Cheap DJ Laptop Recommendations???

[JesC]

Ok, so I got a little out of hand, and yes I've owned, fixed...serveral pc's laptops/desktops & even servers. Dell, Toshiba, Sony, HP, Compaq, Asus, Shuttle & my fav DIY desktops. They all have the + & - ...The thing that kills be about working on dell's is that the drivers on the cd's provided never work with the laptop/desktop that your working on. In the past it has become a wild goose driver chase, and its not fun.

If the guy wants a laptop for low $$$ I would go the used mac route, being that they are quality machines and they retain there value if he needs to resell. Not too long ago I saw a dj rocking Serato on a 12" Powerbook w/processor under 1ghz.

In regards to getting a Toshiba, I would recommened staying away from the Intel Core 2 Dual processor, go the AMD route. The (C2D) have alot of problems with audio drops outs. My previous work horse was a Toshiba 2.8 ghz w/1.5gb ram and it was a good machine up until the little virus problem & ac power supply started to give me crap.

I've used both PC & Mac, and believe me in the long run a PC will end up costing you more than a mac, being that you will not have to upgrade parts or the whole computer for atleast +3 years or longer if u get a mac.

Plus optimizing a mac is very easy, and not that much has to be done. On a PC you have to know ur "ish" or use some 3rd party programs and on top of that you need to have Anti-Virus/Spy/Mal and so on. You can choose to not use any protection but you'll end up paying the price like a did and getting a virus and other junk that may infect ur computer.

If you like tweaking & fine tuning ur machine get a PC, if you want something solid right out of the box get a Mac.

Once again, sorry...but lastnite I was having a rough day, and I saw Dell and it sent chills down my spin.

I hope this post help you out Mr Deurr

[jasonj]

I owned a Dell Desktop and only had one problem.
When it came to upgrading the Motherboard I could not as the mounts did not line up.
Although I now have a Compaq that I rebuilt out of spare parts and have the same problem.

I would just research what you are looking for.
I have a friend who is gigging with a Dell laptop and he likes it just fine.
I am using a Toshiba and occasionally i steal a friends MacBook.

[wrong chris]

hmm well it looks like a used dell or hp would be my best bet, i'm not a mac guy. like I said it doesn't have to be superpowerful. 1g ram and 2gb processor is probably all I need to run traktor3.2 smoothly. Upgrading shouldn't be an issue for me as I only use the one software for djing and don't plan on changing my setup. after all traktor3.2 is my digital answer for tech1200s
thanks guys

[Foreverhex]

Wow, lots of Dell stigmatism. The usually run under $1k brand new. I've had great experiences with them. I'm on my 3rd laptop. They have about a 5 year life in them.

[DJdesolous]

I run a Toshiba Satellite P105, upgraded HD to 500GB, 4GB of RAM completely unsecured (no antivirus/antispyware protection) but am safe about it. I have a 20GB Linux partition installed that I do any downloading and virus checking on before moving to my Windows partition. When in Windows I don't go online under any circumstance, everything that is not needed to run Traktor, VDJ, or SSL is completely disabled. When I want to use it as a "regular" laptop, I boot into Linux.

Anyhow, I paid about 1300 at the time (2 years ago now) and it does the job fine for me.

Ok, so I got a little out of hand, and yes I've owned, fixed...serveral pc's laptops/desktops & even servers. Dell, Toshiba, Sony, HP, Compaq, Asus, Shuttle & my fav DIY desktops. They all have the + & - ...The thing that kills be about working on dell's is that the drivers on the cd's provided never work with the laptop/desktop that your working on. In the past it has become a wild goose driver chase, and its not fun.

If the guy wants a laptop for low $$$ I would go the used mac route, being that they are quality machines and they retain there value if he needs to resell. Not too long ago I saw a dj rocking Serato on a 12" Powerbook w/processor under 1ghz.

In regards to getting a Toshiba, I would recommened staying away from the Intel Core 2 Dual processor, go the AMD route. The (C2D) have alot of problems with audio drops outs. My previous work horse was a Toshiba 2.8 ghz w/1.5gb ram and it was a good machine up until the little virus problem & ac power supply started to give me crap.

I've used both PC & Mac, and believe me in the long run a PC will end up costing you more than a mac, being that you will not have to upgrade parts or the whole computer for atleast +3 years or longer if u get a mac.

Plus optimizing a mac is very easy, and not that much has to be done. On a PC you have to know ur "ish" or use some 3rd party programs and on top of that you need to have Anti-Virus/Spy/Mal and so on. You can choose to not use any protection but you'll end up paying the price like a did and getting a virus and other junk that may infect ur computer.

If you like tweaking & fine tuning ur machine get a PC, if you want something solid right out of the box get a Mac.

Once again, sorry...but lastnite I was having a rough day, and I saw Dell and it sent chills down my spin.

I hope this post help you out Mr Deurr

[Karlos Santos]

I picked up a used dell d630 for £300 .. its a 2.4ghz with 4gb of ram and a 320gb hard drive. Its the business for me!!!

I've had it runnin traktor and ableton at the same time with no issues

Don't listen to all these people slatin dell, there just jumpin on the "slate the big companies" bandwaggon. Bet none of you have even owned a dell.... oh thats right don't tell me , a freind has ... and he said .....

Was that friend by any chance someone on a forum that had a problem then decided to tell the world that the problem he has is with ALL dells.... RUBBISH !!! ..... just don't do too much reading of teh over negative NI forum about laptops or you'll come away with a bank balance 2 grand lighter and a shiny posh lookin laptop with a picture of some fruit on the top that is good yes but you could have spent a lot less and have a machine that can do pretty much the same.


RRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

Good god is no-one allowed an opinion !
I have 2 DELL pcs and both are problematic. I have 2 Mac and have never had a single problem. That is my opinion and it is made from my personal experience and im entitled to give it. I dont listen to what other people say to form my opinion i try things myself.
If i was slagging off 'big companies' as you say id slate Apple because their customer service and tech support is dog-shit. Dells customer/tech support is excellent ive had loads of great help but i needed it cus the damn things dont work properly. I dont need Apples Customer service because the damn things work.

Im not into the Mac vs PC debate at all. I just know what i know.

Cheap Laptop.
Ive got Traktor 3.4.1 running like a dream my backup old iBook G4 1.2ghz 1.25Ram with all the music on external drive with a Faderfox and Keylock on.

You dont need a flashy MBP for traktor3.

Its just nice to have one

Oh an the silly pic was a clearly a joke. Jesc posted one so i thought i would.

[Monika.mhz]

Oh an the silly pic was a clearly a joke. Jesc posted one so i thought i would.

Just trying to keep us ALL on track, including jesc.
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Toshiba: I have a hard time recomending Toshiba laptops. They have a few oddly proprietary parts. LCDs for Toshibas can be a bit pricey, their keyboards are extremely specific (and no windows key? really?) Not to mention I see more shattered DC jacks in Toshiba's than almost any other machine. A shattered jack can lead to massive shorting, which can lead to motherboard failure, data loss, and even fire. Keep in mind most Toshiba laptops are manufactured by Acer. And acer is another one of those companies that I have a hard time recommending.

Acer: This company focuses on value (emachines, gateway, OEMing for Toshiba, etc). I just have a hard time recommending them A blinding focus on value is great for the short term easy end user, but when the laptops go though as much hell as we DJs put them through, you'll end up with something broken and fast (don't get me started on how easy it is to ruin a HDD on an acer because of the poor shock protection. [it's even bad enough that they had to design their own software to help that!])

Dell: Dell makes an alright laptop to be honest. Just be careful. I'd recommend getting something from a line with lots of reviews/purchases. Why? If there is a massive failure or problem, you've got a better chance of getting help. and do not, i repeat, do NOT get a 17" dell. They still can't seem to get their grounding issues worked out, and I see lots of strange failures in those laptops (and do you really want a DJ laptop with grounding issues?) Their laptops also don't take kindly to most hardware repairs. I have a higher failure rate with jack repairs on Dells than any other type.

HP/Compaq: I used to like these laptops quite a bit, but in the last 2 years they've gone really down hill. Across 50% of their business/performance laptops they've had a big problem with the bios. The fan doesn't spin aggressively enough and causes whacky problems like the mini PCI-Express slot refusing to recognize any device plugged into it (no wireless!), leading to LCD issues, and eventually motherboard failure. It's such a massive problem they recalled the ENTIRE dv3000 dv6000 series among others. But it's a quiet recall. So those who don't know about it are screwed. Not to mention they havn't corrected the problem in a lot of their laptops that are even being churned out now. tx series laptops are suffering this problem etc, but do NOT fall under the recall. What's the best thing to do? find out if that laptop has a bios update. if it does? steer clear of it. if it doesn't that's one of the laptops that is NOT falling under this whacky engineering failure.
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However, asside from that one weirdness HP has some of the COOLEST warranty service ever. For a DJ, their 2 year accidental damage warranty is amaaazing. And for a DJ accidental damage happens! So to be able to just call up hp and say "some bloke spilled his beer on my laptop, fix it please!" is awesome.

Compal: This is one of the OEMs out there that builds stuff for all kinds of different companies. They also make their own rebrandable laptops. and are one of the big 5. I love love love these laptops. Extremely good value, easy to service, and low dpc latencies. Every laptop I've owned in the last 3 years (with exception of my custom built solid state laptop I did 3 years ago) has started with a compal chassis! I really can't recommend them enough. The downside? Most of the companies that sell compal chassis don't offer the best warranty plans, so it means you might have to do all the legwork. Hard drive goes bad? you might have to contact western digital. etc. there's always a downside. heh

Asus: Another really great company. They really focus on solid performance along with great value. They just began OEMing for dell and apple recently which is pretty nifty. I don't have much bad to say about these laptops except they WILL be a bit pricier than your typical laptop and again, warranty can suffer a tad when it's not from a big-box.

Lenovo/IBM: I love these laptops, and they just started making a ton of sub 1k laptops. I've been hearing a number of performance complaints and odd complaints with that series of laptops though, so I'm not sure about them, but honestly, I very very rarely see problems with lenovo/ibm. and boy are they rugged laptops. They definitely give the other manufacturers a run for their money!

Apple: good solid machines, and consistency. that's the biggest thing to remember about apple, is you can count on every single machine to be the same and there are so few models to choose from you can be sure things are going to be simply put and organized. I personally don't like apple, their business practices, or not being the master of my own domain (If i want to use my wireless card, i'm gonna use it dammit!). But that doesn't change the fact that they make a good laptop.


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Things to keep in mind.

Wireless: If you can, get your laptop WITHOUT the wireless card, and pick up a gigabyte draft N card (or any atheros chipset). Why? Because the Atheros driver is muuuuch nicer on DPC latencies than other drivers (especially intel).

Processor: Go intel. Seriously. Most audio software was designed around an intel, and it will just run better with an intel. I could go into a lot of details, but just trust me. you'll be sooo much happier with buying an equally priced intel processor when it comes to audio applications.

RAM: you don't need to get super fancy ram! I use Patriot. It's remarkably low timings, and high reliability is jaw dropping when you compare their price to folks like kingston or ocz. Not to mention everyone is using samsung chips anyway! and if it's got samsung chips they offer a nice lifetime warranty! Of course, most laptops have 'asynchronous dual-channel'. what's that mean? It means that if you put in a 2g and a 1g chip, it will still run in dual channel as best it can(until it has to start pushing over into the 3rd gig). it's pretty brilliant. So don't worry about matching sticks, just worry about getting as much ram as you can afford to put in your machine (remember 3.5 is your cap in 32bit windows)

HDD: you don't NEED high speed. I promise. What you probably DO need? space. the 500g western digital is running for 100 bucks. and with it's 2 platter design is wicked fast for a 5400rpm drive. If you're just DEADset on a fast HDD, i'd recomend the scorpio black 320g. you will drop 120 instead of 100, and end up with a ridiculously fast HDD with a good chunk of space. Keep in mind though, these hard drives are loud (in terms of signal AND volume)

Otherwise, most other features are really up to you. choose wisely though! As we all know, the wrong driver can KILL your dpc latencies. Also, i'm always happy to offer my mean spirited opinions on laptops for everyone. Good hunting!

[wrong chris]

^^thanks for sharing that rsdjmoniker it looks like you know what your talking about when it comes to this kind of stuff. I'll definitely keep these suggestions in mind when it comes to start shopping. thank you!

[Mindframe]

One thing I haven't seen anyone mention yet is firewire & audio interfaces.. If you have a firewire interface that you play through, your choice of laptop is going to make or break your DJing experience.

Last week I picked up an HP tx2 laptop (the one that converts to a tablet with a capacitive multitouch screen) as I thought it would make a great DJ laptop. It can lie flat on the table in front of the VCI-100, and has a touch screen for nice easy playlist or effects juggling.

Alas, it seems it is not to be. I have a MOTU Ultralite mk3 firewire interface. The laptop itself has no firewire ports, so I purchased a Startech ExpressCard (TI Chipset) to work with it. No matter which version of the MOTU firewire drivers I use, the ultralite emits no sound. The ultralite is recognized fine, shows up in the applications, but it's as if the ASIO buffer never gets flushed to the device. At this point I'm chalking it up to incompatibilities with the onboard peripheral chipset & the firewire expresscard.

The other deal killer with the TX2 is that the capacitive touch screen (works with a light touch, like the iPhone) works great in every application I try EXCEPT Deckadance (Traktor feels too NI-ish to me :P ), thus negating the whole point of getting the touch screen. It works, it's just really finicky, and finicky != ease of on-stage use.

In Canada here, the tx2 is going for $1100, and the MacBook white for $1150. MacBooks are known for having a rock solid firewire interface (also the only laptops with a 6 pin port), and thanks to bootcamp they can also run Windows fine (although I really don't care too much about the OS as long as the apps I need will run). Thank the gods for 14 day return policies!

[R2D2]

anything with a core 2 and 2 gigs of ram and a return policy

If it dont work restore it and take it back


better still save up and get a mac no fucking around with tweaking

after having Dell, HP, Tosh, Advent and Sony lappys my new Macbook is prob the best performing best looking and easiest to use laptop I have ever owned.