hello!

WHY
i do not want to spend money on a laptop, but it seems like a nice thing to have. im a hardcore gamer and have a sweet machine. basically im just into recording music too. id love to bring my recording mixer with me around, and have something to plug it into for me to record and edit on the spot, and possibly just go home and edit some more.

HERE ARE MY REQUIREMENTS!
-i prefer small
-i perfer light
-it must have at least 2 USB 2.0 slots
-firewire seems like something hard to find on a laptop, so if theres a laptop out there that fits my every need cept firewire, then let it have at least 3 usb 2.0 and ill just grab a recording mixer that runs through usb2.0
-must have wireless internet built in
-finally MUST COST BELOW 500 AFTER SHIPPING AND TAX! please keep in mind my price range is around 300-400

i think thats all the requirements. i know a lot of the things i listed are pretty basic, but yeah, easier requirements to meet hopefully = less cost.

i need help from u tomshardware geniuses! always seem to be a few ppl who give great input =D

Asus Eee fits the bill - doesn't have firewire, but has 4 USB ports, can be had for ~£200, it's about as small and light as you can get, and it has wireless. It doesn't have much storage space, but you could always use a portable HDD or a high capacity USB stick with it. I haven't spent long researching this, so don't go on this alone - you may be able to find something similar with Firewire. Also it's not the most powerful machine, and I don't know how much power you'll need for your mixing, but if I needed a cheap, portable laptop and didn't need much power, I'd go for an Eee.

o sweet, thanks for your sugestion. i dont need much power... just basic stuff. i believe all the power is handled by the mixer, and i just need a way to input it into a computer with my software on it. i dont really need quality laptop.

so far this sounds great, but the problem is, ive finalized that I DO WANT FIREWIRE ON THIS LAPTOP. i wanna get the firewire interfaced mixer.

Small, inexpensive, and IEEE 1384 are, for the most part, mutually exclusive.

If you want firewire integrated, you will have to sacrifice small and / or inexpensive.

To wit, take a look at these search results for a place to start, otherwise, I'd try my darndest to grab a Thinkpad x30, x31, or x32, which should have integrated firewire.

[EDIT] Ok, X2* sporting firewire are about as rare as hen teeth these days. . .

just get a normal small laptop and get a pc card with firewire.

Well. get Asus Eeee then buy a firewire...





__________________
To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer
First Hand Laptop Stands / Ergonomic Laptop Stands

whats asus eeee?

Asus Eee PC
MSI WIND

Don't think the Eee PC has a cardbus / Express card slot, I could be wrong. A used Thinkpad X3* is still what i'd go for. . . there are several other subnotebooks featuring IEEE 1384, but go upwards of $1000 (Sony PCG-U1).

Then there's older macbook G3's and G4's. . . .

An X31 on ebay

cool! thanks for the various links.

as for the asus EEE, is that a normal laptop? it seems like its got a different kind of operating system... or something like that. also ive only heard bad things about Asus laptops in general. what would you say?