I wanted some advice on getting a laptop for my Traktor Kontrol S4 because my current laptop just can’t run Traktor at all and I’ve really tried everything from installing vista, win 7 and XP, disabling wifi and all the other tedious things listed on NI’s grocery list, including the disabling of all services that could cause DPC spikes. I might want to add that the laptop was bought in 2007 and uses a 1.6 ghz dual core intel processor. I think it’s time to get a new one.
I tried using the search function, and i didn’t really find anything. But I heard over on the NI forums that ASUS Laptops are pretty good, if someone has one, what latency are you using your s4 with it?
You should still be able to use your laptop. Have you upgraded to the latest version? The latest one fixed a lot of cpu spikes for me at least.
High resolution screens are important to me so it severely limits my options. If you have a grand, pick up an Asus G53 and call it a day. Mine with a i7 1.63 processor can get down to about 7 seconds of latency before it starts acting up.Great screen and the cooling system is as good as it gets in a laptop.
I also like the Dell Precision series - they have some of the nicest screens ever and are very robust, durable notebooks - some of the nicest looking notebooks in my opinion, too.
If you’re an apple fanboy, you can get a MBP for a grand quite easily.
But I still find myself going back to my pair of Lenovo T61’s - You can get a fully loaded one used for about $500 and they are more than you will ever need to run Traktor. Their C2D processors actually outperform my Asus due to the much higher clock speed.
yeah man i tried everything including updating the traktor software and using every possible combination of drivers. I’ve literally spent months trying to fix it and i just can’t get it to run properly without pops and clicks.
I should also not that I use 2 turntables with timecode, so they should cause some extra strain on the cpu, can an Asus G53 handle that with 7 ms latency?
Macbook Pro. If you still want a windows PC then Asus is good usually. My old Asus w/ a 2.2 Dual core a 4GB of RAM ran traktor scratch pro 2 very well w/ the S4. I still needed to turn off Wi-Fi, but I was running 5.5 ms overall latency w/ no problems if I did that. It’s for sale BTW
I ended up buying an HP Elitebook 8560p because it was highly reccomended as a great audio PC over on the Gearslutz forum. Right now I run my S4 at 2.2ms overall latency w/ no prblems and nothing disabled. The things are built like tanks. They are built to military spec. You can actually dump water on the keyboard, they blast it for 4 hours w/ sand, they drop it from stupid heights, they put it in an oven while it’s running for 15 min along w/ some other ish. Mine has a quad I7 2860qm 2.5-3.6Ghz sandy bridge, 256GB SSD on a Sata3 6GB/s, 5 USB (2 USB 3.0), Firewire, ESATA and 16GB of 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM, and 1GB DDR3 Radeon dedicated graphics. It kicks ass with Pro Tools and I’m sure w/ any other DAW really. They start at about a little less then a grand.
Yea I hear ya. It still might be worth it to get a 13" though, I mean if I were you I wouldnt rule it out completely just yet. I only ended up getting the HP Elitebook because I needed something that would kick ass for production and if I were to get an Apple w/ the same specs it woulda been almost triple the price.
well I produce too, so the elitebook sounds pretty nice. I especially like to sync up traktor with ableton. Im currently doing that in my home setup using my pc but you can’t really bring a pc to a gig
I’m running a 13" MacBook from '07, and am down to 4.9ms using Traktor Scratch Duo 2. I could get it down to 3.5ms, but it runs it really hard. I’ve never had a problem with my MB.
The specs I gave you are with timecode use. Keep in mind, I’m a stickler for having cpu usage as low as possible at all times, so I keep my latency a bit higher. Since I don’t do any advanced scratching, I don’t notice a difference. The Asus will get down to about 3-4 milliseconds before it is unusable. The Lenovo’s with a C2D 2.73 ghz processor will go flat down to 2-3 before it is unusable, depending on type of usage.
Anything below 10ms I am happy with.
Didn’t know the Elitebooks were that recommended. I’ve just always been scared away from HP due to their bad rep for reliability. But their business class laptops might be built to a totally different standard.
Bingo. Different build quality than the consumer products. If you call tech support or parts department they transfer you to the business notebook department when they find out you have an Elitebook, cause it’s a completely different line than all their other notebooks.
I actually had never heard of the elitebook when I began shopping around. I was looking at a high spec Asus laptops cause I was so happy with my older Asus. I was asking an online store about an Asus laptop I was thinking of buying, and when they found out that I was doing audio work they informed me to research the 8560p . Mind you, they didnt sell Elitebooks. SO thats how I first discovered them. My friend got a base model 8560p paid for by his work, with Intel I5 and 4gb RAM before I bought my higher spec one and I ran DPC Latency Checker on his machine while stressing it with Prime 95 and FurMark. It passed with flying colors with no red spikes. I’m happy so far, so I reccomend them when I can.
Obviously there are other options out there, just do your research and you may find something that fits you better
- You can get a fully loaded one used for about $500 and they are more than you will ever need to run Traktor. Their C2D processors actually outperform my Asus due to the much higher clock speed.