Which Laptop hardware is needed for Cubase with MOXF8

[John Garside]

Have you considered buying a used machine?
Over the years I've purchased a few Lenovo laptops via eBay. (X61, X220, T410, T420) ... so far, so good (fingers crossed).

The last one was a Thinkpad T420 with an i5 processor and 16GB of RAM plus a 240GB SSD all for about 250 UK pounds. Today I've found one, a T420 with a 2nd generation i7 processor 180GB SSD and 8 GB of Ram for a bit over 300 pounds.
They're very robust most people say, (I've found it so), I always go for Win 7 rather than 10.
The connectivity is good making the addition of a fast external disk straightforward.
But one can remove the CD/DVD drive with the click of a switch and replace it with a 2nd HDD (for samples) in a Lenovo holder (also via eBay - make sure you buy the correct one).
I'd not fork out for a new one ever again.
Just my POV.
John G.

 

[Dino]

I have had a refurbished pc, the one that now broke: Lenovo thinkpad T61. Refurbished is better than just used right? Usually they give a warranty.

 

[Dino]

I have checked used ones, but too expensive to import into Denmark and considering they are used/refurbished and often not the fastest hardware I prefer a local new one with good specs. I haven't yet found anything neither used that beats my selection on hardware specs and price. My only compromise is to have 6 GB DDR4 RAm but to get one with a core that good and 8 GB Ram would raise the price a lot. I can just upgrade later on if necessary, up to 16 GB RAM. Other specs are fine, including 256 GB SSD HDD. I will use an external one and Google drive as back up. SO I will have two external backups.

It seems often the vendors deliberately downsize on one of those points to push the buyers to buy expensive models where the specs are lived up to on all fronts.

My choice is a Lenovo 320 i5-8250U, 256 GB SSD, 6 GB RAm (upgradable), no glare full hd screen, 2,2 kg /4.84 Pounds, 15.6". Check the CPU benchmarks and you will see this CPU is superior to say I7-7200U or i7-7700U (I think), number 150 of 1000 measured.

 

[Dino]

HI again. I cancelled this order and will now purchase an even better version of the same Ideapad 320, Only difference is: Double harddisk (512 GB SSD, SATA something I assume which is not specified. Called to make them furnish me that info), and 8 GB RAm instead of 6. Only 100 Euros more or 120 $. I am going to buy one for my little son too as a gaming pc if I can raise that money. Sweet

 

[Biggles]

That is much better.

For Windows a rule of thumb as the minimum RAM to include is 2Gb per CPU core, hence with the majority of PCs having a 4 core CPU then 8 Gb should be regarded as the minimum.

 

[Dino]

I however am reading about this 320 model and worried because during some test of this i5-8250U CPU (however with a dedicated Nvidea Geforce graphic card MX150 (GPU ) instead of my choice's Intel UHD Graphics 620, they say that due to a low 15W TDP the processor doesn't reach i'ts potential but a maximum of 2.8 instead of 3.6 as max turbo GHZ (and only for 30 seconds). Look under performance here (CONTRARY TO THE RESULTS with the NON budget laptop tests which showed better results for the same i5-8250U processor):

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-320S-13IKBR-i5-8250U-MX150-Laptop-Review.272208.0.html

THey also talk about the heating but probably that is not an issue with my chosen model without the dedicated CPU since I take it the dedicated graphic card/interface is the biggest cause of heating.

However they say in the verdict:"The problem: Both the processor and the graphics chip fall far short of expectations. The Core i5-8250U is far from its maximum and can even drop to the level of a last-generation dual-core processor while under load. It is even worse with the GeForce GPU, which works completely at the level of the outdated Maxwell predecessor 940MX."

Does this mean they also tested it without the dedicated Graphic card??

I remember from CPU benchmark very good linear results for the prestation of the CPU/processor.

Perhaps Lenovo chose to exclude the dedicated card from many versions of the Ideapad on the market now (Denmark) due to being aware of this issue.

Since the GPU should unburden the CPU when dealing with graphic stresstests, I'd say that perhaps the poor GPU chosen as the component for the test has some saying regarding the result.

I wonder how the test would go with the normal integrated CPU graphic card?

Only way to know how well my specific hardware performs is a stresstest with CPUbenchmark.com once it arrives. If poor I might return it. ALso the dimmering backlight worries me since below a setting of 99% of the maximum brightness the frequency goes below 200 Hz, which to some might be irritating to the eyes and cause tension in the head. During daylight this might not be an issue. But at night maybe.

Any advice here?

SOme quote from the performance test/processor: "In the Cinebench multicore test, the CPU can consume 25 watts for 30 seconds. That alone is not enough for the maximum clock rate, but rather 45 watts would be necessary. At 25 watts, the processor's four cores run at 2.8 GHz. After 30 seconds, the TDP limit of 15 watts comes into effect and the clock rate drops to 2.2 GHz. Therefore, in the 30-minute Cinebench test, a higher result is achieved in the first pass because the CPU may only consume 25 watts at the beginning. In addition to this TDP limitation, however, the manufacturer has also set a temperature limitation of 75 °C (~167 °F). Once this value is reached, the clock rate drops to 1.5 GHz and the CPU may only consume 8 watts."

You might be interested in the reply here as well (commentaries): https://technical.city/en/cpu/Core-i5-8250U-vs-A12-9720P