So I’m looking for people who first hand have issues with their PC or MAC. I can search all I want about DJ laptops but pretty much all of it says “Mac will never crash” or “I hate iTunes” or “I’m not paying 2500 bucks for a laptop.” I’ve heard the story that a MAC is far more stable than a PC and read the horror stories of laptops crashing in the middle of sets. But the stories are always second hand. Where is the guy that had the laptop crash? Did you dig into why? Was it just a drive you installed the day before? Did some popup kick you out of your software? Or did you just unplug your USB hdd and blame your software without telling anyone . Those are the comments I’m looking for. I’m not bias either way and paying 2k for a laptop doesn’t bother me so lets hear what you’ve got running and what has gone wrong.
I’m running a cheap $300 Walmart special Compaq, windows 7 64bit. My latency is pretty high, 15 to 20 ms, but I work with it. I run it clean, and have optimized it to the best of my limited ability, but she did crash on me once! It was actually the only time this computer has ever crashed on me at all. We were setting up sound for a barn rave, and at the end of the night wanted to get a sound check in. I was in a rush setting up, and was plugging in my sound card and controllers during the boot process, and moments into my first mix, blue screen’d. Hasn’t happened since, didn’t bother to track down the heart of the matter.
Linux!!!
But I’m only using ubuntu for casual browsing and work.
Both my comps run windows and the one at my buddy’s studio is an iMac. IMHO both systems run smoothly. I’ve never had a crash in the 4 years of service that my laptop has given me although I did restore it to factory settings this last spring (which gave it a very noticeable boost in performance). I will say that I PERSONALLY prefer windows but that’s mostly because I know it better. It will always come down to what you prefer. Ask yourself:
*What software/applications do I want to use?
*Will they run on both systems?
*How much do i want to spend?
*Am I willing to spend some time learning a new OS?
With that all being said here are some of my opinions (that you can totally ignore)
*When comparing laptops with the same specs Mac’s usually are slightly more expensive
*Windows can be just as reliable as long as you take care of your laptop and don’t download shadey stuff
*Mac’s have a considerably better build quality than most PC’s
*There are more traps out there for PC users than mac
*The general public consider apple products to be gifts from the gods and you can score you extra points if you are caught with one in public (if you’re into that)
*Windows laptops of the same price range almost always have better graphics than macs (funny how people consider macs the industry standard for photo and video editing huh)
So anyways chew on that for a while but honestly any which way you look at it YOU are the one that should decide this. Take peace in the fact that both systems can give you the same performance no matter what anyone says as long as you know what you’re doing. Good luck and hope this helped
Edit: Oh shit I wrote all this before reading your post padi delete if necessary
Regardless of whether you choose OSX or Windows, if stability is a concern, you should always be rolling with two laptops.
I see tons of people tout the MBP as the end-all, be-all solution. But having a top of the line MBP, but no mirrored laptop, is totally unprofessional and a disaster waiting to happen.
I use a macbook pro 13"
I literally love the thing. The outside shell is kind of hard to clean because its grey i always have finger prints on the outside shell.
Rather then that. I wish the price was more affordable for people then Mac would most likely be the top seller.
If they could charge 500.00 for a duel core 13" Macbook Pro i think the world could do amazing things.
I spent 1300.00 For a late 2011 model. I bought in December 2011. Not the cheap imo.
Parroting this, but since not all of us are rolling at the very least buy a external HDD, which are about 80 USD these days for a Terabyte, Which can hold your entire Laptops hard-drive + a decent selection of music as a bootable clone. And carry a mix CD to play while you’re unfucking your laptop.
Decided to get a Mac Book Pro in September 2009. October had me wondering why I’d even ever waited for 10 years to buy one.
Knowing the OS… well… as far as getting around using it… I only had the first day I really had to look for the things I needed. After that everything felt quite normal and at home.
Biggest reference for me is my fiancee:
With any windows operated PC, she will start disagreeing with it within a half hour. Give her a mac and you won’t hear her as everything is very intuitive and convenient to find.
As far as music goes, everything just goes that much smoother. With productions in DAW a new sound card is not directly needed, as the standard sound card will bring you quite far without having to resort to ASIO4ALL.
Most MIDI tricks are already natively present in the OS.
And overall; my experience is, that I haven’t had any crashes yet. (Here’s praying I didn’t jinx it now. )
Mind you, I only had a few (2 or 3) crashes in Vista, which I used actively from 2007 to 2010. I really didn’t mind using this desktop, but it all just seems to go much smoother with my MBP.
This is a never ending debate it will go on for centuries. It really comes down to what you the person is using the “computer” for. If you want the most epic l337 gaming computer go with a customized pc. Decide what you want your computer for and go pick one.
If you are like me and want a laptop only for music production / internet surf. Then you can buy a macbook and start dj’ing right when you un package it from the box. You can literally buy a macbook pro and mixer go to your gigg. un package it all and start a party within minutes. Mac users only get Mac applications though and this eats at people.
Windows you can download any 3rd party applications which makes it nice. You have more at your finger tips.
I agree with what has been posted above. I’ve had zero crashes on my MBP. They always let you know on software updates. Its quick & safe. No viruses, no latency. Internet is smooth. I personally will never go back to a windows operating system i’m in love with this .
Conversely I run a Dell with Win 7, play out 3 times a month, never maintain it, run everything from the same partition and it’s never given me any problems.
Computers are computers - buy a Mac if you want, buy a PC if you want, it really doesn’t matter.
hi been a Mac user for 12 years and a vj for 10 years ive had hdd go done at drum and bass gigs and mobul8 crash, at one point I’ve had 3 laptops ( 2 powerbooks and an ibook ) going at my gigs all playing stuff.. towards the end ive just used an imac 20" and a dvd x 2..
i find osx runs ok but Java is a pain…
i would say use mac and an ssd so the vibrations wont nack the hdd
hope that helps
5 years ago I got a Mac…and it has changed my outlook on computers.
I see it like Serato and Traktor. Serato is for DJ’s who want to mix externally and use Timecode (generally).
Traktor is more for someone that is wanting more and wants to use Midi Controllers etc. It just seems more able to satusfy more needs.
So to me, a Mac is like Serato. For someone that wants a work horse without much frills and doodaa’s.
A Windows PC is like Traktor. It is more than capable and is for a wider range audience. You can have it barebones for DJing or fully kitted for everyday work. It can be tweaked and needs a bit more looking after than a Mac, in terms of updates …AV scans…Drivers etc.
If you are not a techy sort of person, that does not want to get under the hood of the machine, then a Mac will suit you to the T.
if you like fiddling with Drivers and tweaking your machine and playing games etc, then a Windows PC is for you.
Just my opinion.
This is why I agree with hola amigos, cuz you need to decide what category you fall into and buy accordingly.
This is the exact same argument between IOS (iPhone) and Android OS.
It depends what you want the device for and how savvy you are with tech.
Yeah, MCITP, Mac, former hackbook and linux box owner here, I have no idea what the hell you lot are on about, I’ve had loads of Windows laptops and never had any problems except for that caused by 3rd party hardware/software, something not unique to MS. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with either platform, don’t drink the koolaid OP, use your head.
I haven’t had to tweak a driver or do anything with antivirus or anything since Win 7 either. Security Essentials runs all the time. Sarasin, you’re spreading old and irrelevant FUD.
I think both can crash at any given moment. It all comes down to murphy’s law. Then again, for some reason, Macs tend to run smoothly most of the time whereas a PC can run perfectly one day and then just die on you for no apparent reason.
My experience is with pc’s only though. I had an acer aspire 6930 which run perfectly until one day in which it started cpu spiking like mad, turning absolutely useless for dj’ing. Now I have an HP Envy which has 8gb RAM, 2.4 i5, and a few other cool stuff, and everything runs perfectly. I had a crash a few days ago in which traktor died out of nowhere. Could be software related, but I don’t really know. For all that matters, for my everyday use, which means, Traktor, Lightroom and photoshop and only occasional gaming, I’d just get a Mac, but the price is just out of my league. I got my HP Envy for 800 bucks and is seriously the best choice I had when it boiled down to budget.
I was indoctrinated early as postscript fonts were mac only and they capitalized the graphic design market as well as offered a more cohesive experience using multiple applications at once. This is not the case today, windows does pretty good at this, and for the most part offers an ok computing experience. I’ve had trouble with both operating systems networking, windows more annoying, mac less useful.
Out of the box installing DJ software I’ve not had to do fine tuning, it does what it is supposed to do to the limits of the software. My mac hasn’t given me a kernel panic in years, same as the blue screen. It hasn’t dropped traktor but at times my library has gone screwy, which restoring from an update has fixed. DJ wise I think my primary problem is software not the hardware it runs on. I am slightly more pro Mac biased, and free to admit it as I chuckled at the silly issues of it just doesn’t work right for years with my windows friends, while having few issues myself.
And since when has the idea of releasing updates and fixes LESS frequently been a good thing? Windows updates are released on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. You can configure your computer to download and install them automatically if you like. Drivers and driver updates are also delivered via Windows Updates and you can have those automatically installed as well if you prefer.
And you can DJ on a Mac with “no” latency? None? Really?
Mac users tend to exaggerate every problem with Windows PCs, even making some up, while downplaying or simply lying about issues that can affect Macs. “Macs never crash”, “Macs can’t get viruses or malware”, “Macs don’t need updates”, “you can DJ with zero latency on a Mac” and all this fucking nonsense, lol.
. Those are the comments I’m looking for. I’m not bias either way and paying 2k for a laptop doesn’t bother me so lets hear what you’ve got running and what has gone wrong.
delete if necessary
