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PC Purchase Advice

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 12:43 pm
by andyp
Hi there

I'm writing on behalf of my neighbour, a conductor/composer/arranger/teacher and avid Sibelius user, who's looking to upgrade his hardware, but who is a bit of a technophobe.

He is currently using Sibelius 2 (!!!) but has a properly licensed copy of Sibelius 7, which he has yet to get to grips with. His desktop PC is showing its age, so he would like to use Sibelius 7 on a new computer.

His seemingly simple question to me was "what laptop should I buy ?", but having looked at the software version/hardware compatibility table on the support site, the answer isn't as straightforward as I thought/hoped it would be !

I'd be really grateful if I could get any advice on the following:

which OS will support Sibelius 7 ?
is there an upgrade path from Sibelius 7 to a newer version or would that require a new purchase ?
does the install require a CD ROM drive or can it be downloaded online ?


Given that the upgrade from Windows XP is likely to be a huge culture shock anyway, I was initially leaning towards recommending a Mac, but think that may be a step too far !


Any advice you can give would be really welcome

Cheers
AndyP

Re: PC Purchase Advice

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 3:31 pm
by bobp
Everyone will have their own opinion. In the case of Sibelius, I can think of no compelling reason to go with a Mac. But that's just my opinion. Yes, Windows 10 looks a lot different than XP, but all the right-click functions are the same. That may or may not help. I have Sibelius on both a desk-top and a lap-top. The main thing Sibelius needs is ram. The specs say that 4gb is OK. But you really need 8gb. There are upgrades, but there have been no real improvements since v 7.5.
The laptop I have Sibelius on is a bit older. It has an i5 processor, 8 gb of ram. No special graphics power needed. I have a 1TB solid state drive in my laptop. Everything loads much faster. Solid state drive is not necessary, but a hard drive should be at least 500gb

Re: PC Purchase Advice

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:06 pm
by andyp
Thanks Bob - really appreciate your advice.

Win10/RAM/SSD is the way to go I think

Cheers
Andrew

Re: PC Purchase Advice

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:08 am
by MikeLyons
One other thing I would reccommend is to get a BIG screen. 17" or 19" if you can. With the higher resolutions of modern OSs, some things on the screen can be microscopic in size. As someone whose eyesight is slowly fading I need a large screen. it really helps.

Re: PC Purchase Advice

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:28 pm
by andyp
Thanks Mike - that's a really good point - my neighbour and I are of an age where that is a big consideration.

Whilst he'll appreciate the flexibility of a laptop allowing him to use Sibelius wherever he travels - a large screen at home is a must I think.


Cheers
Andrew