Suggested PC laptop models for computer audio

Are you going to use USB? If so, then speed of computer, type of hard drive, amount of memory etc. are unimportant. It is because asynchronous USB strips timing from the signal and new timing is recreated inside of the DAC. Amount of electrical noise is still important since it affects operation of the DAC, but it is difficult to predict which computer will be the best for that. Often slower computer can be less noisy then the fast one. USB cable can also affect operation. You need cable with very good shielding and possibly no power wires, if your DAC doesn't need it.

If you want something small, have a look at the 2 links below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139033&ignorebbr=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008308%208000&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&page=1

As others have said, a screenless desktop would be best, but a laptop will certainly work.

If your DAC connects through USB, try to connect the external hard drive with something other than USB. USB works in series, so real time transfer of music to the DAC and data exchange with the hard drive will go though the same pipe. Avoid if you can.

As far as software, I found a very significant improvement by using Windows Server 2012 in core mode and using AudioPhil's Audio Optimizer (which only works in WS2012). Very, very significant.

Other than that, the cheapest laptop will do. You don't need much processing power or RAM for this, and you should shut down all hardware bells and whistles to minimize electrical noise as Kinjanki mentioned, so why pay for that? You need minimal processing power.

If going WS2012, however, it needs to be a 64-bit machine (any new machine will be, but you could even get a used one).

I think optimizing hrdware on a laptop is a bit of a waste of time. This, coming from a guy with a heavily optimized headless server.

Since your current laptop is only one year old, and you like the results, what's wrong with simply keeping your current setup?

I agree with Lewinskih01 in that you don't need much horsepower for your purposes. Even the most inexpensive laptop nowadays will be very lightly loaded with this task.

So the question is, which one to pick? For something decent at a low price, I would consider one of the Lenovo offerings.

For a better solution, although I think you'll have a bias against this idea, I feel that currently the best laptop for the price is a Macbook Air. If you're dead-set on Windows, it can run Windows just fine. The Air is a very compact, well-built laptop that will easily fit your needs perfectly. At the moment, I don't think there's anything out there that can touch it for the price. Although you can get lower-end laptops by the major vendors (HP, Lenovo, Dell) for less money (the Macbook Air starts at $900 I think), in my opinion they won't represent as good of a value. And besides, the Air makes a GREAT travel laptop, so you will be able to repurpose it outside of work.

You have a lot of great choices here, including the choice to stay with what you have now at zero extra cost.

Michael