Advice for a new digital DJ

Hi

Need experienced Traktor Pro users opinion of the following set up I am thinking of getting. Please feel free to suggest alternatives. Main issue for me is cashflow. I have £1000 to get myself started up (£225 already spent). I would love a Macbook Pro 15" 4gb but that is unfortunately that is beyond me at the moment. I know the situation is not ideal and would love to invest another £1000 in the set-up but not possible.

I already have my VCI 100 (£225) which I am more than happy with. I intend to get Traktor Pro (£180). For audio output I was thinking Numark DJio or NI Audio 2.

Now for the laptop......

I have been trying to balance proccessor vs memory vs hard drive speed. I have taken the assumption that dedicated graphics isn't so important, but happy to be proven wrong. I know very little about laptops/computers - I have always DJd with a basic 2 deck vinyl set up until my collection had to go.

What do you guys think of the Samsung R522? I like the fact it has an esata port which I could plug an external hard drive @ 7200rpm. Not THE fastest processor but would it do the job? This machine would be dedicated to performance. http://www.misco.co.uk/applications...EdpNo=360694&sourceid=2459&CAWELAID=332860013

Any thoughts ar alternatives? Also...operating systems? Most machines come with Vista but understand I will be better with XP or W7. How would I get XP until W7 comes out?

Many thanks in advance

mike

 

Argh, for your tin, you should get a MacBook Pro 13". Tis what I use, argh.

 

my advice? DONT get a dell studio.

 

if you can find a second hand Macbook (white is OK) that has a 2.4 GHz processor, it will be a lot cheaper than a new one, and will run your s/w of choice like a dream.

 

I use a DELL Latitude D630. They don't make them anymore (sadly!) but it's a hardy laptop with great performance.

Quite cheap on ebay - a good looking one is up for £500 Buy it now.

Get a Native Audio Kontrol One for about £200 and you are set with some change to boot.

And you don't have to worry about being an inferior Mac user.

 

Why does it need to be white?

 

getting second hand top of the line models mac or pc might be better then buying new cheapos. They have top components-like TI chips, better build quality of anything. Yesterday friends MBP 17`` top specs went on Ebay for 900 Euro, less then 3rd of what she paid for it. On PC front you might find good condition Vaio SZ, build of carbon originally 2-3k , for 500-700 Euro.
Contrary to what most people think, if you on budget better buy unibody macbook, really good, usable for music pc notebook will cost more.

 

Thank you for all your suggestions. In process of working out how to get the funds together for a macbook. I would be stupid to ignore the overwhelming opinion. I hear of those who run Windows laptops that they do not run anything except TP on performance machines. Would it be possible/advisable to run production software on a Macbook Pro that would ultimately be my performance machine?

 

^^I run several production suites on my Macbook, which is my backup machine. Before I sold my pre-unibody Macbook Pro, I had the production software on THAT machine. Just make sure the software and any of its components are NOT running when your computer is turned on. From experience I wouldn't worry so much about memory/CPU used as the production software interfering with Traktor's communications with your sound interface.

So short answer, it's possible. And while never really advisable, it's not unsafe if you know not to run both at the same time.

 

Could be that they are idiots? Mac or pc why a hell it could be any issue. Some people, myself too, use their secondary machine for gigs just because they dont want, need to use their more valuable machine in a club or on tour. Traktor is very light, some even run it on netbooks, which are powerwise like notebooks 7 years back.

 

I agree... I’ve got the Tracktor Pro Demo running on a netbook with an Intel Atom CPU just to see if it worked, and it works really well! (on both XP and Mac OSX)

My real PC I run Traktor on is a Dell Latitude XT (1.33Mhz Core2 Duo, 3GB ram) running Windows 7, and I’ve never had any issues... works like a dream.

( the XT is an overpriced machine... but has the added bonus of having a touch screen so you can poke at Traktor on the screen as well as with the midi controller... so you really never use the mouse!)

 

I was thinking about getting Ultra low CPU notebook for general portable use and Traktor, great to have it confirmed that it works fine.