Questions concerning laptops for DJing and production

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Questions concerning laptops for DJing and production

So I’ve been looking around at MacBook Pros for myself to get around Christmas time and I kinda wanted to ask for help on the specs

Would it be worth it to add the upgrade from 2.3GHz to 2.6GHz for use with production and DJing or is it unnecessary?

Also, would 4GB or RAM suffice or is the upgrade to 8GB of RAM worth it?

2

Christmas WTF !

Don’t even bother thinking about it yet - honestly.

Speed bumps, screen upgrades (probably) among other things will most likely be out long before then.

However in answer to the question:

  • If its a mac with non-upgradeable ram IMHO get as much as you can afford built in.
  • If its a mac with user-upgradeable Ram, buy the machine with as little as possible and upgrade yourself.
3

Is the difference between the 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz big?

4

What the is the price difference between the 2.3 and 2.6?

What I would do, get 8GB of RAM, get the 2.3 (if there is a ‘noticable’) difference in price from the 2.6 and get an SSD, the 2.3 + SSD will have better speed differences than the 2.6 and a HDD.

An SSD will be fairly cost effective, but the speed difference between

2.3GHz and 2.6 GHz = minor

compared to

HDD vs SSD.

It’ll run like the cats pyjamas with 2.3GHz and SSD. I’d suggest a 240GB SSD, which can be bought (depending on it’s capabilities with the MBP) for $150-200.

5

2.6 is an extra $120
8 RAM is an extra $90
Hi-Res Anti-Glare is an extra $90
128GB SSD is an Extra $180 while the 256GB SSD is $360

So I could get a 15’ 2.6GHz 8RAM 128GB SSD with Anti Glare Screen for $2506.44 after taxes

or

I could get - 15’ 2.4GHz 8 RAM 256GB Flash Storage with Retina Display for $2123.24

6

Would you say that the 13’ screen is too small or would it work for production and djing

7

2.6 will only drain your battery faster when doing basic usage. You won’t notice except if you do heavy production with a load of effects.
If it’s retina i’d say go for 16gb, because the ssd is upgradable, the ram is not

8

Also, nextgen mbps are just around the corner, wait for them.

9

I know, I’m just trying to get a basic idea of what I’m gonna get

So how my GHz do you think would be suitable for producing and djing? is the 13’ screen big enough?

10

Is antiglare necessary? You are using it for music, so personally, I wouldn’t bother. Same goes for the processor upgrade. For RAM, end up with 8 in the end whichever way you go. I have 4 and it runs so well, but 8 would be nicer.

11

Is there a reason to pick the retina display over a non retina display?

So far I’ve been leaning towards 13’

12

I promise I’m not trying to troll here, but $2500? Jesus. I’m running 2.6.1 and FL Studio 9 with multiple vst’s on a 3 year old i3/3gb/320gb hdd/Win7 machine and it still runs really well. Just for comparison sake, there’s a 17" 1080/i7/12gb/1tb hdd/backlit/win7 laptop on Amazon for $649 right now. I would love to have an MBP, but I just can’t justify it.

13

Who said anything about dropping $2500???

14

Not a Mac fan. So I cannot offer any assistance. Too expensive, processors could be more powerful, and Mac Book pro’s look like sheep devices to me.

15

Your post, #7.

16

Macs are overpriced plain and simple. Anything Apple is overpriced. MBPs? I cant justify spending the extra cash. But to each his own.

17

how is this? http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD213LL/A/refurbished-macbook-pro-25ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5-with-retina-display#overview

18

It’s not plain and simple, and not everything Apple is overpriced. The Macbook Air is priced similarly to the Windows equivalents from Samsung and ASUS etc. And there is no Windows equivalent to the Mac Mini.

19

If you’re planning on buying a laptop in Christmas, stop wasting your time.

Computer tech is going to advance so much in the next half a year that any research you do now will be irrelevant near December.

20

There will be a small performance bump with Haswell. There won’t be huge advances.