Help with understanding the difference

Chris9434

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a laptop that needs to be able to do basic audio recording for music on a budget. I came across this article: https://colemizestudios.com/the-best-laptop-for-recording-audio-on-a-budget-in-2019/

Seems perfect, but if you click on the link it takes you here: https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-E5-576G-5762/dp/B075FLBJV7/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=colmizstu-20&linkId=5851bfe40a5e8f8c1439afc9328066a1&language=en_US

Only used and double the price listed! So I did a search and I found this on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Acer-Aspire-5-15-6-Laptop-Intel-i5-8265U-3-9GHz-8GB-RAM-512GB-SSD-Windows10-H/274125808287?epid=24036370868&hash=item3fd32be29f:g:EaEAAOSwg9Rd95jM

Its refurbished through Acer, which I don't mind, but the models are different. They look pretty much the same, so guys whats the differences?? Why is the refurb listed as 3.9Ghz but specs down page a little bit show 1.6?

There is also this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Acer-Aspire-5-Intel-i5-8265U-1-60GHz-8GB-Ram-256GB-SSD-Windows-10-Home/254374305047?_trkparms=aid=555021&algo=PL.SIMRVI&ao=1&asc=20190711100440&meid=57b84dcdbfef4f0cbfdcafecc2d24b24&pid=100752&rk=1&rkt=21&mehot=ag&sd=274125808287&itm=254374305047&pmt=1&noa=0&pg=2047675&algv=SimplRVIAMLv5WebWithPLRVIOnTopCombiner&_trksid=p2047675.c100752.m1982

Seems like the only difference is the size of the hard drive?

Thanks for the help!

Joe9844

You shouldn't rely on 15 months old hardware review on purchasing decisions (especially on his advice on used laptop which would be 2 years out of current date).

Audio recording doesn't require a lot of CPU power. Only if you use a lot of VST instruments with a lot tracks than you need to get a fast laptop. Go to your DAW's website and look at your DAW's spec requirements for CPU and memory.

No Acer laptop or desktop comes with native realtek asio drivers. SOME current Dell laptops and desktops come with native realtek asio drivers (NOT asio4all which is just a wrapper of the normal windows audio drivers). While the usefullness of native realtek asio driver is debatable and often laughed at by real musicians, my advice is to talk to Dell directly and ask which of their laptop comes with realtek asio drivers.

If you don't record any live singing and just making some beats with ableton live with a tiny akai mpk mini, you can cut out the audio interface entirely and use the native realtek asio driver.