Which Thinkpad is the best for DAW?

[KarnEvil]

Hi!

I've been planning to use a laptop on stage (with softsynths)
for about a month and I'm still confused...
I've already decided that I want an IBM (Lenovo) machine for its strong housing and reliability. I'm going to use an M-AUDIO Ozonic FW interface. I've been considering on Z60M and T43 to use with it. Could anyone tell me which is the perfect thinkpad to use it on stage?

[christopher_wolf]

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

Depends on what you want to do; the only three things that would make a difference, assuming the T43 and the Z60m were similar enough in every other respect, would be the widescreen, the weight, and the FireWire interface. The T43 doesn't have a FireWire port built-in, you need either a dock or a PC FireWire card. The Z60m, on the other hand, has a IEEE1394 FireWire port built-in.

So the Z60m might be the easier to implement solution out of the box.

[archer6]

Hi!

I've been planning to use a laptop on stage (with softsynths)
for about a month and I'm still confused...
I've already decided that I want an IBM (Lenovo) machine for its strong housing and reliability. I'm going to use an M-AUDIO Ozonic FW interface. I've been considering on Z60M and T43 to use with it. Could anyone tell me which is the perfect thinkpad to use it on stage?

I have a friend that does work with softsynths, and I gave him my Z60m to try as he is shopping for a new laptop. The Z60m worked perfectly for him, as amongst other applications / peripherals etc, he uses firewire IEEE1395 interface and likes the implementation on the ThinkPad Z model. Another feature that he really enjoyed with the brightness and clarity of the display. He mentioned to me that even in an unevenly lit atmosphere as is typical for the places they use it, the readability was outstanding.

Hope this helps...

[KarnEvil]

Thanks for the replies! They were helpful.

In the meantime I've changed my mind and will buy a PCMCIA sound card rather than a FW, but I'll go with the z60m