Help me pick a laptop or desktop under $500

[Thegrobe]

Hey folks, it's time to get a new laptop that will pretty much just be used with a focusrite solo + reaper... perhaps a little video editing to combine tracks with video.

I know I should be looking for low DPC latency other than that?

This is for at home casual use and creating, not a professional setting. I really just need a solid laptop with the right specs

I really don't know what a good choice would be in the Under $500 range but that's what I'm looking at.

Also open to a desktop if that's more bang for the buck.

Any recommendations/schooling would be great thanks

 

[bholder]

I ditched the laptop this last go-round and switched to one of these plus an external monitor:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CQ6S8SF8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Happy so far. Lots of different ones with different specs.

 

[Thegrobe]

I ditched the laptop this last go-round and switched to one of these plus an external monitor:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CQ6S8SF8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Happy so far. Lots of different ones with different specs.

That looks like a powerhouse in that price range. I don't need portability so I'm going to focus on a desktop setup then for sure. Thanks I will check more into your link.

 

[bholder]

That looks like a powerhouse in that price range. I don't need portability so I'm going to focus on a desktop setup then for sure. Thanks I will check more into your link.

They come in all sorts of specs combos. here's that seller's page, and there are of course a bunch of other sellers too. Lots of choices, what would have been fairly hard-core stuff just a few years back is cheap as dirt right now...

GMKtec

 

[And I]

Asus is a good brand with some decent low-cost options in several form factors.

 

[spantini]

Another option - I've been eying this one as a replacement for my Dell Inspiron desktop.

IdeaCentre Mini | Lenovo US

 

[brianrost]

If you don’t need portability and will be using it exclusively for music, go with a desktop, esp. if you already have a monitor you can use. Most Windows desktops don’t come with a monitor, many do include a keyboard and mouse. A decent monitor will cost you at least $200.

 

[FullumMusic]

I'm not too up on the PC side of things so i don't have any specific computer suggestions. But, if you're in a decision making process and it's between a computer with more cores & slower clock speed, or less cores & faster clock speed, how much video work you're gonna be doing could swing your decision either way.

If it's primarily audio with minimal video work, get the one with less cores but faster clock speed. Audio DSP processing should in general only run on one thread, so you want to be able to crunch that thread faster because the work can't be spread among different threads or cores.

If it's primarily video work, opt for more cores and bump up your GPU specs. Video processing is happier spreading the work around threads/cores. That's why GPUs have so many cores.

That said, I don't think it's really going to make a huge difference. Even with a less powerful CPU, i haven't heard of anyone running out of CPU horsepower unless they're running HUGE Reaper sessions with a bajillion plugins. So it's something to keep in mind when you're deciding, but not really a make-or-break factor if there are other things about the comparison you prefer.