Buying and Imac...Questions

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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Buying and Imac…Questions

Ok the time has come…after years of using windows, Ive decided to get a brand new IMac.

I plan on this being a deticated computer for DJing ONLY and I use Traktor.

SPECS
IMac 21inch
8 gigs of ram
3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache
2TB Serial ATA Drive (7400Rpm)

Questions

1.) Is there an OSX thats better or worse for running DJ software?

2.) Is it NOT recommended to store my Music (MP3s) on the same Hard Drive as my Operating System? (IMac only holds one Hard Drive internally)

3.) Is there any tweeking that needs to be done to make it better suited for being a deticated DJ computer? I dont want to experience any crashes while gigging.

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dj with an imac, i do it but i wish i didnt/ 8 gigs of ram is overkill. You could buy a laptop that would be more useful in the long run

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  1. updated Snow Leopard, and always keep it updated
  2. why? No need for different HDD’s for the OS and the music. Just back your stuff up regularly. Audio software isn’t 3d rendering or high end graphics and the file sizes are all relatively small.
  3. None to make it run properly. No crashes from my iMac in 2 years, only 2 from my g4 Powerbook that’s almost 6 years old. I’ve had to reboot a few programs, but that was mainly because the program wasn’t stable to begin with.
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As per your first question, I would always do appropriate research on your programs before deciding to update or not. Lets not forget what happened when Snow Leopard came out and programs weren’t entirely friendly with it. It takes time for these things to get ironed out, I stayed on Leopard for a while at first until issues were addressed, then I updated knowing I wouldn’t run into many, if not, any problems.

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Does this mean SNow Lepard is may not he best OSX for running Traktor? If so what is the most stable OSX to date?

I remember reading that people had some problems with Lepard Snow a while back.

Beings that I know nothing about Macs…isnt there some airport thingy I should diable…among other things?

Surely MACs arent all ready to go out gigging right outta the box, with no tweeking what so ever…

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Re: Buying and Imac…Questions

The iMac ur looking at is over kill!

+2 ghz & 2 or 4 gb of ram is enough.

OSx 10.6 (snow leopard) is very stable for running traktor. Keep in mind that when a new OS comes out Most programs are going to have some problems.

I’ve been using a MacBook 2 ghz from late 2006 and runs traktor with no issues.

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Re: Buying and Imac…Questions

Actually, yes you can start djing right out of the box.

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I run with airport on, no problems

and yes, they can gig right outta the box.

Might want to go to an apple store and play around with em for a bit to get familiar with em, or find a friend that has a Mac and play around with it. You’ll be surprised at what you might realize about that thing that Windows alludes to called stability.

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I’d almost certainly say get a laptop though… if you want it for djing what you gonna do when you get a gig?

You can always get an external monitor for home / stuio use.

I got a 27" Samsung Syncmaster for when i work but can take my MBP to gigs.

Even a Macbook (not pro) will be ample if it’s just for djing. The only difference with the bigger specs is the graphics card which is just for video and graohics. When make a jot of difference when running audio apps

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I’d go with the Macbook Pro and a larger monitor for home if you want/need , the option of portability is a nice option to have

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Heres the Official Guide to Tweaking a Mac for Traktor DJing in easy to follow steps.

  1. Turn it on.

Your welcome.:smiley:

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lololol

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Thanks for everyones responces. I was thinking of the IMac becuase I just got a Xone DX and I thought I could save some space.

The DX is kinda long from front to back and plus all the connections are on the back of the unit so add another couple of inches…

DJ Booths typically are cramped as hell. Especially when im trying to put a computer and a Xone DX seperately.

With the IMac I could just sit the Computer right in front of the DX.

I went to Best Buy to get a good look at the IMac and the thing is a beast.

Heavy and not reasonable to lug around.

So im looking at the MBP now. Thanks to all who warned about overkill…it will save me some big bucks in the long run…