I realise there are many threads out there discussing various options and paths to go down in terms of laptops for DJing or producing. I have read many of them but still havent managed to come to a conclusion as to what is best for me.
I totally understand (and don’t want to start) the age old Mac-PC debate and understand each have their pros and cons and pretty much comes down to preference and/or budget.
I am using Rekordbox Pro on my pretty mid range Dell Inspiron which I have had for quite a while and is pretty slow and bogged down with other software anyway. I am also curious to go into some (fairly light) music production.
My budget is at very most about £1300, so the options I have picked out are a Macbook Pro (2017 w/o the touchbar) specced with an i5, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD, a Macbook Air (2018 new design) at the same spec but obviously just a less powerful processor (1.6GHz with turboboost to 3.6). I also have looked at the Dell XPS range which would give me similar spec but with a quad core i5 processor with up to 3.9GHz.
I also would Ideally like to have other programs like photoshop and illustrator installed so its not solely for music.
The last option I was thinking of is a slightly higher spec preowned/refurbished Macbook pro which initially made me a bit uneasy as tech only has a finite lifespan. If its only 2/3 years old do you think it would be a good shout?
My current laptop cost $1500 NZD 3 years ago (specs in my sig). All i did was rip out the cdrom and put in the 512gb SSD. So around $1800NZD all up. Solid as a rock for live performance, general use and moderate gaming (2gb geforce).
Whatever direction you go, SSD primary drive is a must, and at least 16gb ram IMO (especially for windows machines).
I’ve had really good luck with thinkpads over the years. I’ve only had one since IBM sold that division to Lenovo, but that’s because the x230 that I bought in 2011 (about 6 months after my last MBP) still works, while the MBP has been completely dead for a few years. It’s on Linux now because that’s more important for what I currently do, but it ran Traktor and a handful of production software just fine. The screen is a little small for that use, though.
I would, at this point, only look at their higher-end business laptops (thinkpad X series) and be prepared to disable devices if they cause issues with audio performance.
That being said, apart form the whole donglebook thing, Linus Tech Tips is claiming the 2019 MBPs actually fixed some of the issues if you want to go that way. If the T2 chips are actually causing issues, you’ll have to hope it can be fixed in software. Apple’s not getting rid of them any time soon.
Also, FWIW, I’m about 95% convinced that my next laptop is going to be an X280. But, it won’t be used for music. I don’t have any real desire to gig anymore, so I’ll either continue using a desktop or switch to sc5000s.
You can never be 100% sure in PC because there are too many drivers and manufacturers involved. From my experience 70% of laptops I tried were flawed. My advace is to test that particular model of laptop before you throw your money at it (if that’s possible).
[quote=“Stewe, post:7, topic:77916, username:Stewe”]
You can never be 100% sure in PC because there are too many drivers and manufacturers involved. From my experience 70% of laptops I tried were flawed. My advace is to test that particular model of laptop before you throw your money at it (if that’s possible).
[/quote] This guy knows what’s up!
Did a 10 year stint with a Lenovo E100 laptop running Traktor 1.2.7. Never had a single hiccup. But it was optimized as shit, dualboot. After that used a Lenovo Thinkpad T460 (work) and now running TP3 on a Thinkpad E480 (800€.
But…win10.IS.A.SMOKING.PILE.OF.SHIT. I still think a dual boot windows laptop with a heavily service disabled OS on a liveDJ-centric partition is the best option if you don’t want to spend money on a mac. But average user is lazy and has a “ImNoTaHaCkErImADJ” attitude so…get a mac.
