Laptop Drive Speed

manic mailman

One of my friends is getting an audio interface which he'll use through his laptop (don't know which but I think he's getting a USB interface) and he wanted to know if the hard disk rpm (5400 v 7200) makes a significant difference on the fuctionality of the soundcard as in a recent conversation with some salesman in Dublin city he was told he might encounter problems (I told him it's probably just the salesperson trying to get him to upgrade his laptop!).

Anyway i'm getting a laptop soon enough myself so I'm interested to know if it's important (currently using the family pc for my set up at the moment so i've never had this problem before).
I'll assume that anything that's powered from a USB/firewire port is bound to have a significant effect on a laptop's performance.

Any suggestions as to what i should tell him??

Obi-Jim

it does have an impact yes.

I don't know what you're using, but pro tools for example, doesn't support either usb drives or 5400rpm drives. However, that's not to say that they don't work at all, but i'm sure you can imagine that both of them may be a bit slow for constant use, or if the computer is working hard. It doesn't support the use of using the onboard drive either.
(i know all that is pro tools related, but it's still the best practice to follow for performance)

The best setup is to have an external firewire drive to use for your audio that has a speed of 7200rpm. Then you don't really have to worry about the drive that's in your laptop. I use drives by G-Tech, they fit everything and they look like a tiny little baby mac, they rock.

GTE

With USB you should not encounter a problem recording files to disk for a long while but as you record more and more tracks and when you start playing back tracks and recording at the same time you will have problems. It is less that the interface will encounter problems and more that the hard drive will be causing problems for everything else.

My experience is with a firewire interface.
5400 rpm disks are pretty much useless at any multitrack recording project. I would hit problems at maybe 14 tracks (recording 8 and playing back 6, probably less. So long ago). The combination of how many tracks you are playing back while recording makes a difference.

Your friends best bet is to either upgrade the internal disks or get himself a firewire external hard drive.

My laptop came with a small fw port. This was not texas instruments and caused problems with my firewire interface.

I got an express card with TI firewire and that sorted that. When I hit the hard drive problem I got an external fw hard drive and used that with the internal firewire port that because useless for the interface.

I prefer that option as when I get rid of my laptop I wont be throwing away money in the form of the upgraded drives if I say move to a desktop.

For a USB based system Id still get a firewire hard drive if the laptop has a spare FW port handy and then you have future expandability sorted if he decides to get a full on firewire interface.

manic mailman

Cheers guys for the advice! For myself I only have a small interface and won't be recording anything more that 2 tracks simultaneously but for my mates is recording drums so he's at least 8 i reckon (he's yet to get the interface anyhow). Anyways I'll let him know what I've been told here, cheers again!