Ive seen hundreds of these threads in the past but cant seem to find anything via the search function so here we go,
im looking for a laptop to run traktor, and hold music. that is it. was looking at the obvious choice, getting a lesser version of a macbook but they only have two USB ports, so im screwed if i start looking into controllerism.
I have the audio 4 DJ on the way and looking to get the novation dicer with my next pay. This will then fill both USB ports.
I am currently im using my desktop computer for traktor but portability with this thing is non-existant.
im looking to spend 3/400 on this laptop, 3/4 usb ports and possibly firewire
Dell inspiron 1525 i know people bash dell but mine has never failed
running live and traktor at same time with apc40 midi keyboards usb sound card and other midi devices all at once never let me down even after hours and hours of use.
Allow me to drop in on the Dell topic. We used Dell laptops at my company for years before switching our contract, due to pricing and not performance, and I can say that Dell is one of the most rock solid laptops I’ve ever owned. I stepped on mine once when I left it by the bed in a hotel room…kept on going without flinching. I dropped it off more than 1 desk and never had any crashes or rough performance.
My day job is IT and aside from occasional issues that result from mass produced products, Dell is one of the best.
If durability is really a concern then you need to increase your budged by bit and find a lappy with an aluminum case.
Best built all around pc laptops in my opinion are thinkpads.
You get pure computer, they aren’t stylish. But they are well built and have good performance.
300 was my budget a couple of weeks ago, i went for an HP compaq 6710b, refurbed from a local shop.
Its got a dual core intel, 2gb ram, 500g HD, 4 USB ports and windows xp.
XP ran like a dog, it really didnt like anything I threw at it, windows 7 however is frickin awesome. Smooth as silk and im running 3 midi devices thorugh a USB hub aswell as an audio 4 doing timecode.
Its rock solid
To the OP, go to a local shop that refurbs old business laptops. Take this with you an a USB stick and try it on every pc you think might suit you.
Preferrably an intel dual core with at least 2 gigs of ram.
If its got xp, great, try it. Otherwise i’d recommend going windows 7. In which case theres a fair few brand new laptops out there for £360 ish that’ll do the job.
I don’t want to go off topic, but comparing XP that was already loaded on the machine, with who knows what done to it, to a fresh install of any OS isn’t fair. Fresh install will always perform better. I do recommend, however, that you reinstall the OS on any computer you buy new. They put so much crapware on it that you’ll never get the type of performance that you would get if you started from scratch.
To be fair, this guy knew what he was doing. It wasnt like getting it from pc world. It just had the basic drivers on it, enough to get it working. I disabled most non-essential services and the os itself was fast.
I just dont think xp is as well developed as 7. Even for basic things such as plugging in a random device, it just doesnt know what to do with it. But 7 has gotten it right every time for me.
I don’t know anyone who has had a dell working nicely with traktor, the audio crackles and pops all night long. Buy a second hand 13" macbook for the price your looking at.
