Newbuild laptop...Need your help

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by davidconway1@sky.com, Dec 29, 2008.

  1. davidconway1@sky.com

    davidconway1@sky.com Private E-2

    Hi all, I am a total newbie to posting so I hope that I stay within the rules and that my post sparks some interesting discussion. From looking through old posts I see that the main thing that pisses you off is lack of information up front so I'm going to try to give you what I know (shouldn't take long):) but I suspect in doing so I may give more than is necessary, if so bear with me.

    I have a laptop at the moment that I bought for the sole use of running a software programme called "Showmagic" it is used for musicians who want to run backing tracks, dmx lighting and video, via an external sound card..(Edirol ua 25) from USB to play the .wav files, another USB output to a DMX interface and a DVI- output for the .avi video files to a projector.
    My existing laptop has been in service for a few years now and is beginning to go wrong, including during my act (not a place I ever want to be again!!!)
    It is the model Clevo D900T and has been a wonderful machine. It came with an Intel pentium 4 560 processor LGA775 (775 pin) 4 gig DDR 2 ram, two 60 gig Hitachi 7200rpm hard drives, NVidea 256 mb video card, four USB ports, two firewire ports, S video, serial, parallel, one DVI-D port and all of the various other ports. for the internet and networking etc, some of which are superfluous as it is imperative to the software that the machine remains dedicated for the job..(I must stress that point)
    As you can see considering I've had it for three years it is very well specced and It's only the passage of time and normal wear and tear that is causing it to malfunction, in all of the time that I've had it it has never before let me down, but I have now lost confidence in it and I can't afford for it once to act up at a gig, so the writings on the wall :cry

    It is here where my dilema begins, as you probably already know the D900T is exceptionally robust...ideal for gigging, (FYI it is not however imperative that I have a machine that I can be rough with as I never am) and as such I would love to be able to simply give it a new lease of life by re-building it from the ground up. I know from the hassel I encountered when trying to replace the two hard drives recently that the present set up isn't compatible with the newer Sata hard drives and I had a hell of a job finding ide drives for it (God bless e-bay).....sometimes!!!!:)

    Anyway everybody I ask tells me that I cant use the D900T as a shell and bring it bang up to date with a new motherboard that supports all of the new stuff I'd like to have. like the Intel core two duo processor T9400, Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT, Seagate momentus 7200.3 320 gig sata 300 hard drive with 8mb cache, 4 gig of quality ram, but all of these people have a vested interest in selling me something else and depending on the store they all have different ideas about what will suit me best. So I figure the best thing to do is to ask you guys for your impartial views and advice.

    The components above are my first choice after reading other peoples views of them on this site and others but all of them are completely up for discussion as I don't even know if they are compatible with each other.

    The other choice open to me is to buy a new laptop but I can't find one that only has the things on board that I need..(gets back again to not having the stuff on board that the software doesn't require). and from reading this site it is much, much cheaper to buy components.

    I think that's everything, but I'm sure that you'll let me know if it isn't........

    All that said, it's a little early but "Happy new year":wine
     
  2. Vikingman4456

    Vikingman4456 Private First Class

    First off Welcome to Major Geeks :) As for what you may be wanting here is advice I can sure help you with that, as I'm sure there will be some others put their two cents worth in too. Myself I would just find the same motherbord set up you have now and transfer all the other hardware. I mean it may be old but if it is comfortable to you and it still does the job why change?
     
  3. davidconway1@sky.com

    davidconway1@sky.com Private E-2

    Hi Vikingman, see I knew I would forget something.... there are time constraints as I am gigging in 10 days time and must have the deed done by then

    Thanks for the kind words...
     
  4. davidconway1@sky.com

    davidconway1@sky.com Private E-2

    Hi all, lost my bottle and opted for a new laptop. Thanks again for your input vikingman.
     
  5. deezeejoey

    deezeejoey Private E-2

    You made the right choice, trying to rebuild a laptop would be more work/pain then you ever want.
     

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