n/a (one needs to apply their own audio card when utilizing this product at its fullest)

What makes the Rain Laptops impressive is their ability to strip layers off the operating system to maximize the power of the processor and board architecture. Although you have bells and whistles like video cams and the like-to really power up products like those from Native Instruments, Steinberg, Adobe or Avid--these must be disabled. It's terrific to have HDMI when plugged into a home studio--but during live performance a monitor is hard to bring along... and the 14x9 screen resolution on the laptop is somewhat... well... questionable.

Understanding how Rain configures the laptop is very important, simply creating a new user admin, and working from that profile required me to contact Rain support as I had such severe latency issues the laptop choked and coughed like a 80 year old smoker. Once the User Profile was rebuilt by Rain Care (support) the box's performance was crazy impressive... really great.

Rock solid laptop and a good size to take on the road. Higher screen resolution would be ideal. I use this box on the road and it has performed like a SUPERSTAR.

For a PC Laptop Solution, I can't name a better manufacturer of laptops. By day I work as a Web Systems Architect, I have a good understanding of what makes a laptop work. Rain delivers with LiveBook Core i7 Notebook. But again-pay very close attention to your user profile... although this is a well crafted box that comes very well tested. Even the most slight change to the configuration via something like "Windows Update" could cause you troubles if you're not clear with the relationship around Operation System Registry.

Rain Care is awesome... I love the way they will dial up your laptop and the tech can walk right in and go to work on any issue. That said... make sure you call during their business day. You're out of luck nights, weekends and holidays. So if you're on the road with this laptop and at a night performance. Don't expect any support.

I was down to a MacBook Pro and this laptop. I saved will over $1k by purchasing the Livebook i7. If you're a PC, spend a little more for a product that will be your backbone. At home I'm running CuBase off this as well as all my NI gear. I love it - I sleep with it. We're really together.

Producer/DJ

Dance Music (Tribal House/Progressive House)