Netbooks?
My birthday’s coming up n’ I’m lookin to get a new laptop because my parents will hook it up! But they have a price range… and I wanna get something worth my money. So I was just curious, how good are netbooks for DJing? I was thinking of getting like and Acer… most netbooks I’ve seen don’t have more than 2 GB’s of RAM and any faster than a 2.0 GHz CPU. Is it worth it?
Nope. You sacrifice, well, almost everything for them: screen size, USB ports, bigger processors, expandability, larger hard drives, more RAM, etc. etc. etc..
It can be done, people do it… but you’re better off with a laptop. The screen size alone is awful
+1 while i do run traktor the odd time on my netbook its not an enjoyable experience. Like said the screen size alone is uncomfortable and if your netbook has anything under 2gbs of ram you will struggle to do anything other than pause and play in Traktor. I would never use one out live. I just wouldnt have the confidence in it.
I have an I5 processor and 4gb of RAM and that combo works well with Traktor IMO. Was afraid to go with the I3 but that may be unwarranted.
In a netbook or laptop??
Well, you CAN use it for DJing. It’s not like it’s completely useless, not to mention that many netbooks have much more USB ports than a Macbook! But I agree that you should go with a “real” Laptop.
Although I always keep a netbook with me, as backup device, in case my Macbook dies during a gig. Two full sized Laptops are not just pretty expensive, but also more difficult to carry than “1 1/2”.
Mate of mine used to use an Acer Aspire with absolutely no problems - YOU DON’T NEED THE WHIZZIEST LATEST MACBOOK TO DJ OFF! (whilst they’re undeniably nice in a shiny gear pr0n way, you don’t need one, Traktor probably won’t use more than 5% of the capacity of it)
Save up, get laptops with highest processor speed. A 3.2 with 2gb ram is better than 2.2 with 4gb. Same goes for netbooks. Traktor runs well in my laptop with 1gb n 2.8Mhz.
It’s true you don’t need the top of the line super awesome laptop to DJ.
But there’s something to be said for having something sturdy and reliable. If you can make a netbook work, rock on. But I wouldn’t feel comfortable with it, and that’s a huge part of the experience as well: security.
tbf, processor speed isn’t the be all and end all. You have to take into account the chip architecture (Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 etc)
Oh, and DvlsAdvct - I see your point, but equally, I’m happy with my <£500 Acer laptop. Horses for courses innit.
Cost has nothing to do with it. I’m more concerned with netbooks structure. Cheap laptops work. Hell, once in a while I’ll still DJ on my 7 year old Dell. It works just fine.
I have an hp dm1z, and it works just fine. You’ll be happy as long as it has a fusion processor, and you pack it with extra ram (at least 4 gigs). Performance is more than enough for regular usage.
The only downside is the screen. Resolution is comparable to other laptops so you can still see just as much. It’s just smaller. I haven’t found it to be a problem. It’s inconvenient, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
Oh yeah, and hp touchpads suck. Have an x1 to avoid dealing with it.
I think it’s a superior option for that price. Although you’d be better off paying more for something a bit more rugged
Whenever buying any computer think about the total amount of money you can spend and spend that much. Computers and cars are some of the worst investments you can make. Before you even buy a computer the value of that computer is depreciating day by day. It’s always better to buy more power than you need and grow into it as needed.
I understand your may be limited by a budget but much like DJ equipment it’s almost always better to save that extra month and buy the equipment you really want rather than settle for the knock off that’s within your price range.
have to agree with this tbh
I’m running traktor pro on a netbook right now and it works decent enough.Tp2 probably isn’t going to run on my netbook because of the new system requirements. Although, now that I think of it, a clean install of xp, lots of audio tweaking and some overclocking might get a netbook to run at 20 ms latentcy.
I made this a long time back, before even the Atom processors came out and graphics cards sucked 
It was more for proof of concept at the time, I had T-pro 1.2 running on a lenovo s10 / OSX /Hercules RMX with better results though 16ms latency with keylock, 2 decks / 4 chained effects units.
I imagine the latest generation of Netbooks should work pretty well if you max out the RAM.
Oh and set up some convienient shortcuts for layout, I don’t mind the small size for playing but browsing is a pain.
Hmmm thanks for all yer advice, I think I’m gonna invest in a laptop, I have a hard time seeing on the screen I have already haha and it’s not that small at all.
Laptop…