Hi JR,
I got a StudioLive 24.4.2 three years ago and straight away used it with a laptop with firewire card, router and iPad. It's been fab but had a few glitches with live recording but no problems with live mixing.
Decided to replace the laptop with a Mac Mini 18 months ago and controlled it from the ipad with remote desktop (mocha VNC) so no monitor mouse etc. needed.
Again live mixing fine but a few recording problems.
A year ago I bought an Acer T232H full hd touchscreen to use with the Mac as the remote desktop can be fiddly and I wouldn't need a keyboard and mouse by using the TouchBase driver. This works ok but the Mac OS is not my cup of tea and it will never be proper touch screen computer.
So I went back to looking for a firewire PC solution which would then be 'RM' ready.
I tried the demo with the touchscreen and I think it may be the way to go but not convinced yet.

Anyway, to answer your question!
I bought a custom built mini PC with Win8.1 pre installed from a great guy on eBay.
It's an Intel NUC DC3217BY with Thunderbolt, wifi (no wired ethernet), usb 2 (shame it's not 3), 64gig ssd and hdmi. It is tiny and fixes easily to the back of the monitor with the included vesa mount, connects to the firewire of the mixer via an apple adapter boots in 10 seconds and works beautifully!
Total cost, touchscreen, pc and adapter less than 600 uk pounds.
That's a bit more than half the price of an all in one touchscreen pc with thunderbolt or firewire (dell or sony I think).
Great with the classic studiolive and ready for the RM.
Unfortunately intel have stopped production but there still some out there.
Cheers,
Pete, Liverpool UK.

Also,
Had a look at the xps18, excellent but think it's too small for foh 32 channels unless Presonus make the surface interface more customisable to use the limited real estate. Should add that to wish list.
No thunderbolt but that's something I really want which may not be a problem for others.
I've messed with the demo a lot and not in love with it yet.
Good Luck,
Pete.

I ended up going with a HP Envy Recline 27" all in one with an i7. It isn't as portable as I was hoping for, but It performs amazingly.

Hi,
I've got HP Envy envy!
Think 23" is big enough at 1920x1080 but 27" nice.
Do you not record your shows?
Cheers, P

Hello PJK,

Happy New Year! Curious on what you are recording to with the NUC? Removable HD, Flash Drive?

I just upgraded from a SL 16.4.2 that was racked with a monster i7 water-cooled beast. I used it to capture live recordings and then mix/master in Studio One 2....I was spoiled by the convenience

Now I have an acer 23" i5 8gig ram 1T sys drive to control my RM32ai and my plan is to run Ethernet cable from the acer FOH to my 8U rack housing the RM, wifi router, and the NUC. In addition to the thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter, I even purchased a USB to Ethernet adapter to make the connections between all computers and the mixer bulletproof... (wifi active for iPads/iPhones)

Any insight you can share on this NUC is greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Anthony

Hi Anthony,
A Happy New Year to you too.
I'm recording to a 16GB Corsair Flash drive.
I don't know if this would carry the extra workload of recording from the RM.
It's very convenient to then plug into another computer for mixing/backing up.
There are some thunderbolt hubs available to add Gigabit ethernet, Firewire, USB 3 etc. to the NUC, pricey but compact.
I am reluctant to go for the RM as at first it seemed a more compact setup but now seems too complex and needing of extras.
Cheers,
Pete.

Just tried UC Surface with my Sony 24" VAIO all-in-wonder the other day. After an initial problem with windows font sizes was fixed it worked well. Did not try the FireWire recording yet, but the same VAIO records rock solid with my 16.4.2 using only 5% CPU for 16 channels. So, in theory it should work.

Looking forward to Dante since that opens up a world of possibilities, it was tough finding a AIO with FW built in.

We just recently switched 18" laptop to a 27" Acer All-in-One that Costco had on sale. Since we are only using it for live mixing and not recording, I wasn't terribly concerned about CPU or RAM - it is an I7, though. Having more real estate sure makes it easier for old eyes to read the channel labels, but since I'm not running any higher resolution than the laptop, I didn't gain more channels visible on the UC Surface - I can get 19 of 32 displayed.

With your i7 you should be able to do serious recording with Dante and your RM32AI.

My lowly i3 in the 24" VAIO is not even breaking a sweat recording the entire band using all channels of my 16.4.2 over FW400, it can even run the DMX lighting.

I grabbed a Dell XPS 18 refurb on newegg for $430 and it works fantastic. I'm only using for mixing as it doesn't have any firewire connectivity, but that was intentional as I use my laptop for recording since it's still set up for my old studiolive 24 which I sold to pick up the RM32. It sounds amazing. Love the new preamps. I gained 8 inputs and 6 auxes as well as valuable real estate in the van as well as the stage. Plus, everything sounds better which is always the goal. Can't wait to see what goodies each new update brings. After using the control surface for my old stusiolive, I really love how well thought out the new uc is laid out.

With the XPS18 - how many channels are you able to view on the screen at one time?

Thanks,
Jon

Hi John,
I know question wasn't intended for me but:
XPS18 has resolution of 1920x1080 so it shows the same number as all monitors of that res. irrespective of size.
Think it's 19 channels visible, been a few days since I messed with the demo.
Cheers,
Pete.

This is one of those cases where the "When will Presonus port UC Surface to Android?" should really be answered. There are a number of fairly large (in the 20 inch range) format Android tablets out there that are very inexpensive; it would be really nice to be able to run UC Surface on these.

Presonus? Any Comment???

Just wanted to update that I ended up grabbing the XPS 18. I went with the i5, 8gb Ram and non-SSD. I'll likely upgrade it to an SSD at some point. I went back and forth quite a bit between the XPS 18 and the Envy Recline 23" but in the end, the portability of the XPS and ease of transportation made it win out. I wasn't gaining any real fader space with the Envy, just biger faders since the screen was physically larger with the same resolution. The XPS 18 with the feet in the back is just perfect for FOH for me, and 1 swipe is all it takes to see faders 20-32. I had an initial issue with application scaling in windows 8 that was easily resolved - now if UC Surface would only run full screen I'd be a happy camper.

- Jon