2009/9/13 david <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gnome@hawaii.rr.com">gnome@hawaii.rr.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div class="im">
Ray Rashif wrote:<br>
<br>
> 7200RPM is absolutely necessary to be rid of that bottleneck, first and<br>
> foremost. A 5400RPM imposes a practical limit to the minimum size of the<br>
> buffer, and from experience this can be as big as 256 (meaning anything<br>
> lower you get xruns regardless of how good your audio interface is).<br>
<br>
</div>Interesting, will have to try that on the synthesizer laptop. It's got a<br>
5400RPM drive ...<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> WD has a 320GB 7200 mobile disk going for around 100 bucks.<br>
<br>
</div>Just make sure it has the right interface for your old laptop!<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> Secondly, the CPU. This is important because the lower the latency, the<br>
> harder the CPU works. As such, if the headroom is not big enough, you<br>
> find that even a little bit more CPU usage deals a heavy blow. I'd<br>
> recommend at least a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, which is pretty standard these days.<br>
><br>
> Overheating is an inherent hardware problem that comes with age. I bet<br>
> your battery capacity has decreased as well. And a 7200RPM disk will<br>
> output more heat, so get a flatbed cooler if the laptop's underside<br>
> design isn't good enough to compensate.<br>
<br>
</div>Might also find it worthwhile to open the laptop up and see about<br>
cleaning anything that might be obstructing airflow. Just in case stuff<br>
has built up over the years.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
David<br>
<a href="mailto:gnome@hawaii.rr.com">gnome@hawaii.rr.com</a><br>
authenticity, honesty, community<br>
</font><div><div class="h5"><br></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>* And don't forget to report back the result so we can conclude it as true :) </div><div><br></div><div>* Yes, SATA only. So beware.<br></div>
<div><br></div><div>* Especially dust! If you can get those air pressure cans, they do the job mighty well. If not, battery-powered vacuum.</div><div><br></div><div>But wait, how would you upgrade your CPU? If the processor in this laptop, like most others, comes as a "module" whereby the CPU and GPU are soldered on, it's definitely going to take more than 300 and may just warrant a new purchase in the end.</div>