Hi, my Lenovo laptop broke down yesterday. I need another economical one. K Mac too expensive and I don’t want that learning curve either.

Which laptop/hardware would you recommend for music production with the MOXF8? See 4 possibilities at the end for comparison reason.

I never used my laptop for music recording. ALways saved to a USB flash drive. Only used Cubase 5 a bit to cut. Tedious. Long post but I am sure helpful for a lot of keyboardists, if anyone answers to it :-) Please use the applied numbers when answering. Makes life easier for the readers. To answer one is fine.

My use of the MOXF8:

I need to record the music from the MOxF8 and sing along: Either by recording the keyboard and singing together or the keyboard first as MIDI then sing along OR sing first alongside a metronome then record the music while listening (never done this). I don’t know how to do this. Not yet arrived the MOXF8 but prob tomorrow.
I will of course get the Cubase Al along with it. I already used Audacity some times. Pretty intuitive.

Questions:

1) WHich processor CPU? An Intel Pentium or Core i3 or i5 or i7? Ok did some benchmark: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html Ex.
Intel Core i7-6820HK @ 2.70GHz
9,141 ; NA
Intel Core i3-8350K @ 4.00GHz
9,136

I learned that the i3-7 have all just two cores but their differences are mainly regarding battery times, one said. Only desktops have many cores, perhaps newer laptops have more. My conclusion is I am good with i3 -i7. Agree? The last figures 6820 and 8350 have to do with the generation (6 and 8) I think.

2) Which RAM: DDR3 or DDR4? How many of those are sufficient? Of course in a store they want to sell you the newest unless they are clearing their older versions. Older models give you 1 tb harddisk for the same money, but DDR3 and not SSD.

3) Which harddisk (I think SSD, the solid, is the best but how important? DO You musicians use 256 GB or is 128 enough?

4) WOuld You stick with an ASUS, an ACER or a LENOVO or.. and why in short? Guess it mostly depends on the hardware ingredients.

5) HOw big screen? 13, 14 or 15,6 “ or even 17 inches? I will put it on the laptop stand onto the K&M;18950 table stand, OR on the note holder right in front of me if not too heavy.

6) Should I use the onboard sequenser or is that a matter of taste? I know I can control certain things such as stopping or initiating the DAW from the MOXF8 itself, correct? SHould I mix/edit onboard? I don’t know if possible to edit as well audio onboard. Perhaps only the midi sound?

7) DO I need to use the VST(3) instruments or are those within the MOXF8 sufficient? I will get a 512 MB flash card too. Probably a matter of deciding whether to sequense and mix onboard the MoxF or put it through the DAW in realtime. As far as I figured then this choice is related to the requirements for the laptop.

8) How important is a dedicated graphic card for music production? Improves the velocity thus stability? Noise?

In short, what the heck do I need? A cheap laptop?

I am looking at 4 different offers:

1) I see one on extra offer tomorrow morning (queue/line offer) for roughly 600 bucks. An Acer Swift SF113-31-P8R0 (NX.GNLED.004), Full hd (not important), 256 GB SSD, 4gb RAM, ultra thin, Intel Pentium Quad core N4200 processor, 13,3”

Full Specs: Acer Swift

2) ACer 7: Mat Full HD IPS screen, 15,6”
Intel Core i7-7700HQ
16GB RAM DDR, 256GB SSD, Geforce GTX 1050 2 graphic card. Price on offer: 1100$ (which I don’t have). But they say it is for music production. However the 3Dmark says 1500 (casual) but maybe compared with desktops. the PCmark10 says (create: Under here music production).

3) Acer Aspire e5 475. Specs http://www.pricerunner.dk/pi/27-4387630/Baerbar/Acer-Aspire-E-14-E5-475-351Z-(NX.GCUED.011)-Produkt-Info

Price about 640 $. The guy told me this is a good pc also price/quality wise, though not on offer.

4) Lenovo Ideapad 320S, Intel core 3i 7130U cpu, 14”, 128 GB SSD, 4 gb DDR4 RAM, full HD/IP (bummer someone wrote the image quality is poor) though running windows 10 well, Lightweight 1,69 kg (good for laptop stand on piano). Price 350 $.

Considering to buy a used heavy duty, or if not necessary then go with a cheap one at 300 $ perhaps with 128 GB SSD harddisk, 256 in my dreams.

Txs :-)
D