Good laptops for Traktor?

[DJViceral]

Hi guys, new to the DJ Techtool forums. Sorry if this question gets asked a lot and if it has been answered feel free to link me to the thread.

So my question is, what are the best laptops for Traktor? I am coming in to some money and I am going to make the switch over to Digital DJing. I already have the gear I am going to get picked out but I am still trying to decide on a laptop. I know most people I see using traktor are using Macbook Pros but I am not a fan of apple. If it is the most optimal way to run traktor I might consider it but I would like to stay away from Macs if I can. The main laptops I have been looking into have been alienware laptops, mainly the Alienware 14. They are powerhouses and would allow me to do some gaming on the side when im not using the laptop to DJ or do school work. Would it be a good option or are there other laptops out there that would be better? I have a pretty large price range but I would rather not go above 1.5k for the laptop.

for people who tldr:
1)No macs unless they are the BEST way to run Traktor
2)Price range up to 1.5K
3)Will be using laptop for college as well as DJing (and possibly gaming)
4)The kit I will be using with it will be a Kontrol Z2 and two Kontrol F1s (possible expansion in the future)
5)Looking into Alienware 14

[Kaek]

Retina MBP 13

Core Audio

[tothecloudd]

get i7, SSD storage, 4 or more gigs of ram [the more you can get the better], as light and durable as you can find (you gonna be using it for school so you will be carrying it alot], windows 7 home premium 64bit will do unless you need to connect to a domain then go pro, and a good external storage for your stuff. best products for support based on my experience are HP and Sony.

[Student]

Any Macbook will do fine. Never had a single crash with it and I could always update anything. Once you go Mac, you never go back

[deevey]

If you are technically inclined pretty much any modern Windows Laptop i5/i7 with a reasonable amount of RAM and SSD if you can afford a decent size one.

Personally I'd say Lenovo is the most reliable windows laptop seeing as you don't like Mac so I'll start you off on that.

However if you are not technically inclined and want something that'll just "Work" every time without dicking around needing to optimize the windows install, deal with driver conflicts, bios issues, potential malware/virus' etc etc .. get a Macbook and know you have probably the best all-round machines there is for Traktor without spending any time configuring it. Actually probably one of the best machines out there bar-none, once you factor in the newer processor, Iris graphics, Retina screen, thunderbolt2 etc etc ..


For actually doing Work its Mac, for gaming there's bootcamp, for everything else there's VMware.

[Chelan]

However if you are not technically inclined and want something that'll just "Work" every time without dicking around needing to optimize the windows install, deal with driver conflicts, bios issues, potential malware/virus' etc etc .. get a Macbook and know you have probably the best all-round machines there is for Traktor without spending any time configuring it. Actually probably one of the best machines out there bar-none, once you factor in the newer processor, Iris graphics, Retina screen, thunderbolt2 etc etc ..


For actually doing Work its Mac, for gaming there's bootcamp, for everything else there's VMware.

+1 on this bit of info. There is a reason why you see the Macs being used a lot. As far as I can remember, my most major screw up with my Mac was my fault. Thing is you have to force yourself to be patient with learning how things work if you are new to Macs. Wish I could better inform you on specs, but I myself am trying to decide the best amount of RAM and HD space to make it last a good 5+ years for my needs.

Welcome to the DJTT forums.

[makar1]

Get a used Macbook for DJing (<$500), then use the other $1000 to build a nice desktop gaming rig that will outperform any "gaming laptop".

[deevey]

Wish I could better inform you on specs, but I myself am trying to decide the best amount of RAM and HD space to make it last a good 5+ years for my needs.

i5 or i7, 8gb/256sdd will do the trick for the next year or two them just upgrade the SSD when the prices come down a bit more.

Personally I don't think theres much point in not going for a retina screen if you are planning for it to last 5 yrs as most if not all apps will support the retina display by then and be optimized to take advantage of the extra real-estate properly (rather than just making things smaller!)

[Chelan]

i5 or i7, 8gb/256sdd will do the trick for the next year or two them just upgrade the SSD when the prices come down a bit more.

Thanks for the recommendations deevey. I was definitely looking at an i7 with retina display. I have an external already but my biggest problem on my old Mac was that I ran out of HD space so was seriously considering a 512 although 256 would probably be ok, just have to move data to external a bit more often then a 512.

I think my biggest concern is wondering if 8GB of RAM is gonna be ok 4-5 yrs down the road. Just wondering if the use for 16GB is gonna come sooner then I hoped. Who knows though? I don't go crazy with Final Cut Pro or Logic (at least not yet).

[arsman]

I actually hate macs before because of the price compared to similar spec laptops.

Then I got a Imac and a branded pc at the same time. same usage, internet/work/photoshop/word/powerpoint/video editing/etc. I have reformatted my pc more than twice, bought another pc while the imac is still working as if i just bought it. not even slowed down to a bit or crashed or reformatted. In the long run, it cost less to get a mac.

I'm no fanboy but with mac, I just plug and played. with pc, I have to choose a lot of different optimizations to use it properly.