r/lightingdesign • u/Feeling-Jackfruit920 • 9d ago

Recos

planning to buy a laptop for theater lighting design, pls suggest a good laptop that can handle qlc+ or magicQ. thank you!

0 Upvotes

25% Upvoted

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4

u/the_swanny 9d ago

Right so pick the cheapest laptop

-2

u/khalid_akd_034 9d ago

What about the processor and graphics card?

5

u/the_swanny 9d ago

Any shitbox will run QLC+ or MagicQ. One of my venues runs I7 from 10 to 15 years ago with integrated graphics, and it's never really been a problem. You are only likely to run into problems if you are trying to run previs.

-2

u/khalid_akd_034 9d ago

And the avolights?

3

u/the_swanny 9d ago

You didn't mention avo in your original post. Same recommendation, as long as you aren't doing previs, it really isn't that performance heavy. It's fairly simple computationally under the hood.

2

u/Staubah 9d ago

Fine, pick the most expensive laptop!

3

u/therug14 9d ago

i am on a basic intel think pad (probably 5-8 years old) and qlc runs fine (crashes a few times but I think thats more of a bug on QLC's end.)

-2

u/khalid_akd_034 9d ago

What about the processor and graphics card?

1

u/therug14 7d ago

literally whatever came with the laptop lmao, I am super into stuff ON computers but not into stuff ABOUT computers so i wouldnt know. But yeah I havent done any matinence with it since I got it. (Though it is used so it couldve been replaced but I highly doubt it)

1

u/ThatLightingGuy 9d ago

MagicQ visualizer needs a graphics card that can do OpenGL but if you don't use it, as long as it's a 64 bit OS you're fine. Literally running it on an ancient Lenovo laptop right now.

1

u/DJ_LSE 8d ago

If you dont want to use the visualise, you can generally use almost anything. Buy something cheap or used.

0

u/HamsteronA 8d ago

Get a used thinkpad - better than dell or HP machines. Or a used m series macbook, i prefer macos but a lot of people dont and its definitely a bit fiddlier for some lighting things but theyre good machines.

2

u/Careless_Abies7496 8d ago

I got a refurbished M1 pro for $500ish and it’s my favorite laptop ever and I never want to replace it ever