Your opinion: Macbook pro vs Dell XPS for traktor pro

[mindbug]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new laptop. My old one couldn't run traktor pro that good. I narrow my search down to these two:

Macbook pro 15" (2,8Ghz intel core 2 duo, 4GB DDR3 Sdram 1066Mhz, 320GB HDD, MacOS)

Dell XPS 16 (2,8Ghz intel core 2 duo, 4GB DDR3 Sdram 1066Mhz, 320GB HDD, windows vista 64-bit)

the Macbook is 600€ more expensive then the XPS. I was leaning towards the xps because I can use it for more then traktor pro alone. I'm abit afraid of the performance of traktor under windows versus MacOS.

Is Macbook with the same hardware much faster then under windows vista 64bit?
Is there a performance difference of traktor pro under 32 or 64 bit windows?
What laptop would u choose for running traktor pro and why?

Your input is greatly appreciated!

[DvlsAdvct]

I run Traktor Pro on Windows 64-bit and have no issues what-so-ever. It runs in 32-bit compatibility mode, I think, and runs very smooth.

The price difference is what kept me from buying the Macbook. I had a Dell for 3 years and it didn't give me any issues whatsoever that I didn't cause myself (downloaded a virus once).

I would save the money, buy the Dell, and use the 600 euros to buy, y'know, music.

But please, in all responses to this, please don't start with the "Mac is great and PC sucks" cause I'm just going to delete them as being completely unproductive to the conversation.

[BentoSan]

The Dell XPS are aimed at being gaming laptops, theres really no reason why you need to buy with one of them.

Try the Studio range laptops that are basicly the same thing with a weaker videocard, you will save yourself heaps of $ for a pc that is equally as powerful.

I for instance bought the best dell inspiron i could afford (studio's wernt out at that stage) and got an equally powerful computer for making music as if i spent $4k on an XPS.

Oh yeah... after tweaking out my Vista instal Traktor pro and other audio programs run like a dream without crashing. Take care of your PC and it will take care of you

[mindbug]

First off all thank you for the quick response. I have a couple of reasons for going for the xps 16.

I do play some games and my gamemachine is 6 years old so I can't play the newer games anymore. With the xps I do not need to invest in a desktop pc. the second reason is that I wanted an intel core 2 duo 2,8Ghz and DDR3 memory and dell has it only on a few models including xps.

The biggest question for me is going mac or pc. I hear from some people that mac offers better performance with equal hardware. Can someone confirm that?

[jaysian]

Big vote for the MBP. No problems at all

[14N-FR]

Macbook pro!

I bought a new one at Xmas and will never look at a windows machine again.

[BentoSan]

If you wanna play games then get the PC system for sure - the graphics chipset will be better than what you can get on a mac(provided you actaully spend the money to get a decent one). Also the compatibility with games will be much better on the pc system - that said you could bootcamp and use windows on the mac system for gaming purposes.

Also yes, with the exact same specs a mac will our perform a pc that is true, but if you tweak your pc install then the difference is prety marginal. If your bootcamping into windows this becomes nil, they will both perform the same if the hardware is the same.

600 Euro is alot of extra money to be spending for minor performance differences that i highly doubt you would even notice when djing anyway. The only time you would notice a difference djing is if you had well hardcore rig doing something using Traktor + Ableton at the same with more plugins than you can poke a stick at. In which case id still stick with the PC because the choice of VST's is alot broader, mac is slowly catching up in terms of plugin support - however it will be second to pc's in terms of compatibility for a long time to come.

If your only using Traktor Pro then it doesnt matter which system you are using(provided you have good hardware and good drivers) - they both will perform equally well.

[Chilly]

OS/2 and it's not even close.

[slyooney]

You could also go for a basic macbook for traktor/mixing and buy another computer for gaming ?

[sYn0ptik]

I would suggest no matter what system that you use your traktor system for music exclusively. Get the system tuned for producing sound and keep it like that.
I used to try and balance out gaming and making music on the same system and I always found myself switching sound devices for good game sound then having the hassle of needing to switch back to the ASIO sound device for using traktor.
In the end I decided that music was a better outlet and use of my time, so I ended up selling all my PC's and buying a Mac, that way games were not really an option... since then I work on music a lot more.

Cheers,
sYn