Desktop Djing?
Does anyone DJ, or play live music with a desktop setup? Like, an iMac, or a Mac Pro, or windows equivalent? I remember back in the day Skrillex’s laptop used to crash because he would use so many plugins at once, vs now where he just uses two CDJs for basic mixing. It would be an interesting alternative if he went back up now with a mac pro. You could pull of amazing things. You could even just have a band that runs everything through one mac pro.
I wouldn’t say that it’s not possible, just the only issue is portability. Lugging an iMac to every gig could get a bit tiresome. Alternatively the Mac Pro wouldn’t be as much of an issue but you’d also need to bring at least a monitor and mouse, probably a keyboard too. That added with the fact that you’d have to rig the entire thing to set up for. every. gig. could make it more trouble than it’s worth. I’d sooner just invest in just a more powerful laptop. But again, it IS possible if one is so inclined.
I have a buddy to brings a 27" iMac to every gig. He bought a flight case for it and wheels it around everywhere he goes. He’s a keyboard player in an electro-pop band, and I believe he runs his keys, another guy’s keys, a drum pad, and 4 vocalists through it.
I’ve looked for my mobile dj rig setting up a desktop in a 3U case to mount in a road case with mixer up top and controller in tray… To be honest for club gigs this would be not worth it
I DJ at home on my desktop via Traktor but that is for convenience (and the huge ass monitor) and I have not invested in a new laptop just yet. Don’t see the advantage to lugging it around to live shows, unless like mentioned above you have another higher purpose in mind. Most laptops are fairly powerful these days and will be able to handle whatever you throw at it.
I had an imac installed in my club with traktor scratch and turntables. Made almost all the djs use that instead of bringing random controllers. Just show up with headphones and USB. So many less headaches . Bt yeah portablity nightmare.
In theory you could use a shuttle or a mini ITX system for mobile DJing, with a lightweight screen.
I think it makes more sense for either a band running a bunch of stuff for it, or a DJ playing huuuge venues and doing really complicated (lots of producing on the fly) kind of things. For the average club DJ it’s completely impractical.
I started with a 3U 19" rack mount system back around Y2K. It could hold a “full height” PCI sound card. 
I don’t do nearly enough to need more than a laptop can provide today…except for external monitors.
The guy who taught me to DJ always had a big old iMac, carting it around, but it was so nice to use, and not really that difficult to move, as long as it’s a simple journey (i.e. no transfers or spending hours at stations)… I just use my MacBook Pro, but I occasionally take a 23" monitor, it makes it so much nicer, and I can get detailed decks on traktor all easily visible.
My setup is a MSi mobo inside a Lian Li Mid tower running Win 7 Professional 3.3 Ghz 8gb of ram out to a 32" Vizio TV. This is also a bedroom setup so it has is limited mobility. Im thinking about a laptop in the event I need to go mobile.
My first few gigs were using a full desktop and 19" monitor. Had to use a giant fan aimed at the tower to stop it cooking my bacon 
I’ve never seen or heard of anyone use a desktop computer for live gigs. From posts it seems like it’s pretty common, but I much rather just use a USB and headphones.
If it’s for home use + recording then ya, I know people who do that.
As did I. At the time, laptops were just barely up to running Traktor decently, and were prone to overheating, running out of memory, etc. Desktops were much faster, much more robust, and could hold a lot more RAM, so I built a high-end PC in a rackmount case and put it in my amp rack. I had a 19" monitor on an arm attached to my mixer case that was detachable, and I was good to go.
These days, as a Mobile DJ, I use powered speakers and no amp rack, but laptops have come a long way since the early 2000’s.