So, how many actually use Windows?

Hello

First, I would like say, that this is NOT a fanboy discussion. I merely want an impression of how many people actually use a Windows instead of Mac. It is no secret that Mac dominates the "creative, musical, illustrational world" of computing, but I paid less than half of what the cheapest MBP costs for the HP machine I run..

... and I have NEVER had a crash or glitch of any kind.

I'm an IT tech, so I have a pretty good idea how to keep Windows running with as little influence as possible from 3rd party software, and I take all the precautions I know of, but I still have really bad nerves about playing back from Windows when the club gets warm and moist enough... and this, of course means that there are loads of people and a crash would be even worse then..

So, do you use Windows, and have you had crashes? And how about Mac?

Sincerely,
Nick

 

What do you think of these optimisation tips then for windows 7..... is there any you think we've missed off..?

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153970&highlight=optimisation

 

there is no doubt that amongst the various market segments, that Mac are more popular in "creative, musical, illustrational" segment than in other segments..but i am not sure the word "dominates" is accurate...as to me that would imply a market share of 80% plus.. and that is not the case... I am not even sure a majority ie 50% plus is a given...for example, here on the traktor forum i suspect its a small majority in favour of PC but a poll would be interesting


secondly, any concerns related to operating in an adverse environment is hardware related, not software...so windows does not come into it..

 

I use mac, not going to argue the reasons why, as this would turn into another Mac Vs PC. just answering your question.

PS, you are right Windows does have the majority of users on numbers of commuter owners. Does that make it better, I don't know. Its down to personal experience. Mac is perfect for me a it is a simple OS to work with.

 

You would think more people would have a windows PC purely due to the much lower cost... stands to reason really... i'd love a MAC but i just cannot justify paying that much when i can get a top wack windows pc for half the price that works just as well for what i use it for....!

i've got a feeling this threads gonna be closed by a mod any minute.....lol

 

Yeah maybe, although, its rather quite on the Mod front.......I think they are scared of the 2.5 bugs ranting.....lol

 

I'm aware - but some would say that Apple uses higher quality components like PSU, and their casing is aluminium etc. Better build. Don't know if this is true of course. EDIT: And of course the fact that all MacBooks (of same generation) contain basically the same (tried) hardware, which is not exactly all the time true for a random HP or Fujitsu Siemens lappy - as far as I know.

And yeah, about upgrading to 2.5. Is there any reason to do that at all if you don't have an F1 controller?

I would say you could include some windows service tweak tips, since MANY of the regular windows services are not needed at all to just run traktor. And of course, disabling as many things as possible from the BIOS, not just the OS.

I have a script that I run before I start traktor (if I know i'm not going to connect to the internet) that really just shuts down everything. Including firewalls, all kinds of networking etc. And of course, this reverts when rebooted or running the script again. I would never go online without a firewall.
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And, of course, the problem with hard drives and bass.

I would any day suggest to replace HDD with and Intel SSD (merely because of their reputation about reliability). My HDD started clicking after a few gigs, so I changed it before anything went wrong, just to be sure.

I'm not sure how much this actually matters, but in my head: heavy vibrations + magnetic needle spinning on a 7200rpm platter = bad in all cases.

But again, that's hardware - not Windows vs. Mac.

 

Any chance of sharing your script with us on the windows optimisation thread .... it may help someone with their audio glitching issues...!

 

And by the way - this is not a discussion about "preference" or "simplicity" but ONLY reliability and bugs.

Edit: Sure. I'll copy it the next time I have my laptop up (which btw, not to brag, takes just over 20 seconds from power button pressed to usable desktop on w7 64 bit @ current config).

 

Nice one nick... we could do with a few more IT techs on here... !

 

I would be very interested in the windows 7 script. I have just moved from Mac back to Windows and have never dj'd with win7. I have used XP tweaked and stripped to high heavens, but for the last two years it was macbook pro.

 

I use Win7-64bit-home myself, and never have freezes/glitches either. That's w/ an Audio 2, Kontrol X1, & wireless mouse connected. Not to mention it cost me less than $400 brand-new last year. It had the current Intel sandy-bridge CPU, but I got the attractive price because it's only a Pentium 2.0ghz dual-core, which is just a slightly stripped down i3. If it did have an i3/i5/i7, we're talking an extra $100-300, but I honestly doubt it would make any performance difference for Traktor whatsoever, although the thought of buying a used i5 processor on ebay has crossed my mind. But the thing is, Traktor doesn't even harness extra-core processing efficiently, or make use of any of the fancy "extras" of the i-series, I don't think. So I think for the time being I got myself a nice deal.

I also turn off any and all extra processes I can think of, including wi-fi, anti-virus, firewall, etc.. My system has 4GB of memory, and when it's sitting idle, it uses no more than 900MB. Then with everything plugged in and Traktor running, it goes up to maybe 1.35GB at the most, which is barely 1/3. I've thought about putting in 8GB, but again, I just don't see a performance difference being likely in Traktor.

I think a very good thing to do is running it in high-performance mode (I used to run the laptop in Eco mode all the time, eek). The ONLY audio-issue I've ever experienced a handful of times, is a split-second buzzing sound over the audio. It's gotta be cuz of a latency spike, cuz I remember it happening once when I was quickly scrolling the EFX menu w/ the controller. But any time I've run DPC checker, my latency is always in the green.

 

Hey Billy

You should never insert extra ram if you don't have issues, as it puts extra load on the MCH (Memory Controller Hub), possibly increasing the risk of having a crash. Just FYI. For the same reason, 1x4 is better than 2x2 gb for instance.

 

Macs are very likable, but making an entry level windows laptop run like it's on steroids has always been my goal. All my budget notebooks over the past 10 years had one task: Run Traktor. They did. Rock solid, lightning fast. Windows is very tweak-able, dunno if that's a good or a bad thing, but I made it work every time.

 

Here is the script.

This works on 64 bit Windows 7 pro.

USE AT OWN RISK - AND PLEASE TEST THIS BEFORE YOU RUN IT BEFORE YOUR NEXT GIG

copy and paste this into an empty notepad and save as either .cmd or .bat

Run it as administrator (right click and select "Run as administrator) if you have UAC enabled, and press "y" every time you're prompted. When it says "Done", press any key to close the window.

Please note that this removes basically all kinds of networking and internet security, so do NOT EVER CONNECT your computer to the internet after running this. ALWAYS reboot first. Since this turns off Seconday Logon, it is assumed you only have 1 user account on your computer. Also, do not make this a permanent change (i.e. go into services and set all these services to "disabled") just to make things easier - cause they will not be, and you will have issues with many things that Windows normally sorts by itself. This is for use only in conjunction with playing back from traktor without being connected to the internet. All services will correctly restart on reboot.

And please be advised that this does not remove services such as things related to Itunes, Java, Adobe reader, flash etc. etc. ONLY WINDOWS INTERNAL SERVICES. Please clean up your own 3rd party services manually if you think they might be the cause of your problems. EDIT: But in my opinion, you shouldn't have any 3rd party services AT ALL. None are needed to run traktor (except for traktors own services, of course - don't touch those), and they only contribute with instability.

 

Fantastic! Thanks for the .bat! This is a whole new level of windows tweaking for me.....

And will it do the same thing on Home Premium? It might sound like a n00b question but I am not sure on the different services between the windows versions.

Once again tho, thanks for the help!

 

It should be the same for home premium, yeah. Maybe it will say a service does not exist, but that's the worst that can happen.

 

Long time Windows user, running ultra stable systems at near zero latency since mid 90s. Recorded/mixed/mastered dozens of albums on PC without incident.

The audio interface needs to be truly Windows compatible. Most folks struggling with windows audio issues here are using interfaces that have struggled to perform on Windows from day one. Compatible interface and drivers are everything.

 

Btw, Tea... I accidentally put in "net stop wuauserv" twice... you can just manually remove one of the two lines containing that command. Edited in original post.
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Nice

 

Being that this is a Traktor user forum, the ppl here are using Traktor audio interfaces (I see SSL in your sig).. Can you clarify your statement at all, keeping this in mind?