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Traktor Laptop
Well, I finally made the switch to Traktor from vinyl - and I am enjoying every minute of it. I love using all four channels on my Xone:42 - at the same time. It is intensely fun.
Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that I need a new laptop. My laptop is only two years old, dual core, and all of that, but I think I want to get something that is specifically set up to be a stable platform. I do not want a Mac though. Simply put, I am a PC. I will use this laptop for other purposes (work) and will be running standard PC programs. I pretty much loathe iAnything.
Anybody have some advice for what I should look out for/ avoid? I am running Traktor Pro 2 with Audio 10.
Thanks in advance
Lenovo Thinkpads are built well. Anything with an i5 and 8GB of RAM will run traktor just fine. Go with at 15" with high-resolution display to fit all the Traktor goodness on the screen.
Check some out in the store. You'll find machines like Dell's and such that are cheap are flexible and cheaply made too.
Re: Traktor Laptop
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| Originally posted by ChrstnMchl My laptop is only two years old |
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I do not want a Mac though. |
I agree with the * sigh *.
A Macbook Pro doesn't have an i anything in it too.
But hey, if they guy likes to fight with windows, who are we to stop him 
To be clear, my laptop still runs great. I just bought it with media (Netflix, on-demand, web surfing, games, porn, ect.) and work in mind, and not DJ performances.
And I like my right-click far too much. The reality is, every time I see one of those "I'm a Mac/ I'm a PC" commercials I always identify with the business-minded PC guy so much more than the uber-cool guy. I don't doubt that Macs have a more stable platform - I just don't like using them. They are built for people who do not think like I do.
Anyway, thanks for the useful input. My current laptop seems to run Traktor just fine too, but my girlfriend wants to buy me a new one and who am I to argue?
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| Originally posted by ChrstnMchl And I like my right-click far too much. |
What kind of laptop do you have? Because rather than buying a new one, a ram upgrade and an SSD might go a lot farther. If it's one of those bulky 17" laptops I'd say yea, get a new one.
edit: Macbooks also have great build quality and that's something you should ignore. You don't want an unreliable laptop in a club. I have a Toshiba Satelite with a core i5, 4 gigs of ram and an Intel 320 series SSD. It's great and handles traktor no problem, but there are other issues like the fact that I have to disable the network card, the 3rd USB port, the DVD drive and a few other things, and it's not very well grounded when plugged to an outlet so I'd have to use ground loop isolators to get rid of the static noise which sometimes occurs (depends on where the laptop is plugged relative to the speakers).
So yea, I'm not saying you have to get a Macbook, but you will surely avoid smaller issues like these if you get one. If anything, make sure to get a really good quality PC laptop, like a higher-end HP or Sony Vaio, something like that. I'm sure Toshiba also has some higher end laptops that won't have these problems.
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| Originally posted by Adam420 What kind of laptop do you have? Because rather than buying a new one, a ram upgrade and an SSD might go a lot farther. If it's one of those bulky 17" laptops I'd say yea, get a new one. |
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| Originally posted by Ryan0751 An SSD will blow your mind. But we are talking $500-$1000 for a 512Gb 6Gbps drive. My macbook is ridiculously fast with one though. If your current machine is working fine, don't upgrade. Just create another user for DJ'ing in Windows 7 and use that account for DJ'ing only. |
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| Originally posted by Adam420 Dude what are you talking about? First of all, his laptop is 2 years old so I'm pretty sure that rules out any 6gb/s SSD's. Second, who buys a 512 Gb SSD? My Intel which has 120 Gb cost roughly $220 and they are coming down in price pretty fast. I'd say that while other SSD brands might be a tad faster, Intels are looking to be the most reliable ones and so that's what I'd recommend. I just got a 2nd Intel SSD for my desktop computer as well. |
So there.
And I'm also guessing you had a bigger budget than most.
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| Originally posted by Adam420 And I'm also guessing you had a bigger budget than most. |
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| Originally posted by Ryan0751 Lenovo Thinkpads are built well. Anything with an i5 and 8GB of RAM will run traktor just fine. Go with at 15" with high-resolution display to fit all the Traktor goodness on the screen. |
) but i think theres a space for an expansion ssd, will probably add in time
I'd be interested to know how your experience goes with the latency settings. Are you installing Traktor Pro 2? Last time I saw the multi-core feature fucked things up, but I haven't checked for an update recently.
I have an HP Pavilion dv6 with an Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 @ 2.20 GHz and 4 GB of RAM. I think this link has the correct specs -> http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-...7-33783861.html
Like I said, it runs fine. Is 4GB enough RAM or do I really need to upgrade? Ditto with the SSD? Would an external SSD be sufficient or would using a USB connection defeat the purpose of going solid state?
I hadn't thought of setting up a different user for DJing - that sounds brilliant. As I mentioned before, I know a Mac would be more solid. I have been using a PC everyday for 20 years. I use one all day at work. I am 37 years old and simply do not care to retrain myself - especially when I will still need to use a PC the majority of the time (for work).
I think if my laptop is up to snuff I may just try to talk my girlfriend into getting me an X1 instead... Hehe.
I have been running Pro 2 fine so far. The only hiccup I have had was when I first got and had AVG running in the background. I couldn't figure out why the graphics where being choppy - then I had a pop-up say "scan complete." Heh. So, it still ran with some minor hiccups while I was running an anti-virus scan. I've also had a friend come over to help me tune my machine. I also find out since I use Windows Media sharing with my PS3 it constantly runs in the background (or it did till I put a stop to it) and it is a huge memory hog. I so rarely stream media from my laptop to my PS3 that I just turned it off - however setting up a different user may fix that as well.
I really had no intention of upgrading my laptop until a new one was offered honestly. I'm really thinking the X1 is the way to go instead. =)
Again, thanks for all of the very helpful information. This is a great community and I knew asking here would get me answers I needed.
Wait. Do you play out? Or are we talking strictly about home use here?
Turning off any and all unrelated background tasks is an essential no-brainer, so you definitely should not be surprised if your A/V or media streaming utility is lowering performance.
Having an SSD plugged externally will absolutely defeat the purpose. I think that is pretty obvious.
Anyway my final recommendation to you is to add an SSD and 4 additional GB of ram. I wouldn't say the ram is a must, but honestly, it's pretty damn cheap and worth it. I think I'm actually going to expand my laptop soon from 4 to 8 as well.
I do play out and from time to time have some pretty big gigs. I plan to expand that as well now that I am not restricting myself to vinyl. I had my PC guru friend tweak my system before my first gig so it ran great. When I had those hiccups it was within the first week of getting Traktor. It should have been obvious about the streaming thing for sure, but I actually make use of it so rarely I forgot it was enabled. When I ran a utility to see what was using memory I discovered that it was running in the background.
I am not a computer novice, nor am I a whiz. I pretty much now how to use the programs I need to use and I understand the logic of Windows, etc. But when it comes to hardware, etc., I don't know was as much.
I have swapped out drives and ram in a desktop before, but not laptop. I assume its not much different once you get it open. I know my 4 GB of ram is made up of 2 GB sticks, so I would need to buy two new 4 GB sticks to get 8. As far as swapping out the HDD to SDD, I know they connect the same so I am sure I can do that. Is there a way I can use my current HDD as an external?
As an aside, my first gig with it I actually got to play an extra hour because the guy that playing after me used Traktor as well, but with only his laptop with no controller using an Audio 2 (I believe). He had ASIO driver issues and couldn't play. That did not give me a warm and fuzzy as the dude was actually a Traktor veteran. That also means I will still be lugging around emergency vinyl...
Purchasing an 8GB kit of ram (2 4GB sticks of 1067 or 1333 RAM) should only cost about $40-45. Check crucial.com, they have an easy tool for checking your laptop options.
You can use the HDD in an external enclosure, sure (your existing drive).
Note that if you use the suggestion of getting an SSD, and you only purchase say a 120GB SSD, you might not have enough space on your internal drive. You might not want to lug around an external disk...
Try the second user account, it's free and quick to try out.
Thanks again!
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