Any good budget-friendly laptop for PreSonus Studio One?

[Ziant Zaddy]

Hi everyone, quick question!

Can anyone recommend a good, non-premium laptop that can handle PreSonus Studio One smoothly? I currently use a desktop, but inspiration strikes me often when I'm out, and I need something portable to work on the go.

A few people suggested an Apple computer, but it's a bit too expensive for my budget. I'm looking for something more affordable. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[Normal Usual]

I bought an HP laptop and it was working great until I ran out of room to install more stuff so ordered a new solid-state drive (SSD) on Amazon of 1 TB to get more storage on my C drive for 50 bucks my understanding is that pretty much any laptop will do nowadays to record and do minimal audio mixing. BTW, I haven't used an Apple computer so I wouldn't be able to advise on that.

 

[Jeanne Jenner]

The issues come from what you're doing e.g., the number of audio tracks. Hopefully, you have a decent audio interface that you'll take with you - so you'll need to make sure the computer has the appropriate USB connection. If you're going to be using sample libraries like drums and some sample-based synths, you'll want more RAM. I recommend nothing less than 24 GB of RAM.

 

[Jeffery95]

Well, Apple is releasing a new affordable laptop: the MacBook Air with the M3 chip, and maybe if you haven't seen that one it shouldn't be very expensive.

 

[Outrageous Onion]

It depends on your workflow. For simple projects with just a few tracks and VSTs, most laptops will suffice. However, for demanding tasks like full orchestra mockups requiring multiple sample libraries, a more powerful machine is necessary. RAM, as others have mentioned, is crucial. You can't have too much, frankly. A large, fast SSD is also beneficial for storing your sample libraries.