Topic: Laptop DAW suggestions (w/ reliable integrated HDMI multichannel LPCM out)

[Gutbucket]

Time for a new Win 7 laptop.

I will be using this for editing my multichannel surround recordings, and the idea is to simply use an HDMI cable connection to a home theater reciever instead of an external soundcard.  So a (the?) primary requirement is integrated HDMI output which reliably supports multichannel LPCM for connection to a reciever for the multichannel DAW monitoring and playback, and an on-board HDMI driver that allows me to correctly route the audio channels.   I looked into this a few years ago and the suggestion at the time for desktop machines that were known to support mutlichannel LPCM via HDMI was to look for machines with ATI 4000/5000 series video.  Not sure of that still applies or if onboard laptop HDMI has become more mature since then in regards to this.

I'll be running Samplitude 10 or 11 for music editing, probably stick with Foobar for general music playback, and probably use whatever comes with the machine for video playback.  I'll attach an external monitor at times for extra workspace while DAW editing and for a bigger screen for movie playback.

Overall, this will also be for general use primarily:

Internet browsing (TS forum reading  )
above mentioned DAW use
Music playback
DVD movies

No gaming
Not interested in a non-laptop machine

I think I'll probably be fine with a i5 and 6-8GB of memory.  A solid state drive would certainly be nice, but thinking that it may be more cost effective to retrofit.   I don't really need a huge drive since I'll be storing and accessing my audio files off an attached USB drive, but more space is always welcome.

Target price of around $700, but that's not firm.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

[Walstib62]

FWIW,

I've been happy with my Lenovo thinkpad edge. It needed a new system board due to random power on/off events, but that was replaced under waranty with no furthur issues. It came with 4gb RAM, and I upgraded to 8GB, which is plenty.
For external storage, I have been using a Thermaltake eSATA drive bay. Faster transfer speeds, and you can hot swap the drives. If your eSATA port supports duplex drives, you can read/write to 2 drives in a dual bay simultaneously.

[Gutbucket]

I came across a few good things online about Thinkpads and their HDMI support (those that have a port), but it was all a few years old.  Haven't used anything eSATA myself yet, and that seems to be relatively common on a number of laptop offernings and probably the best way to go for an external data drive for edtiting.  However, a USB3 port is probably more useful for me in the short term as I'm currently using a couple external Seagate 1.5GB USB powered drives for portablility and editing use which feature a USB3 interface, but since none of the machines I currently have access to have USB3 ports, I just use the supplied usb3>usb2 adapter cables.  I haven't had any data bottle-neck problems that way with audio editing, but I do need to copy files over to the system drive before writing DVDs to avoid burning drink coasters.