Need new laptop for DJing, suggestions?

[CherryOxide]

I need a new laptop for DJing w/traktor and a Launchpad S. Anyone have any good suggestions for a starter laptop?
I'd prefer to spend less than $1000.

[soundinmotiondj]

In general terms, ANY "new" laptop will be more than sufficient for DJing.

If you want Mac, look for a refurbished laptop - that's all that will fit into your budget.
If you are willing to go PC, then really any "major" brand version will be OK. Check the websites, and look in the "small business" section while shopping. Win7 is generally more stable and mature than Win8.

Get 8GB of RAM.
Get both USB2 and USB3 connections.
Get the largest hard drive you can find/afford. I strongly prefer more space to SSD...but opinions vary.

[djjsnu]

buy a used macbook on ebay

[deevey]

Refurb MacBooks direct from the Apple Store, Full Warranty and I've never seen a dud (and bought a few), all were brand new in every sense, one charging cable on one had some dust on it.

Currently its 799 for a 13' Macbook Air, 4GB memory, 128GB flash storage or $979 for one with 256 SSD

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

In general terms, ANY "new" laptop will be more than sufficient for DJing.

Theres currently a thread going where a poster had ridiculous problems with a well specced Sony Vaio.

[soundinmotiondj]

Theres currently a thread going where a poster had ridiculous problems with a well specced Sony Vaio.

I have seen this thread, is that what you are referring to? http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=82300

The description of the problems are:

now there is a pop that occurs once in 5 gigs that 0.1sec long, that even i didnt figured it the first 2-3 times, then i reallized that sometimes it happens but no big deal since u could not figure it out if u dont know it. also my graphics stuck sometimes only graphics, for a second when scrolling through my playlists or when loading a song.sound keeps playing well.

Neither issue sounds particularly ridiculous to me...but I will agree that any problems can be frustrating. Perhaps it is all about perspective. I built my first PC for DJing in the late 1990's. DJing with a computer was challenging at best 15-20 years ago.

Given what I know about PCs and the Windows scheduler...I am EXPECTING the graphics to "momentarily freeze" from time to time. This is how I know the scheduler is really giving the audio channel priority. To me, this is a "normal" part of DJing and not something I would even take enough notice to remember the next day.

In terms of the audio drops...that would be frustrating. A once every 5 gigs issue would certainly take a long time to ID, and even longer to evaluate any proposed fix. Those are like splinters in my brain.

Granted, the OP in that thread did mention that he has undertaken a long series of optimization's to the laptop...and perhaps that legacy of invested time is one source of frustration.

[deevey]

Granted, the OP in that thread did mention that he has undertaken a long series of optimization's to the laptop...and perhaps that legacy of invested time is one source of frustration.

And he obviously knew his way around, and spent (from the sounds of it substantial) time and frustration to try and sort it out.

I'm just about old enough and grumpy enough to realize in the past few years that the difference in price is only 15 or 20 hours of work, and I know I've spent waaayyyy more than 20 hours per year on each and every computer I've owned or built for Audio or Gaming, fucking around with registry / bios / drivers in relation to various audio / graphics / network / midi / software weirdness and issues over the years - never mind the other madness that can arise if you actually (god forbid) connect to the internet and browse to a questionable website of choice (not me of course).

If you already know a bit and PC building / tinkering is your thang, as you said any modern PC will do the trick for DJ'ing purposes.

Edit* Actually now that I think of it, 2 of the best little out-of-the-box sub $300 PC laptops for Traktor (3.3) for me were the Asus EEE (celeron) and the Lenovo S10 mk1.

[coliny]

will you play games on it?

[bassmusictho]

As everyone else is saying, MBPs (even newer retina ones sometimes) can be had for under a grand directly refurbished from apple.

[feedbackl00p]

........

[csurfleet]

I'm using an Acer Aspire S7 - compact, fast, touchscreen, I love it. Its not crashed once, in performance or practice, in the 10 months I've had it. Looks great too. Can't recommend it enough.