new laptop

looks like it should be fine. A couple things I have the m-audio fast track pro, and while I like it, the 64 bit drivers were only release a month or so ago. I cant remember if the fast track usb had drivers or not. You should check. Dont make the mistake i did assuming they were there. I upgraded to a vista64 machine and my fast track pro was useless for 6 months. I also have the podxt.. I have had some issues with it also, and If I could do it over, I would have stuck to usb2 or firewire interfaces. I think in general usb 1.1 is kind of hit and miss.

also, depending on how you plan to use it, you may need to do some optimizations to windows to get it ready to be a DAW. I think you generally would not want to record audio data to the OS drive. Plenty of online resources to look through to get set up. Google "Vista optimizations and DAW"

Hi Thequietroom. Just out of curiosity do you use a laptop or desktop or both?

desktop. I have a laptop that have reaper on that i sit around and go through tutorials on, but my recording is on a desktop.

good info in both threads.. really, take the time to look at reviews, look at all the hardware you plan to use and check out their sites and do everything you can to verify compatibility before you buy. I have never bought a laptop for a DAW, so I cant really cant say fore sure that this one will be perfect. There are lots of little details you dont want to run into problems with after you buy a few things are: does it have the I/O's that you will want. usb/firewire chips known to be good with DAWS or are they know to have issues.