many times. I take it to school almost every day and I havn't had a problem with it.
*I'm not suggesting this one, I know little about the efficiency of other laptops. But my suggestion from personal experience is get an external hard drive if you know that you're going to download things like crazy.
Good luck on the search!
I'd second IBM/Lenovo. However, I recently bought a Panasonic Toughbook and, while heavier and beefier, rock solid and still with excelent components. Mine has a touch screen which is handy.
I just finished TD/SMing a show using both my IBM and my Panasonic. The Panasonic ran Multiplay while my IBM was my SM console for cueing, timing, and cuelists. A formidable pair they make.
I just finished TD/SMing a show using both my IBM and my Panasonic. The Panasonic ran Multiplay while my IBM was my SM console for cueing, timing, and cuelists. A formidable pair they make.
See my experience with IBM has seen a lot of clutter preinstalled and not easily ridden...
The keyboard light I admit to be a nice touch, are they putting the windows key on the keyboard these days? That was what drove me insane using an IBM owned by someone else, I'd go to do say a windows + pause break to get system properties up and I couldn't, nor could I drop out of a full screen program to open something else or all the other little tricks the key allows...
I had to laugh at the title, reliable and laptop together, good luck...
All of the big players produce lemons from time to time, I've had issues with all brands of computer...
The keyboard light I admit to be a nice touch, are they putting the windows key on the keyboard these days? That was what drove me insane using an IBM owned by someone else, I'd go to do say a windows + pause break to get system properties up and I couldn't, nor could I drop out of a full screen program to open something else or all the other little tricks the key allows...
I had to laugh at the title, reliable and laptop together, good luck...
All of the big players produce lemons from time to time, I've had issues with all brands of computer...
Tex
Active Member
Whatever laptop you buy, my advice would be to take it home, format c: and do a clean install of an OS. Not the recovery disk that comes with the laptop, but just the OS. The drivers are usually in a folder on the recovery disk or easily downloaded. If you're using Windows, you might even consider using nLight to strip out all the bloat leaving just what you need.
When you get rid of all the useless junk, Windows isn't that bad.
When you get rid of all the useless junk, Windows isn't that bad.
I'm not disputing that IBM has issues, I agree. I constantly curse the absence of the win key and other issues. But when you look at how long my IBM has lasted and how many gigs it lived through, I can call it reliable. I've had it for 6 years now, through countless shows and gigs, heck, even falling asleep on it doesnt phase it. I expect that it will work for another couple years before I retire it as part of a render farm.
For the kind of low-end budget you're talking about (my favorite kind) I'd like to recommend a Dell Inspiron. Someone earlier mentioned that it's the little things, and it's true that I have always, always, always wanted a laptop with a dang keyboard light (why does nobody but IBM do this?). The Dell Inspiron laptop I had a few years ago (a "multimedia" model built for sound and video) lasted through years of DJ gigs, theater shows, and general all-around abuse like a champ, and the fact that it had external multimedia buttons along the front edge just under the mousepad was so useful to me I just had to mention it. On the negative side, Dell's are notorious for having weakly-reinforced power jacks (beware the tripping-over-the-power-cord-syndrome) and I would also bypass the crappy inboard audio (even the upgrades) and get something external, preferably firewire, but I was still surprised how well it performed and for how long.
I've always been a PC guy, but my next laptop will almost definitely be a mac. I really like the mac software platforms and I want to see how reliably a mac will perform for me, considering how I am in no way a standard user and generally put my equipment through lots of stresses just by the nature of my work.
Eventually I'll add a Linux laptop to the mix and then I should be able to die a happy man...
Peace,
-B
I've always been a PC guy, but my next laptop will almost definitely be a mac. I really like the mac software platforms and I want to see how reliably a mac will perform for me, considering how I am in no way a standard user and generally put my equipment through lots of stresses just by the nature of my work.
Eventually I'll add a Linux laptop to the mix and then I should be able to die a happy man...
Peace,
-B
