Laptop for Sound and Video Production?

[art]

Hey everyone wondering if i can get a hand, i'm looking at getting a laptop for audio and video production, mainly for the convenience of portability and live performance. If anyone could specify some models they know of that are proficient for this, i would be very grateful. Here are the FAQ's:

General Usage

I would mostly be using it for audio-visual programs such as cubase, after effects, vegas, arkaos vj and to run my midi keyboard. I obviously need a firewire support for video, and i am keen on a dual monitor support, so i can output to projectors, as well as a second monitor.

Features

40 to 60 gig would be fine, preferably 7200rpm.

DVD burning and playing, cd burning.

Obviusly 1gig ram+

I will be running multiple applications, like photoshop, illustrator, and after effects at the same time. Cubase/acid/vst at the same time.

Graphics & Display

15 - 17 inch is good, dont mind if its not widescreen.


I will be definately doing work in programs like 3D Studio Max or Maya!

Miscellaneous

Ultimately about 3,500 is what i wanna pay tho i guess i will go up to 4. I was originally just going to buy a G4 Mac to save having to go around asking questions like this, but now i am considering a pc for various reasons. I have heard acer have some good models, do they support advanced screens? I want something completely rock solid, and i will be running an external sound interface as well as external HDD.

Honestly, i need the best model. Not for gaming at all really, so if gaming and graphics creation dont mix, then a gaming machine is not what i want. I was considering the millenia, but it all looks far too dodgy. I don't want dodgyness, i need it all clear cut, warranty, top-brand, proven efficiency etc...

I live in Australia so if that makes any difference, it would be good to check it out in person if anyone has any info.

I apologize for the long message and hope some help is on the way.

Many thanks to those with advice,

Matt


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[Venombite]

There have been a couple users in the Acer section that have used their notebooks for Audio/Music Production. You may want to post a thread there to get some feed back on the quality. From the posts I've read, they all seem to like the units capabilities.

Most new systems with the better GPU's (ATI 9600 and up & Nvidia 5700 & up) should be able to handle anything graphics intensive. The real concern will be weight, battery life heat & size.

Pentium M notebooks will usually provide notebooks that are the lightest, coolet running, smallest & have the best battery life. I'd probably recommend going this route, but for content creation, a P4 or AMD 64 CPU would probably be the better choice.

A few notebooks you may want to look at:

Acer Ferrari 3200 (15" LCD, AMD64)
Acer Travelmate 8000 Series (15" LCD, Pentium M)
HP NC8000/NW8000 (15" LCD, Pentium M)
HP ZD7000 Series (17" LCD, P4)
HP ZX5000 Seeies (15.4" LCD, P4)
Sony A Series (15.4" to 17" LCD, Pentium M)
IBM Thinkpad Series [Higher Models] (14.1 to 15" LCD's, Pentium M)

-vBulletin-

[art]

Yeah the ferrari looks good, i put in an email to acer about that, and i will check out the acer forum.

However if anyone here has any more advice would be much appreciated,

Thanks,

matt