[PlanetCCRMA] MiniPC or LapTop? Sooner or later...

\"Mr.Freeze\" theremin@free.fr
Sat Oct 25 09:47:01 2003


Heyall,
I'm thinking of pursuing my studies in Acoustics abroad or overseas (sorry, I 
will...), anyway far away from where I am for the moment (France) or from the 
miscellaneous places I'm often visiting (my parents'...).
I have recently (February) bought a fashionable mini PC as i've got to take the 
train each month to come back "home" and due to price considerations (PCI sound 
cards, compatibility with standard components and peripherals).
Recently overfed with 1000 euro laptops ads or "laptop music" articles, I'm 
wondering  whether I should have bought a laptop instead of that.
The real question here is: should I swap my box for a laptop now or on 
September 2004 (either in the USA, Canada or Danemark)?

Weighing the pros and cons:
Now:
- the more you wait, the more your hardware gets obsolete and hard to sell,
- the Mini one may less suffer from APCI restrictions and ventilation noise.

Later:
- new would-be standard hardware: 64bit architectures, serial ATA...
- the choice in FireWire or USB 2.0 external sound-cards and respective ALSA 
drivers is low for the moment,
(- laptops seem to be less expensive in the USA.)

What do you think?

Cheers,
Mr.Freeze