(Note - Copy+Pasted from an Australian so website so keep in mind the values are in Aussie dollars so prices aren't really comparable to other parts of the world. More after technical feedback )

Hello gents, I'm after a laptop for Serato and later on a mixture of Serato and Ableton.
I've done a search on this website and others so have a fairly decent idea of what I want, but just wanted to run through some stuff before I drop the cash for it.

It's mainly for Serato SL3, and I plan to incorporate Ableton, Max4Live and my APC40 later on so a bit of processing power for Abes is a good thing.
I'm away on business every 6 weeks so might take it with me occasionaly to produce some music and play a game or two, but generally I'd like to keep it relatively clean and away from the internet as much as possible.

I've got my eye on the Dell XPS 16 in this configuration:
HD DISPLAY 15.6" Edge to Edge Full High Definition(1080p) Display with TrueLife™-Alpine White
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i5-540M Processor (2.53Ghz, 4 Thread, turbo boost up to 3.06 GHz, 3M cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit (English) edit
MEMORY 6GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (1 x 2GB + 1 x 4GB) edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB SATA 7200RPM Hard Drive edit
VIDEO CARD 1GB DDR3 ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5730 edit
AUDIO SOLUTION Integrated CREATIVE Sound Blaster® X-Fi MB Audio Software Solution edit
BATTERIES 6-Cell (56WHr) Li-Ion Primary Battery edit
WIRELESS NETWORK CARD Dell 1520 Wireless-N card

With the current 10% off, that comes to $1609.80, so around my $1500 budget. About $50 less if I drop the CPU to the i5-520.

I looked at the MBP despite the fact that I don't like the OS, but before anyone tells me to dual boot, I just can't justify paying a thousand dollars more for a comparable (though still not as good) laptop. It just doesn't make sense to drop >$2500 on a 15" MBP.

Also looked at some of the HPs and prices are too high compared to Dell too. Looking through their website now for more PCs.

*Some concerns with the Dell above, does the RAM configuration seem weird to anyone? 1x2gb + 1x4gb - I was always under the impression that RAM should be matched pairs (or triplets now)?
*It's only got 2x USB2.0 (well 3 if you count the USB/eSata hybrid port). One for Serato, the other for most likely the APC40, kind of limits me to adding much else in.
*The core i3/5/7 issues with Serato. Seems to be mainly SL1 with USB 1.1 having problems but there are some reports of SL3 stuffing up.

So, any other laptops I should look at like Acer, Sony and so on that come close to this one?
My last laptop was a 17" XPS so I'm quite happy with their products, just want to make sure I've covered all bases before I buy anything.
Cheers

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macbook pro.

MacBook Pro without question.

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Two idiots in a row. Amazing.

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If you don't like the OS X operating system fair enough, don't bother going with it. It's the fact that the machine needs less maintenance, that's one of it's main selling points.

If you know your computers, and are nifty around installing anti virus software and preventing all kinds of spam infiltrating your computer by all means a pc is as good as anything else out there.

People get lazy though and complacent, next thing you know you've got a virus or your computer wont start up, blue black pink screen of death whatever you want to call it.

You seem to have made up your own mind and the system you've posted seems to have more than enough oompf to do everything you want.

quote:

Originally posted by Fledz Two idiots in a row. Amazing.

good luck man. antivirus on stage is pretty cool. if u dont like apple you should have said it in your first post because it is the obvious choice and most people will tell you get a mac for anything music related. good or not it is the standard.

quote:

Originally posted by nortek good luck man. antivirus on stage is pretty cool. if u dont like apple you should have said it in your first post because it is the obvious choice and most people will tell you get a mac for anything music related. good or not it is the standard.

Had you bothered to read my post properly:

quote:

Originally posted by Fledz I looked at the MBP despite the fact that I don't like the OS, but before anyone tells me to dual boot, I just can't justify paying a thousand dollars more for a comparable (though still not as good) laptop. It just doesn't make sense to drop >$2500 on a 15" MBP.

Why is $1000 more an obvious choice? That's almost a second laptop, or an entire new smartphone, or 500 digital tracks. Remember, that's still not a comparable Mac too (which would cost even more).
You don't need a virus scan if all you use the laptop for is music (which in this case I will, I decided against using it for other things), and Win7 has been shown to be just as if not more stable than the latest Apple OS. There is no justifiable reason to spend that much more on a Mac. None.

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quote:

Originally posted by Fledz Had you bothered to read my post properly: Why is $1000 more an obvious choice? That's almost a second laptop, or an entire new smartphone, or 500 digital tracks. Remember, that's still not a comparable Mac too (which would cost even more). You don't need a virus scan if all you use the laptop for is music (which in this case I will, I decided against using it for other things), and Win7 has been shown to be just as if not more stable than the latest Apple OS. There is no justifiable reason to spend that much more on a Mac. None.

Just get your Windows 7 laptop already.

As I said before you seem to have made up your mind.
If the system you're buying is $1000 cheaper than a mac that isn't even comparable (specs wise) then you shouldn't really have to ask the question about whether or not the system will perform the tasks you need it to. Obviously it will no?

Of course. I'm just getting input from various sources about whether any knows of a better deal on a similar laptop like an HP or something, but the XPS seems to be the pick of the bunch

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quote:

Originally posted by Fledz Of course. I'm just getting input from various sources about whether any knows of a better deal on a similar laptop like an HP or something, but the XPS seems to be the pick of the bunch

Fair Dinkum..

Hands down, look at ASUS laptops before going with the others. You will get better CPU's, memory, Hard Drive, Graphics, and Soundcard with their laptops than the others. I use to do my DJ'ing with an ASUS GS-1, which is a gaming rig, and never had an issue with it. Part of the reason I switched is a freind was moving back to Romania and needed a laptop, so I sold it to him cheap to help him out. He told me last month it's still running without a hitch and it's over 3 years old. Look at thier gaming rigs. In fact, it's not well known, but they use to make the first Mac's that came out for Apple. ASUS Gaming laptops are known for being able to out perform most desktops. But there is a sacrafice for that, the battery power sucks.

But, that being said, I sold it and went with a MacBook Pro when the new unibody design came out. I travel 3-4 days a week for work, and like you, I like to have a separate laptop that is away from the net and exclusivly for my music. Other manufacturers are going to be more bulky than Apple's design, and it makes it a hell of a lot easier to tote a 2nd laptop when I have to carry my company issued Dell for work on every trip. I have a Burton Gig Bag, throw my Mac in the computer slot, put my dell in a sleve case inside the main compartment, and still have a ton of room to carry other stuff with me. I know you say you don't like the operating system, but have you really had a chance to use it? I didn't like it at first, now I like it a lot.

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Last edited by progress on Sep-14-2010 at 23:19

One thing to think about:

one in three pc laptops malfunction or break to point of factory repair in their first three years!

Cheap netbooks (small notebooks) are even more likely to break, in fact the failure rate is 20% higher and the chance of hardware failure is 40% higher.

A study in to 30,000 laptops over a three year period shows that Asus is best with a failure rate of 15.6% and HP is the worst with more than 25% of laptops experiencing hardware failures within its first three years.

Just saying......