Topic: Laptop vs Rackmount PC for location work

[nic]

or you could just get a RADAR 24 and be done with it...   
pc, monitor, removable raid, 24 inputs at 24/96, etc...all in 1 standalone box

of course, you'll spend much more going this route!

[JasonR]

I'd be building a 2U rack PC, which is about the same size as a standard PC tower on the side.  I'd hand pick everything in the system and build it myself - possibly with a liquid cooling system even - to make sure it was done in the best possible way.  It would be mounted in a 4-6U rack with a 1U keyboard drawer and the flat monitor/mouse on top of the rack case.  I'd only be lugging this around to local venues and peoples practice areas/houses to do location recording and what not when the need would arrise.  I think I'm gonna give this a go in a little bit.

Sounds like fun, but don't say I didn't warn ya. 

A 2U case is hardly the same size as a standard PC tower.  Most standard cases are around 7.5" to 8" wide, over 4U wide.  The main problem you'll encounter even with a 2U case is that the CPU won't have much airflow.  If you go this route, I'd recommend underclocking the CPU to keep the heat down and reliability up.  The last thing you want while you're recording is for the OS to hang.  Liquid cooling is an interesting consideration, but I've never seen one that could fit inside a 2U case by a long shot.  And how do they hold up to being moved around?

Before you order anything, take a careful look at the specs (size and weight).  I assumed you'd be going 1U since there are very few 2U cases on the market that would fit in a manageable portable rack like an SKB.  My shortest 2U cases are 22.5" deep which would just fit in the largest SKB, but that's a handfull in my opinion.  If you must have a rack case, consider rack mounting a more traditional case which will be far shallower and lighter, provide better air flow, and probably save you a couple hundred bucks.

BTW - if you do go this route, check out a 1U LCD/KVM (or just LCD/Keyboard).  They're a great space saver and it lets you tuck your monitor and keyboard out of sight and away from prying eyes or spilling beers when its not needed.  Here's an example: http://www.tripplite.com/products/product.cfm?productID=2872


Good luck!

- Jason

[Evil Taper]

werd.  the micro ATX stuff looks pretty swift so I might give it a shot.  all this talk of airflow though is forgetting that laptops have no airflow and still work fine.  who says you can't mount 8 case fans in a small case though?  I'm just rounding up ideas right now cuz this is a couple of months off probably.  I'm looking at:

Mackie Onyx 1640 + Firewire > PC

so i could even do a 4-6u pc if i needed since all that will be in the rack besides this is the power conditioner and an effects processor.  i'll need to figure something else out for keeping the mixer totally portable.  but the situations i'll be using this rig in should allow me enough room to set up waht i need as long as it's portable.  all of the input has been great so far though so any other ideas would be appreciated.  Theres still the matter of buying a nice assortment of other mics and cables and what not to go along with this stuff anyway so i've definately got a ways to go before i'm up and running here.

[mmmatt]

Good luck!

- Jason

Well... this is almost the same size as a laptop and costs only a little bit more... very cool though.
    Evil... I run an onyx 1220 and I love it.  the 1620 is rack mountable but I don't think the 1640 is.  The onyx mixers are not tiny little things... The rack mount kits are designed to mount in a rack vertically and I think the 1220 is 10Ru.  You could possible rig up a top mixer mount on a rack case but that is something you would have to build yourself I think.  I have thought of that and looked a few months ago to no avail.  The onyx 1220 is about 6" tall when sitting on a table.I'll be interested to see if you come up with anything.  One thing that may help though... with the onyx line the metering is really good on the mixer so you wouldn't have to really monitor the computer screen.  You could leave it open just long enough to hit record and close it up.  There is a single button on the face of the mixer that allows you to monitor back through the firewire on your main level meters and through the phones so in an instant you can tell if you are having a computer issue. 
This is the type of screen I was looking at.  I was thinking of mounting it on a gooseneck over the top mount mixer so I could position it where I wanted it for each gig.

http://cgi.ebay.com/S-1021-8-TFT-LCD-TOUCH-SCREEN-VGA-CAR-PC-MONITOR_W0QQitemZ5832254764QQcategoryZ32825QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

other than naming your files, and depending on your DAW software,  for recording you could get by without a keyboard at all, and with a minimum size/quality screen.  For mixing at home you can easily plug in a better keyboard and mouse.  Although that is what I like about my external drive.  Just a usb cable an power cord and I'm hooked into my desktop at home without busting out the whole recording rig.

Matt

[Evil Taper]

yeah that monitor thing defeats the entire purpose of building a pc vs a laptop for me because it costs so much.  I can lug around a seperate road case for the mixer, that's not a problem either.  Basically I have full freedom to bring in what I want at the kinda gigs where I'd be doing this stuff at, and the venues are at least large enough to have room for this kinda stuff SOMEWHERE in the room.