dell inspirion 8000

[chilcote.9]

I am considering the following killer notebook for on the go live performance, idea capture, notation, sequence editing, etc, with gigasampler 1.64. It has the following specs from www.dell.com (\"http://www.dell.com\") web site.

specifications:
Inspiron 8000
15\" Super XGA+
Nvidia GeForce2Go chipset - 32mb
dvd 8x
256mb or more
2x 8-cell Lithium-Ion (59WHr)
Battery- 2 - 3 hours per battery
Intel Pentium® III processor at 1GHz
On-die 256 KB cache
32 KB Internal Cache (L1)
100 MHz Pentium® III ext BUS frequency
Intel® 815e AGPSet Chipset with 4X AGP
IEEE 1394 integrated port - firewire
9-pin serial connector
25-hole pin parallel connector
Serial infrared communications port
Audio jacks: headphones (same as line-out), external mic-in, 1 line-in/audio-in
15-pin monitor connector
6-pin PS/2-style keyboard, mouse, and keypad
2-USB compliant 4-pin connectors
S-Video for TV-Out
S/PDIF port for AC-3 digital audio
Optional: Inspiron 8000 advanced port replicator
Connectors: (2) Type I or Type II cards or (1) Type III card
3.3 and 5 V cards supported
Warm-swap Capable
32 GB Ultra ATA hard drive
Internal Included: harman/kardon Premium Audio Sound System
ESS Maestro 3i audio providing 3D positional sound with SoundBlaster® Pro compatability
Mini-PCI 56K4 + 10/100 network interface combo
around $3,181.00 - depending on how you configure it

The question is, does it work with giga?
I have tried unsuccessfully a ess audio maestro 2e chipset, and could not get any giga, nor any native instruments b4, or similar soft-synth, too high latency, not stable, to work correctly.

On the other hand, I used to have a working winbook xl 233 mhz (it has since died), that had a yamaha audio chipset y3m (or something like that), that worked ok for basic piano piece idea listening. I had fairly low latency, just too slow a processor, hard drive (2gb), ram (64mb, 66mhz), bus(66mhz). It used to work for instruments under the 32-16mb range, in finale, sibelius, cakewalk, etc....

Has anyone on the forum used a notebook successfully for live or studio performance or sequencing, for giga instruments around 32mb-64mb or even more. I\'m not asking for x-sample instruments, or similiar, to work, as I know that the 4200rpm (perhaps 5400rpm) drives in these notebooks are not fast enough for gigapiano, gigaharp, the 200mb cellos, trachman 2gb pianos, etc.

Come out of the workwork and let us know if you have been successfull on the go..

thanks
dhc

[Mega]

Very good question since the idea of a mobile digital audio workstation is very useful and is catching on as laptop PC performance improves. Although unfortunately, Nemesys makes no guarantees for any kind of laptop, there are some that can work. After making sure to get the fastest processor and hard drive (laptop hard drives can now reach 5400 rpm and 12 msec access time which is not too bad but not as good as desktop 7200 rpm and 9 msec levels), the critical issue is the soundcard and its driver. The Inspiron 8000, like many PC\'s both desktop and laptop, uses a WDM soundcard driver (for its ESS Maestro soundcard). This new Windows standard offers much lower latency than before and does emulate the older DirestSound system but unfortunately Nemesys GigaSampler/GigaStudio is not compatible at all with this new system. In a desktop, you can always get your own Giga compatible soundcard (some like Frontier Design are actually working to provide a Multiclient driver, still in Beta stage, that features both WDM and GSIF compatibility), but expandability in a laptop is more difficult. I think that there is a new PCMCIA card by RME that is Giga compatible. But the quickest way to make your WDM laptop Giga compatible is to download an older pure DirectSound driver for the laptop\'s sound card if possible. I don\'t think Dell or ESS has one for the particular soundcard in the Inspiron 8000 (but check again). I personally am using GigaStudio with IBM\'s spectacular A21p laptop with great success, although I did have to download an older DirectSound driver instead of the WDM driver the A21p came with for its Crystal soundcard.

[KingIdiot]

I just bought a Toshiba Tecra PIII 850 and have it working with giga with pretty good results so far (haven\'t pushed the limits yet)

I went through 2 laptops before this one in the past couple of months to get one that would work (out of the box) with GigaStudio

first the new Compaqs, the ESS Alegro sound card/PMCIA controller doesn\'t have old \"vxd\" direct sound drivers. Then I tried a Toshiba Sattelite Pro, which had a yamaha sound chip...but its the newest Yamaha sound chip the AC-XG (model ym743) setup. The other models from Toshiba have the old DS-XG (model YM754/754b)setup and you can download windows 95 drivers (non-WDM) from the toshiba site. This worked like a charm once I upgraded Gigastudio to 2.2

I still haven\'t really had time to put it through the ringer, but I will post when I get down to buisness on it. Right now I know I can get 90 note poly no prob, and haven\'t tried for more jsut because I haven\'t even hooked up a MIDI controller to it or loaded a sequencer on it yet http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif (just dragged the mouse over the MIDI controller thing in GS)

even at 90 note poly I\'m pretty happy for using it as a portable recording/composing rig http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

with a SCSI PMCIA interface one should be albe to get really impressive results.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[donnie]

I have to be honest I was walking out the door so I just skimmed over your spec\'s but for that price I would call Soundchaser and have them build you one. My system (see previous post in hardware) was \"around\" that price and it would be much more stable than an off the shelf.

Just my 1 1/2 cents http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

Donnie

[Mega]

Donnie...I am glad you are enjoying your new DAW from SoundChaser, but I think your system is a desktop and we are discussing laptops here http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif By the way, does SoundChaser also build laptops for GigaSampler/GigaStudio as well as desktops?

[KingIdiot]

Its still not a \"laptop\" tho. It is a portable rig.

I tested my Toshiba out a little more and I\'m getting 140-160 poly out of it (not bad for no additional hardware). I\'m sure there will be some applications (multiple instruments or jsut different instruments) that will lower that count, but I still expected lower inital poly count, so I\'m QUITE impressed. I am having some problems with Cubase, but Logic \"seems\" to work fine. I\'m a Cubase user but have been trying to take the time to learn Logic for a little while....looks like I have a good reason now http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Anyhow, the XG synth would have been fine for just a composing rig, but I wanted a good laptop composing/mixing rig that had some \"bells and whistles\" and this puter is looking to fill that space for me.

I\'ve been a giga-whore for a while and don\'t think I could work without it anymore.

If I wanted a porta rig I definitely would have went soundchaser, but I wanted a Laptop. something I could use while waiting 2 hours in line to see A.I. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

GAWD WHAT A FEELING TAHT WAS!!!

Now all I need is somesort of fold out MIDI controlling keyboard http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif heheee anyone have any ideas?

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Really...I am an Idiot

[carlgt1]

Watch out with the Inspiron 8000! I bought one to use as a portable studio, and it has a quirk with assigning 10 devices to IRQ 9; as well as stuttering audio playback/recording when the fan kicks in. The Inspiron 8000 is a great notebook for 99.9% of the people out there, but not for those of us who want to do digital audio. I\'m selling mine on Ebay now; hope I don\'t lose too much! :-(

[donnie]

Mega,

They build rack mountable portable solutions also. Thats really what mine is. Just add like a 15\" flat screen monitor and your all set. Plus it will be 10x\'s more stable than a laptop because of the faster drives and processor.

Donnie

[carlgt1]

I see the Toshiba Tecra is the only laptop that Nemesys approves of on their website, is that where you heard of it? I\'ll probably pick one up; after my poor Dell Inspiron 8000 experience I\'m going to stick with what has already been tested and not look at specs or manufacturer\'s hype!