What’s a good laptop for DJing
Or what is the specs I am looking for in a laptop, I use traktor pro2 and I will probably upgrade to scratch pro and I have a budget of $1500
Macbook Pro
MacBook Pro! If you have 1500 you can get a 15 inch or a 13 inch with some more ram!
I got one last year, never looking back!
But wouldn’t I need an 8 gb ram
with all my respect fuck that,
check the spec of the software you want to use and go higher in specs
8 gb Ram?? That’s overkill. I have a 13in MBP i5 with 4 gb ram and 500 hard drive that I purchased for 1200.00. I gig with it every weekend and never had an issue or hiccup.
KeyWee – what up bro. hey man the title says what’s a good laptop for DJing. 
MBP!!!
Macbook Pro. Don’t bother with more ram, TP2 is a 32-bit application, so it won’t address more than the first 4 GB of RAM anyway. I’d also be really surprised if you managed to fill up 4GB of ram with any DJ software (Ableton notwithstanding).
And get an SSD if you can possibly deal with the smaller storage capacities (you want to replace your hard drive with a Mercury Extreme Pro 6G or OCZ Vertex 3). SSDs are the biggest, most important upgrades you can make to computers nowadays, especially since everything worth owning comes with 4GB of RAM already.
Also, the only reason I’m suggesting the MBP over the Macbook or Macbook Air is FireWire. Once people start releasing affordable Thunderbolt audio interfaces and chases for hard drives, the MBPs won’t have that much of an advantage for audio work anymore. But after you’ve used a FW drive, USB2.0 feels too slow to bother with.
If you’re determined to use Windows, I’ve heard that Rain computers are pretty good. You know, except for missing CoreAudio and a real OS.
I recommend a samsung rv511… max out the ram and youve spent half your money… use the rest on a holiday or something… dont be a sheep… check out every possible option and find out what works for you. I hated my mbp I just looked like “every other dj” and worried shitless carrying it around… least if my laptop gets robbed its half as much to replace…
What’s a good laptop for DJing
MacBook pro - I used to hate them till I got one this Christmas. I’m sold. 100%. They are tanks, great battery life, and even better build quality. I have no bias towards macs specifically, but Ive come to hate the entire windows os.
There’s a reason things become “industry standard” …
Most DJ’s use the same 3 or 4 brands of headphones, the same brand of CD decks, the same club mixers, the same 2 or 3 brands of software.
Its not being a sheep, its buying sensible, and buying safe, buying a piece of equipment you won’t need to upgrade anytime soon and above all, buying reliable. That is why the majority of DJ’s are using them.
A 13’ MPB with 4gigs will handle pretty much everything you can throw at it and more.
OR
If you wanna go lightweight, a Macbook Air 13’ / 4gigs would do the trick perfectly. (I’ve seen plenty of big-names playing out on them recently).
Having been a Computer tech for a hella long time, the only serious reason I would ever recommend a windows machine to anyone for any task is if I wanted to get a maintenance contract out of them
Despite all the macbook love in this thread. I use a Lenovo for gigs. In fact I went from macbook pro to a T420 (comfortable with both OS’s). Lenovo’s are built far better, and far more customizable.
buy the absolute best that you can afford, if you have 1500 and dont have any other commitments to worry about, by god spend every penny on your laptop. the one thing no-one has mentioned here is battery life. i use a win 7 laptop and to be fair the battery life is excellent, however my charger packed up during a gig a few weeks ago, i managed to get to 20 minutes before the end when my battery finally packed up and i had to switch to cd, however if i had a mbp i would have been able to play till the end on battery. when i can afford it i will certainly be switching.
(ps i have a spare charger in my bag now, lesson learned)
there really is no need to spend that much on a laptop when you can use your 5 years old ugly ass hell laptop that u found at a junkyard, just cut to the essentials and your fine. dont install crap basicly
The macbook pro is definitely what you’re going to get told in this thread. This isn’t due to superior hardware or OS but simply because the audio software is usually made for macs first then ported (often poorly) to windows. Look at the drivers for the S4 or Jack for windows as examples.
I have computers with most OS’s, even a sneaky server running solaris and while I prefer using windows and linux on a daily basis, Mac seems like the smart move for DJing purposes since it’s the main focus of most of the Audio software companies.
If you do go the MBP option don’t upgrade the HDD or the RAM through them. they use average to below average components and charge way too much, I’m not sure where this idea that apple used high quality parts came from. 8GB of ram will run you about 50 bucks, the upgrade costs $200 through apple.
Edit: if you upgrade yourself not only will you pay far less but you’ll also have the original components as backups.
Im running a Alienware Mx17 (originally got it for games before i became a DJ) and it runs traktor fine. Im honestly not gonna suggest it, just because of the weight of it and it can run hot sometimes. But i really like it because of the customizeable color scheme (cheesy i know lol) and its really sturdy build. But it works well running TP2 and Ableton, and the sound is amazing.
Macbook Pro. too easy
Wow a mac vs pc debate :eek::eek::eek::eek:
gets popcorn… then throws it at the screen
If you can deal with their looks, the Lenovo Thinkpad is still one of the best performance computers available. Seriously stable, robust, and durable. My only knock against the line is that their hinge design sucks. But you’ll still get 2 years out of one, and they aren’t particularly expensive. Don’t be afraid of older models - they’re all pretty good. Your cutoff should be the T61. Anything above that will run TSP2 with all the bells and whistles.
If you want to drop a bit more coin, you can go boutique. Rain computers is a company that sells computers specifically made for audio and video applications. And what makes that even better is their warranty program INCLUDES help with performance software like Traktor, Live, etc. And you’re not getting help from some snotnose hipster douchebag, you’re getting help from guys that know your software better than you do. This is a solid option if you are clueless.
Ahahaha this is what is basically is
- 1 for Lenovo
Lenovo Thinkpad T61p. Never ever ever crashed while playing out.
BSOD on me ONCE and once only- At home messing about, internet on, 10 tabs open, torrenting, running traktor and live 8.
Tried to assign a midi command to ableton when traktor was alreaddy assigned to the midi, it threw a fit and bluescreened.
The old Presario c700 never ever had a problem when djing either.
So dont tell me that old shit that macs are super reliable, look at the abuse the Thinkpad got before it gave up, and as if you’d attempt to have so much running when playing out.