Considering M860TU

Hey everyone, first post here so please be patient.

I've spent the last few weeks honing in on my first laptop and I'm seriously considering the M860TU. This will primarily be a DAW: audio production/recording/editing/performance. Some occasional gaming, but it's all about the audio for me. The M860TU really seems to fit the bill, but i had a couple questions before dropping the dough (i'm in high school, it doesn't come easy )

1. I've read some threads about dangerously high hard drive temperatures. This makes me uneasy. As a musician, the putting my hard drive and all of the work on it in peril is unacceptable. This laptop will be moving around with me frequently (that's what they're for, right?) in a backpack, especially this coming summer, and i'd like to be able to take it out and work anywhere i go. it would be nice to do some work outside without it melting, or be able to pack it up on the fly without having to let it cool. I don't plan on doing much

2. Fan noise. I haven't found much info on the M860TU's fan volume, but it would be nice to know if it's loud enough to be disturbing to people around me, or even interfere with recordings.

3. If any M860TU owners could give me any of their thoughts on the beast, positive or negative, that would be very helpful.

4. Are there any notebooks out there better suited to audio with the same build quality?

Intended configuration:
WSXGA+
GTX 260M
Q9000 Core 2 Quad @ 2gHz
4GB RAM
4GB Turbo Memory
Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm hard drive
Two Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm external hard drives

any feedback would be great, thanks.

 

Welcome to the NBR forums.

the HDD problem only seems to occur on mainly systems that run Vista and large 7200rpm internal drives.
- as long as you disable the useless background services/programs, and get the latest Intel Matrix SATA drivers... the HDD should be fine.

if you are doing DAW... aren't you using an external HDD for all of the VST (and such) files... thats what my friends do.

the fan noise does not seem louder than a typical notebook.

for DAWs... many people have chosen Clevo over the years... especially since they were the first to have multi-core CPUs.

that quad-core CPU will do amazing things for mixing and editing.

and the GTX 260M will fill your gaming needs.

 

So should i just not bother with Vista then, or are there guides on how to disable the troublesome programs? I like the idea of being able to use my full 4 gigs of RAM, as well as turbo memory, but that's about it for vista. So if it's just going to cause heat issues, I'd rather just stick to XP.

And would going down to a 250GB HDD help significantly? I definitely want to stick with the 7200rpm for a DAW. Yes, I plan on keeping VSTs, sample libraries, and project files on an external, but i don't necessarily want to be naked if i happen to leave it at home or wind up somewhere that i can't plug it in. I'd like to keep some stuff on board (backed up to the externals, of course) if possible.

I just don't want to end up with 50-60 degree idling temps on my HDD, that just seems excessive. Or was that only a problem for a few that I'm overreacting to?

Sorry about this, I'm a noob to laptops and i just don't feel right spending that money with unanswered questions.

 

I think the Vista negative rep has been blown way out of proportion. Keep Vista clean, and it's a fast, stable OS.

Here you go-

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

 

If you want to use an external sound card, go for USB. I tried to make the 860 work with fire wire( RME FF 800, T.C. Electronic), never had that pleasure.



Alex

 

Maybe try Expresscard like RME HDSPe ?

 

The fire wire chipset(Jmicron) also controlls the Xpress card port.



Alex

 

roundabout 50 is a perfect idling temperature for these beasts. i get 51-53 and im happy with that.