Cheap DJ Laptop Recommendations???

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Originally Posted by MisterMoleyMole

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

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Not all dells are shit I had an Inspiron that was great for making music on


Dell studios have a MAJOR Latency problem so stay away serious !!!!

Well i have a dell xps 1530 great stuff never let me down yet

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Originally Posted by RSDJMoniker

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!

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What a great post. Thanks for this. I'm a big fan of Lenovo/IBM laptops as well and considering one as my next gigging laptop (Asus is looking good, though).

I'm curious what you think of Sony Vaios. I've been gigging with the same one for years and I'm convinced it will still be working when cockroaches evolve upright posture and invent PostIts and Pringles. I love the thing but it's underpowered and bulky compared to recent ones. I tend to be a brand-loyal guy when something works for me, so I am definitely interested in your opinion on the newer Vaios.

Re Toshibas, I have no experience with the brand, but there's a sticky thread on the NI Traktor forum dedicated to problems Traktor seems tohave with them.

+1 happy Vaio user here. (although they are pricey, so i got used one).

Theres a whole host of problems with Toshibas.

Vaios , i like. They are expensive but ive only heard one bad report and that was from a guy that just took it back after a hour of using so i dont trust that report.

Ive gotta say i hear nothing but good stuff about Asus. They just seem to work and last for years. I know some people who swear by them.

To duerr:
I bought an HP G6000 in tesco about an year ago for £ 380, 2 gig ram, AMD 64 Athlon X2 and i downgraded to XP ( as it came with Vista).
I've been running Traktor 3.4 for about 5 months with no a single issue...

Thats brave man, buying a laptop from Tesco.
Glad it worked out though, hey "Every Little Helps" teehee (non english will not get that).

''Every little helps''...classic :)

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Originally Posted by steveboyett

Re Toshibas, I have no experience with the brand, but there's a sticky thread on the NI Traktor forum dedicated to problems Traktor seems tohave with them.

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I had a cheap Tosh sold it to get my macbook it performed very well the model I had was a L350 with a core2 I paid £450 ( at the moment with the state the uk is in that prob shit compared with the US :eek: but cheap in the uk)

Ran Ableton ( with a shit load of Vsts), Traktor Pro, Reason, Torq, Serato

no probs

and one BIGGY I managed to install XP on it every single windows lappy comes with vista and alot of the manufacturers have killed xp drivers

something to think about when buying a cheapo windows laptop !


the only other brands that I can find to install XP no probs are Asus and not to sure with lappys but a mate got a Dell desktop and demanded XP on it they did it no probs.

the reason why I hate Vista is well on XP I can disable this and that and get the computer idle running on about 80 mbs with 11 process on vista the min I can get it down to is 500 mb on idle.

dont get me wrong and please windows freaks dont give me any hate I just got a macbook and TBH they just work !!!

think about that THEY JUST PLAIN WORK OUT OF THE BOX !

and if you really NEED XP / Vista they work better than most other manufacturers

not being bias here but there is a reason you see nearly every big name dj using macs



and most people that hate on macs are bloody jealous simply they cant afford them ! or are really geeky people


hope that didnt sound like a rant it wasnt ment to be when I started typing :D
another thing ( sorry ) but just using OSX out on a gig with out tweaking anything un nerved me at first but then its actually very liberating


the saying is very true once you go mac you never go back

cut out the weed the drink ect ect for a month save up and go mac

hope that helped m8 :) dont ever listen to me listen to yourself wise words :eek::eek::eek:

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Originally Posted by Karlos Santos

Thats brave man, buying a laptop from Tesco.
Glad it worked out though, hey "Every Little Helps" teehee (non english will not get that).

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I got my Tosh from tesco LOL


that tosh was good as not as good as a mac though GRRRRRRR!