HP Beats with Traktor Scratch Pro 2

[djmaverick]

Do any of you have experience with the HP Beats laptop (Hewlett Packard Pavilion dm4-3090se)? I know the Beats branding doesn't make it a better laptop for music, but price and specs seem pretty decent on this machine.

[djtmoks]

You should also look into the Dell XPS 15. I got one for myself this year at christmas and love it. Engadget.com has some great reviews for laptops and have reviewed both the HP pavilion and the Dell XPS.

[djrosco]

I have an HP with Beats Audio. Had a few hassles getting all the audio working properly. But Ive been gigging with it for around 4 months now. Seems stable.
I cant recall the issues I had but I think not using beatsaudio helped a lot.

[manchild]

Dell XPS are known to not be the greatest at handling real time audio, and I know quite few people have had issues w/ the HP Envy w/ Beats Audio as well but I guess thats not exactly the same as what you are looking at

[sss18734]

They're fine. I taught a intro to DJ'ing class for a while and the kids that brought their "beats" laptops always seemed to have issues out of the box. Granted, they were also their daily computers. After some optimization they ran without issues. The specs are more than capable.

I personally thought they were built rather cheaply and did not like the high gloss finish/branding. It scratches easily and the screen was a bit wobbly for my tastes. If you're going after durability, this is not the laptop for you.

If you're willing to drop $800, check out the Dell Precision M4400. I loved mine when I had it - they are built like tanks, run very cool, and have some of the nicest screens I've ever seen on a laptop. Very professional looking, too.

[Xonetacular]

Well, having a big beats logo glowing on the back of your laptop is a good way to ensure you look like a tool while DJing. Not to mention already poor HP quality.

[crumarbit]

I use an HP DV7 with Beats Audio and it is gash. The laptop is spot on so i just installed ASIO and works perfectly now

[djmaverick]

Thanks for the info. I don't particularly like the big beats logo on the back but the red back-lit keyboard sounds pretty cool. I was also looking at the Rain laptops. They just announced a new "A2" that looks interesting: http://raincomputers.com/products/livebook-a2/

[deevey]

Thanks for the info. I don't particularly like the big beats logo on the back but the red back-lit keyboard sounds pretty cool. I was also looking at the Rain laptops. They just announced a new "A2" that looks interesting: http://raincomputers.com/products/livebook-a2/

$1599 for a horrible looking laptop with vents all over it, no backlit keyboard and specs than can be found on any corner shop ?

Those "Rain" laptops look like basic $400 OEM laptops at a highly inflated prices due to marketing blurb .. you would be better getting an IBM thinkpad and customizing the windows install to pieces. I can't see ANYTHING that makes them better for music production (correct me if i'm wrong).

$1799 would get you a 15' macbook pro, with OSX backlit keyboard, Thunderbolt, no vents all over the place and stability out of the box and easy to get serviced (I don't know if Rain have shops anywhere you can drop it in or provide pick up) - granted not everyone wants a mac but mainly due to the price.



Doesn't look very appealing :P

[Xonetacular]

Thanks for the info. I don't particularly like the big beats logo on the back but the red back-lit keyboard sounds pretty cool. I was also looking at the Rain laptops. They just announced a new "A2" that looks interesting: http://raincomputers.com/products/livebook-a2/

That's even worse than the HP and like deevey said I could find that identical laptop for $400.

If you want a proper laptop and that's your budget just get a mac, and I'm not say that as an apple/osx fanboy it's just PC laptops are built like total crap these days. I was anti-mac for years but nobody makes PC laptops that come close the macbook pro build quality anymore. Just about everything else is creaky cheap plastic junk (just pick 90% of laptops up by a corner and watch them flex or feel the screen hinges).

If you want a PC a top end lenovo thinkpad might be your best bet.