Laptops Arena

In our past articles we have spoken a lot about gaming laptops, cheap laptops, colored laptops and other categories for your portable friends. We thought it would be interesting to approach a different subject so this article is about the best laptop computers for music production. Believe it or not, not just any laptop is good for people that work in the music industry. A laptop has to meet certain requirements because it has to run certain programs.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
There are certain steps that you have to follow when you are hunting down the best laptop computer for music production. Just like we always advise you, before you buy a laptop, think about what you need it for. Think of a list of programs and features that your laptop must have. Do you need Bluetooth? Should it have a card reader? Maybe you need a VGA port? Remember to thinks about how much RAM and disk space your laptop should have. This way, you won't regret the choice you have made. Remember that audio production programs will require a generous amount of RAM in order for them to run properly so don't be cheap when it comes to your business laptop's memory. If you already have an idea of what programs you need to run, check the internet to see what are the requirements of these programs and then you can search for them in your laptop finding quest. You could also calculate about how many tracks you must store on your laptop and then see the total amount of space they will occupy. It is recommended you choose a laptop with lots of free disk space because it's always easier to work with files that are already on your computer, rather than messing with external hard drives, flash memories of DVDs.


Speaking of DVDs, make sure your laptop has an optical drive, preferably a DVD burner. In the music production, there is no more working with demo tapes. Now you have put tracks on CDs or DVDs. Another very important component of a good laptop for music production is the sound card. Normally, these kind of laptops always have good speakers and sound systems attached to them because no matter how good your laptop is, the sound is much better when you use external high quality speakers. There are gaming laptop, like Toshiba Qosmio and Alienware that have some pretty nice sound quality. This is because they have 4 integrated speakers and a subwoofer. Always keep in mind what the requirement are and if you want to save some money, don't choose laptop with feature you are not going to use, because these add some dollars to the total price. If you do have some extra money which you are willing to spend on your laptop, add as much RAM and disk space as you can. You will thank us later.



Now, from what we have read and researched, there are 2 main laptop producers that have suitable models for the music production (please note that they are not the only ones but the other manufacturers generally have only one model that is suitable). The first one, is without a doubt, Apple. Unfortunately, an Apple is not a laptop that everyone can afford so if you really want one you could check out some refurbished deals. For example, a 15 inch Apple MacBook Pro is priced around $2300 if you want a unit which has some pretty awesome specs. For this amount of money, you will get a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM. If you read our previous article about laptop memory, you saw that DDR3 offers a better transfer rate. The graphics card is an nVidia Geforce 9600M GT with 512 MB of dedicated video memory. You probably don't need such a powerful graphics card for a music production laptop so if there is a chance to save some money by choosing a weaker video card, we recommend you do so. The total capacity of the hard disk is 500 GB which is excellent for your laptop because you can store as many tracks as you like in there.


The speakers of this laptop are fine but don't quit the idea of having some high quality sound system attached to the laptop. One downside with Apple laptops is that they always have a few number of ports and connections no matter what the size of the laptop is. The important ports on this 15 inch Apple MacBook Pro are 2 USB ports, a Mini Display port, a FireWire and an SD Card slot. 2 USB ports is a very small number for a 15 inch laptop but this is how Apple always sacrifices the number of ports and connections in order to make thin and light laptops. Personally, I think there are better laptops that could be helpful for music production much more than an Apple can.


Another wise choice for this business seems to be the Lenovo Think Pad T61 (or so the user reviews say). This laptop has a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 and 2 GB of RAM which can be upgraded to a maximum 4 GB (and we strongly recommend that you upgrade). The graphics card is the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 which is a weak video card but suitable for a music laptop. Unfortunately, the hard drive has a storage capacity of only 100 GB which we consider insufficient free space for storing music files. You could check and see if you can choose a bigger hard drive or you can buy an external one.


You should really be aware that there are many more laptop models out there that can be suitable for music production. Remember to make a list of the specs that your laptop should have and we guarantee that you will find at least 10 good models to choose from. The Apple and the Lenovo we wrote about in this article are two examples. We have chose to write about them because users have reviewed them positively as laptops suitable for music production.

Since we’ve started with the series about “things you should know about your laptop components”, today we are going to talk about laptop memory. When we referrer to this subject, we are thinking about 2 different types of memory. There is the RAM which is basically the laptop’s virtual memory and the disk space, which is your physical memory where you can actually store your files.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
RAM is short for Random Access Memory. If you need a short explanation of how this type of memory works, I can tell you that different bytes of it can be accessed without using any previous byte. That’s right, it’s all random. RAM is also divided into 2 different types of memory. First, we have the DRAM (short for Dynamic Random Access Memory) which is the common type of RAM found in most laptops and computers. It’s more common because it cheaper compared to SRAM. SRAM stands for Static Random Access Memory and it’s more expensive than DRAM because it’s faster. DRAM needs to be refreshed while using it (your laptop does this as an automatic process) while SRAM doesn’t and this is why we have a price difference between the 2.

Be careful not to mistake RAM for ROM. ROM is the Read Only Memory of your laptop or computer which is used for storing your programs that help boot your computer. RAM is the main memory of your laptop, the one that helps you run applications. The more RAM you have, the more simultaneous programs you can run in your laptop. RAM is a temporary type of memory because every time you shut down your computer, whatever programs were running, get lost. This is why when you restart your PC or laptop, the running applications are being shut down and they are no longer available when you log on to Windows (you have to start the application again).

Modern day laptops use DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM. But do these letters and numbers mean? DDR means Double Data Rate so you can think of DDR2 and DD3 as upgrades to the regular DDR, a type of RAM that helps speed up the transfer rate. RAM is far more expensive than hard disk memory and this is why the numbers of these two are never equal. A good laptop will have between 2 and 4 GB of RAM because today we tend to run as many applications as we can on our notebook. Different programs use a certain amount of your random access memory and the more programs you run, the more RAM they occupy, therefore slowing down your computer.



The other main type of laptop memory is the hard disk. This component looks just like a box. On your hard disk you can store all your files, documents, pictures, music, games, applications and movies. Think of your hard disk like the drawer of a desk. You can put some files in there until the desk gets full. All hard drives basically have the same structure but it depends on the quality of the components used which determines the overall quality and performance of the hard drive. There are 5 basic components that are found in every hard drive: the platters, the spindle, the spindle motor, the read and write heads plus the head actuator. The platters are in fact disks that are used to store the magnetized data. In the past, these platters were made using aluminum alloy and other material but today they are made of glass and ceramic because these materials are more resistant to heat.  The number of platters is influenced by the quantity of memory the hard disk has. These platters are separated from each other by space. Between them you can find rotating spindle that turn them around. Think of these platters like a vinyl disk and they are rotated in a pickup. These spindles are powered by small motors that help perform their rotations (this is why every time you check a laptop’s specs, you will see that the hard drive has 7200 rotations per minute – this speed is determined by the spindle and the spindle motor).

The read and write heads simply reads and writes the data onto the platters. These heads stop whenever the platters also stop spinning and they rest on a so called landing zone. All of these heads are attached to head actuator. This “arm” helps move the heads. This head actuator is becoming a thing of the past because it seems to produce some alignment problem not to mention some serious heat. Instead, a voice coil actuator is used because it’s much more efficient. All these five components are found in the Head Disk Assembly (or HDA for short). In the exterior of this HDA we have a logic board. This logic board controls the movements of all the internal parts plus the movement of the data.



Since laptops are way more fragile than desktop computers, manufacturers are developing anti shock systems that protect the hard drive in case you accidentally drop your laptop. These systems are usually found in business laptops because they make the unit more expensive.  What this system does is that it stops the disk heads in case the laptop suffers any shocks therefore preventing hard disk damage. There are 5 main manufacturers that produce hard drives: Toshiba, Samsung, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital. Hard drives are usually a part that is located inside your laptop or computer but if you feel that you reached a certain point where the storage capacity is not enough, you could buy an external hard drive that you can connect to your computer with the help of a cable and an USB port. One similarity between the disk space and the RAM is that the more you fill them up with applications, the slower your laptop will run. If you have an optical drive, such as a DVD burner, you can use it to free up some disk space by making backup copies of your stuff on DVDs and then erasing them from the laptop’s memory.

One very important part of your laptop is the keyboard. The laptop keyboard is far more fragile than a regular desktop keyboard, especially since it’s more difficult to clean it. If you a person that practically lives in front of a laptop like I do, you may have the bad habit of eating in front of it as well. Your laptop is in great danger of becoming greasy and dirty so we eventually have to start cleaning it. Cleaning a laptop keyboard is a process that requires patience and you have to follow certain steps.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
What we are going to write in this article is based on the success of one user that has managed to clean his laptop keyboard using some materials and about 2 hours of his time. Aside from proper cleaning, laptop keys have to be lubricated so they can look as good as new. Pay really good attention and try not to improvise because you may end up completely damaging the keyboard. When you dissemble the keyboard, make sure you place every key in a certain order on a piece of newspaper on the floor. When you place everything back together you have to know exactly where each key goes. You could make a map, a picture or a drawing of your keyboard and place the keys in a small container after removing them so you can make sure no key gets lost. You can remove the keys gently with a screwdriver. Be careful not to use excessive force or you may damage the keys. Some keys have small rubbers underneath so don’t be afraid if that is attached to the key. You also be careful because they tend to “jump”.

After that, it’s time to start cleaning the keyboard. You can use cotton swabs and slightly dampen them into water. Be careful not to have water dripping from them. They just need to be moist. They will also need periodical replaced so keep a box of these in handy. You have to clean every key space carefully and totally because if there is any residue left, you may have a hard time pressing certain keys. After you have finished this process, you have to repeat it using cotton swabs slightly dampened into rubbing alcohol. Unfortunately, you will have to repeat this process again using lighter fluid and cotton swabs. After you have cleaned the keyboard, it’s time to clean the keys. First you should clean them with cotton swabs and lighter fluid (also known as naptha) because this helps removes all the grease. The next step is to place all the keys in a kitchen strainer and spray them with a household cleaner. Leave them like this for 5 minutes and them careful rinse them using hot water. After that, place them on paper towels and leave them there until they have dried completely. You have to repeat this process for the rubber components as well except that after you place them on paper towels, you have to fold the towels and make sure you squeeze gently to remove all the water out of those pieces.



If you want to make your keyboard look as good as new, you have to lubricate the keys. There is a special lubricant called Super Lube Dry Film which is your best friend in this process. Start by placing all the keys bottom up preferably on a paper bag. Coat the keys by using the special lubricant at a 45 degree angle and from all 4 sides. Do not spray them too long because the solvent could affect the plastic of the keys. They will dry almost instantly. Now you have to lubricate the keyboard as well. Make sure you protect the rest of the laptop by masking it off and then spray the keyboard just like you did with the keys.



Reassembly is the next and final step of the keyboard cleaning process. You have to start off by placing all the rubber components into the keyboard. Then you have to install the keys with wires and make sure that the wires are secured in the key. You could hear a snapping sound. Press the key down until you hear that snap. Then you must place the ends of the wire into the special guide slots that are next to the key location. Repeat this process for all the keys. Patience is required in this process so if you are not patient and not good at handling small and gentle laptop parts, ask a friend to help you. I know this all seems really tough to do but think of the satisfying result that you get in the end: a clean and shiny keyboard that looks brand new. Besides, except for the lubricant, you probably already have the necessary material at home so there is no need for a heavy investment to clean your laptop keyboard.



Let’s go over the material again: you need cotton swabs, rubbing alcohol, water, lighter fluid, some tweezers so you can clean smaller area which are not very accessible, screwdriver or small scissors to remove the keys, a container where you have to place the keys, a kitchen strainer, a household cleaner (one for windows will probably do the trick), a can of Super Lube Dry Film spray (it’s best if you don’t try to substitute it) and tons of patience. Remember to take a picture or draw a map so you can see the initial alignment of the keys. You don’t want to press “G” and get an “H” instead. If this happens, most laptop models have pictures available on the internet so you can see where each key goes. Of course, that mean you have to press the right keys to google it.



As you can see, it’s no rocket science to clean your laptop keyboard and frankly, I don’t see what you should pay anyone to do it since you have all the materials you need at home. Who knows, maybe your friends will start paying you to clean their laptop keyboards as well.

Just like regular people use accessories that have different functionalities, why should it be different for laptops? Women have purses where they carry their wallets and lipstick (and sometimes everything but the kitchen sink), men use ties because it helps them look more professional at business meetings. Laptops and their accessories have also become our best friends as accessories increase the functionality of a laptop so you can do with it about everything you can do with a regular desktop computer.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
Laptops and accessories combined can give out a pretty high price. But yet again, you must pay if you want to use your laptop at maximum capacity. What are laptop accessories exactly? Well, about anything from a wireless keyboard and mouse up to the laptop bag which you use to protect and carry around your notebook. Laptop accessories are not a must, but they make your life easier if you have them. For instance, let’s say you own a Dell Mini 9, which is a small ultraportable netbook. You bought it because you need a mini laptop that you can carry around all of the time so you can use the internet or do some word processing wherever you are. As you can imagine, such a small device is also more fragile that a 15.4 laptop. You definitely need a protective case. When you carry this netbook around in your bag or purse, it could get scratched because of the other object you have in there, like pens or pencils. If you slip your netbook into this special protection case, it keeps it safe from such damage.

Let’s see some example of cool laptop accessories. Imagine you are in need of extra disk space on your laptop. What is the easiest solution? That’s right, buy an external hard drive. The Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 is an external hard drive that can provide another 320 GB of free storage room for your laptop. It’s a win-win situation if you purchase one for yourself. You get all the extra storage room you need and the speed of the disk is also satisfying. You can purchase it from Dell for about $80. It’s an easy way to carry around all your favorite music and movies and even pictures.



The $50 Logitech V550 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse is definitely one accessory I would choose for my laptop. It’s so light and I love the fact that it’s cordless because I am an anti-wires person. Logitech has stated that the battery of this little gizmo can last up to 18 months. Well, if it lasts 12, I’m still a satisfied customer. The scrolling wheel is super fast and the goodies in the package are bound to make any customer smile. You get a pair of AA batteries, 2 Clip-and-Go storage docks, one of them is silver and  the other one is black (what did I say – accessories are here to make you look good), you even get 2 cleaning wipes, a Clip-and-Go storage box plus removal tool and an USB extension stand. It may be quite bugging to use this mouse if you have big hands so you may want to go with something bigger in that case. A desktop mouse is still more comfortable but we are talking about laptop accessories here, not PC ones. It occupies a little space so you can take it out and use it anywhere, whether you are at the coffee shop, library, school, home or at the office. It’s a special wireless mouse that you can easily use no matter if you are left or right handed. In the end, we definitely recommend it.



If you need some help into turning your gaming laptop into a super gaming PC, buy Logitech's MX 5500 which is a beautiful keyboard and mouse combo for about $170. This could also be a wise choice for your computer and not just your laptop. Even if some of you may not be so attracted to the design, remember that in the end its functionality is what really makes the difference. The wireless keyboard uses 4 AA batteries. The Smart Calculator is a nice feature for students and accountants as it allows you to do some math using that small keyboard display. You never know when you quickly have to so some calculating because the phone bill just seems too much. There are different buttons that offer shortcuts to features like the Media Center, Photo Gallery, Zoom in and out and even Favorites.  The keyboard feels excellent when you touch it and the keys offer positive feedback when you type. The mouse is excellent for gaming because it has impeccable accuracy. Logitech is very popular for making high quality keyboards and other gaming tools, even headphones and microphones so it is definitely one brand I trust. The keyboard might not satisfy some of you but I’m sure you’ll have nothing to complain about the mouse.



Our last choice for laptop accessories for today is another Logitech product. The Logitech Z-5 USB speakers are the final touch you need for your laptop, whether you use it for gaming or multimedia purposes. Speakers are sometimes a better choice then headphones. I mean, why should you be the only one that enjoys a good tunes, let’s your friends and family join in the fun of listening to music. The beauty of it is that you don’t need any external power. So that one less cable for us to trip on. Even if they cost $70, you get a remote control that supports your laziness. Not only are they great for home use, but they could also come in handy for a office or school presentation. They produce decent sound quality but don’t expect any sensational bass; they are just a couple of small speakers after all. All you have to do is plug these speakers into an USB port and you are ready to go. No need to worry if you don’t have any USB ports available because they also come with an audio jack. Isn’t that wonderful?

Technology has become part of our everyday life. Most of us have moved half of our lives on the internet and sometimes we are so caught up in the online world, we forget that we have to eat or take a rest. Laptops and computers are something we use every day so if our laptop ever gets damages or gives us errors, we sometimes panic and become afraid that we can't finish that day's work. We all use laptop, but do we really know how they work? For instance, how many of you of aware of what a docking station is? And do you know what you use a laptop docking station for?
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
Docking stations are an accessory that will convert your laptop into a desktop replacement for a while. It's an alternative solution for laptops that have few USB ports and no card readers. A laptop docking station is a device in which you can plug different peripherals, like printers, external hard drives and even memory cards and USB memory sticks. This docking station is attached to the laptop and it grants you access to all the devices connected to it. Think of it as an adaptor where you can plug in multiple devices and then attach them simultaneously to your laptop by using one single port.


A docking station is also referred to as a port replicator and if you have a modern laptop which has sufficient ports and connection, a docking station could turn out to be pretty useless. However, imagine that you have tons of external devices attach to your laptop or that you need to have them because of you every day job that requires a printer, memory cards, memory sticks, external hard drives, external optical drives and so forth. You could waste precious minutes to connect and disconnect these devices from your laptop every day or you could just use a docking station where they can stay connected to it all day and you can disconnect them by simple removing the cable that connects the port replicator to your laptop. Easy as pie!



Imagine that you have invited some friends over to watch a movie (which you have bought on DVD on not downloaded illegally, of course) but your 15.4 inch laptop does not have excellent viewing angles to please all your 10 friends which are coming over. So, you have to attach an external monitor, some high quality speakers and maybe an external keyboard and a mouse to your laptop. That is four connections in total. If you plug them into the docking station, then you have only one connection that goes into your laptop. Docking stations are a great solution for your work at the office as you don't have to mess with the same old cables every day. Just attach all the stuff you need to this port replicator and then connect and disconnect this one cable easily from your laptop. You only have to do the arrangements once.



Docking stations are especially useful to people that use the same laptop at work, home, school and when traveling. This means that they have important data which has to be available for them most of the time. At work they may need to print some material and sometimes they have to copy files on cards and memory sticks. Once the docking station is attached to your laptop, you can't carry it around anymore because then you have to drag the docking station along with whatever is connected to it with you. The main idea is that docking station allows your laptop to be portable on the road and transform it into a desktop replacement whenever you are at home or at the office.



Large manufacturers like Dell or HP design special docking station to fit their laptops. These products prevent any type of third party bugs that may come between the docking station model and the laptop model. There are docking stations that use the power of the laptop to work but it is recommended to have a special power supply for them. Docking stations are a great idea if you have a small laptop which has a display that makes it difficult to work it. You can attach an external monitor, adequate speakers, even a regular computer keyboard and mouse which can make life much easier. These devices increase the functionality of your laptop and you don't have to worry about your laptop not having sufficient ports for every device you need to use. Remember that you have to pay attention to the performance and compatibility issues of docking stations like you do when you buy any other accessory for your laptop or computer. The price also varies very much and more expensive docking stations could also be considered a quality tag.



If you have a regular computer at home, then you probably use it for all the extra features and ports it has compared to a laptop. However, if a laptop is your primary computer, a docking station is priceless. It expands the possibilities and the list of thing that you can do with your laptop. It's even easier to upgrade the laptop if you have a docking station as you can also attach external hard drives for more disk space. You can convert your laptop to a gaming unit with an additional keyboard, mouse, speakers and external monitor and instead of removing all of them when you go to work or school and them putting them back when you return home, all you have to do is remove that one cable from the docking station. It's a nice feature, especially since our time is valuable and we hate messing around with cables every day.

From $40 and even over $100 there are lots of models available on the market and price plus feature comparison makes it even easier for us to choose a docking station model that better suits our needs. Tell me the truth, where would we be today without modern technology?