# Disillusioned by windows laptops - do I really have to go MacBook Pro ?



## cpaf (Nov 14, 2018)

So, have now owned a Dell XPS 15 9560 as my studio pc for a little over a year (don't have money for both a desktop and laptop), specced with a 7. Generation i7 7700 and 16 ram and gtx 1050 4gb. 

But, had to have the motherboard changed twice. It just cannot show video in Ableton live (tried all fixes) reinstalled and it worked but then native acess, Live and Max 8 kept crashing had to reinstall again and now the video in Live doesn't work. Keep getting dropouts in sound (have a focusrite 18i8 gen2, nothing fancy but should be quite fine and stable), and more than one time a week it BSOD on me... 

I have the opportunity to buy a new laptop around 3000 dollars I think - looking at the MacBook Pro 2018 15" 2,2 ghz i7 8.generation, 512 GB SSD and 32 GB ram, AMD RP 555X.

I use kontakt and Maschine, live and preferably soon cubase or logic (like cubase the most at this point for midi). I like to do orchestral stuff mixed with beats, experimental rock so on. I'm a master's student in Audio Design.

I don't know if I will be working with video/photography too in the future - I have an architectural background and know Photoshop quite well and dabbled in Premiere Pro.

I'm eyeing the Surface Book 2, as it seems to be the only real competition to the MacBook Pro. I have NO faith in Dell at all, and really in any manufacturer not Microsoft - I'm thinking that the software/hardware integration is much more stable like with Apple MacBook.

What do you have, and what do you think - is audio on a Windows laptop something at all...?

I have lots of faith in Windows desktop just so you know! Is 32 GB ram really necessary in a laptop?


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## EvilDragon (Nov 14, 2018)

My old Toshiba is turning 8 years now and everything still works great on it. Yes it's an older i5, but has maxed out RAM (8 GB) and SSD inside (SATA-II unfortunately, so not full speed, but still it gave it new life)... I'd buy a Toshiba again but they started making crap lately...

If I had to choose a Windows laptop today, I'd go with Dell or Lenovo.


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## Dracarys (Nov 14, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> My old Toshiba is turning 8 years now and everything still works great on it. Yes it's an older i5, but has maxed out RAM (8 GB) and SSD inside (SATA-II unfortunately, so not full speed, but still it gave it new life)... I'd buy a Toshiba again but they started making crap lately...
> 
> If I had to choose a Windows laptop today, I'd go with Dell or Lenovo.



Good to hear your windows Laptop held out. If you have a moment please take a look at my post in this forum about my new laptop prospect and let me know what you think!


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## Dracarys (Nov 14, 2018)

cpaf said:


> So, have now owned a Dell XPS 15 9560 as my studio pc for a little over a year (don't have money for both a desktop and laptop), specced with a 7. Generation i7 7700 and 16 ram and gtx 1050 4gb.
> 
> But, had to have the motherboard changed twice. It just cannot show video in Ableton live (tried all fixes) reinstalled and it worked but then native acess, Live and Max 8 kept crashing had to reinstall again and now the video in Live doesn't work. Keep getting dropouts in sound (have a focusrite 18i8 gen2, nothing fancy but should be quite fine and stable), and more than one time a week it BSOD on me...
> 
> ...




If you have a 3k budget for a laptop I would look at the new Windows machines with the 6 cores that were introduced this year. MSI, Gigabyte, Lenovo, Dell, and Razer are all good companies. I might be picking up a MSI laptop son, the specs are crazy and it equates to a 7k macbook pro, but for only 2300 Canadian. Also you can't upgrade macs, everything is soldered in. You'll get a small SSD for OS, and then no internal SSD for sample streaming, or a tiny one. 32gb of ram makes a huge difference for orchestral music, especially if you layer alot. Just make sure you get god 2-3 year warranty.

However, if you have a mac desk top, get the macbook pro.


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## cpaf (Nov 14, 2018)

Thanks for your answers! Nice to hear about your Toshiba ED - I'm just, as the title says, rather disillusioned by windows, i simply have lost faith in the audio stability with the programs I use. But yeah maybe I have just been unlucky. Its just I know quite some people whose lenovos (good quality) have weird issues - and i'm just tired of issues. Really I kinda hate computers, they should just work. It's a tool - i'd hate a hammer which head kept falling off once a week eg.


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## oks2024 (Nov 14, 2018)

I have a Surface Book 1 and I really like it. I don't use it for music production, even if I have my DAW installed on it, so I can't really comment on the performances on this point. I use it for programming, photography with lightroom, and photoshop.

Performance wise it's really good, the battery is great, and the screen is amazing. I'm used to dual monitors, but with the 3000x2000 resolution there is a lot of space on this small screen. And the keyboard is one of the best I've tried on a laptop.

The CPU/ram/SSD is in the screen, not in the keyboard, so when the computer is on heavy load, the keyboard stay cold (and silent), and the heat come from the screen, it's a detail, but I really appreciate it.

At first I thought the detachable screen was mostly a gimmick, but I use it quite often. It's great to read a book, use photoshop or musescore with the pen.

If you have any specific question, let me know.


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## cpaf (Nov 18, 2018)

So, I ended up ordering a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme with 32gb ram, 1tb ssd and UHD touch screen, gtx 1050TI Max-q graphics, Windows 10 Pro and it includes 3-year on site service. Now I got an amazing student discount of 20% which whitout I most certainly would not have made this choice.

I really wanted to go MacBook Pro as I have used macOS before and really liked it most importantly because of its great stability and just very few problems if any at all. My Dell XPS 15 9560 has been nothing but problems on the other hand...

I am quite worried how lenovos built quality is, as I understand it you might get lucky you might get unlucky. BUT I get service in my apartment for 3 years if anythings wrong. 

Now If I were to buy a similarly specced Mac + Apple care + dongles (god the dongles...) I would have had to spend just about 1800-2000$ more!

If it's solid with Ableton Live, FMOD and Max 8 I'd consider this a steal. 

I have had two ThinkPads before and they were awesome (learned counterstrike with the trackpoint when I was young). So yeah dig the design, though obviously macbooks are more beautiful. I will just feel so much more comfortable with having a device with can take a spill of water in the keyboard and be good with it. Oh and a grain of sand (no pun MacBook)

I'll let you know how it works out.

I really do think Windows 10 has matured a lot. I kinda prefer it in some ways to macOS. Just, the stability with outboard gear like audio interfaces, I think they really should rethink this aspect of windows


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