Laptop of for DJ use?
Mac’s are out of my price range. However, I’ve seen an interesting laptop in a local Asda store on offer at the moment. I’m just wondering if this will be good enough for use with Traktor Pro, a VCI-100 and Akai LPD8?
The version I’ve seen is £247 instead of £387, has Windows 7 Home Premium, T4200 Dual Core 2GHz CPU and 3GB RAM. Seems a bargain and within my budget. Here’s the laptop (it’s the silver and black version I’ve seen):
i’ve never bought a Samsung, and to tell you the truth, I never really think of Samsung when I think of computers or laptops. I’d say either go for an HP or one of those new slim Acer laptops, decent battery life, and the specs should be good enough for dj software.
if you want a windows computer with roughly the same reliability as a mac, you shoudl go for a lenovo, but then you’re getting into the pricier category.
research DPC latency on whatever model you buy before you buy it - this is soooo important. If you dont know what dpc latency is read this site in its entirety - http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
This WILL save you hours of heartache and hard earned $$$$
Never buy Acer, ive had nothing but bad experiences with Acer and would never recommend them to anyone.
I just looked at that site and just ran the test. Put my results in the other DPC latency thread. No idea what they mean though!?
Big red spikes are bad usually cause cracks and pops in your audio - DPC latency is the #1 cause of these cracks n pops
Basically what you want to see is a nice constant stream of green preferably all sitting the 50 region.
windows 7 is actually pretty good
i just installed windows 7 ultimate on my intel laptop (backup laptop, main one is white macbook) and its pretty awesome!
As long as i disable the wifi i can run Traktor on 2.5 ms , now dropouts at all, use dpclat to check
i realised that as soon as i turn on the wifi the red spikes would be all over the screen - better disable that wifi!
i have to say it as a macbook pro owner, im a hypocrit,
but if i was going to buy a windows laptop…
i would suggest a DELL… EVERYBODY CRINGE!!!
but seriously, they are well spec’d for the price. ive had 2 relatives buy one in the last 2 years and they never miss a beat, in fact my mac crashes every now and then because i thrash it, so i have to load up on the dell(s) sometimes, and it goes all good.
if you need a laptop in a hurry. im not sure about the UK but in AUS we have fairly decent customer service with DELL.
if not, the a macbook or macbook pro is VERY much worth saving for..
Well I can confirm the DELL customer service in the UK sucks bad. I must have spent 5 hours on the phone to them whilst they tried and failed to solve my latency spikes.
Refund soon though = mb pro
yeah, i’ve heard bad things about other countries dell customer service, and a few glum stories here too, but i’ve only ever had good experience with them… most likely because i have never had to call them lol.
grats on the refund, enjoy your future mac!
Check out the Acer Timelines. 13", 4GB Ram, 2x1,4GHz and can run several hours without power supply. Also cheaper than the MBP obviously. Also very thin and lightweight.
DONT BUY ACER
trust me, i learnt this the hard way - acer is just well known for being not-so reliable
ASUS is a much better brand than acer - try it yourself and see
i had an acer aspire 4920G 2.2ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, crashed on me like a bitch, went to the service centre 4 times in a year until i finally decided to sell it off - issues ranging from the internal CPU fan malfunction, overheat, and just plain BSOD - it was terrible, the worst purchase i ever made
however i received an old ASUS laptop from my sister - formatted it and put windows 7 - works like a dream with zero latency and dropouts - and i basically throw that laptop around not caring bout it at all (coz its a backup pc) - still works like a charm!
I have both Asus and Acer laptops. The Asus is from Dec 07 and still works fine, only the fan is loud as hell. I have heard bad things about Asus laptops but mine is okay.
The Acer is relatively new and i have heard only positive things about it until now. I think it depends on the model.