New computer...what's best?

[Sween]

I agree that Mac Book Pro is a solid bet. But you're not going to get a decent one for under $1000. If you have (and want to spend) the extra cash to get a solid machine pony up for the MBP. DO NOT buy the 13" with the i5. Make sure you get an i7.

If you can't or don't want to spend the extra for the Mac, then do as Mystic says and look in to Asus. You can get a really great machine for around $800... just be sure to purge the bloatware when you get it.

[Mystic]

If you can't or don't want to spend the extra for the Mac, then do as Mystic says and look in to Asus. You can get a really great machine for around $800... just be sure to purge the bloatware when you get it.

I do have to say that is one reason I love Asus, especially from boutique shops like xoticpc.com. Very little if any at all with the bloatware. I recently reset an HP laptop for a friend and was like "OMGWTFBBQ" at all the preinstalled crap they put on it.

[peterwo2e]

you on a budget get a pc it will run just fine. lots of ram, i have my lenovo edge i run video with vdj and serato itch no problems so far. going on 2 years.

[Mister]

The internals of a MacBook Pro is the same as some leading PC laptops. Intel does the initial design then Apple modifies it to fit their application. A couple years ago Asus was the manufacturer building the boards for Mac. Now I believe it's FoxConn. I really feel they went with FoxConn to save some money because I'm seeing a lot more issues with the new Macs we're ordering at my work. Same processors, chipsets, RAM, harddrive, etc that you can get in PC laptop. Only difference is the OS.

Yup... Asus is a very good brand.

[DJArmani]

Macbook's are the way to go.

[STLRiverCity]

I have a 2009 15" MBP and I have used a new top-of-the-line 13" MB Air. I really think the MB Air could be fine for just DJ use. I would still prefer the 13" MBP though for professional use. If you got the cash you could replace the HDD with a SSD, like others have said. That would give you one hell of a DJ laptop.

[DJHoss]

DO NOT buy the 13" with the i5. Make sure you get an i7.
.

Reasons? Because it is a dual core, not a quad? I'd prefer a quad i7, believe me. I just hate how Apple makes you pony up so much for small increments in power and such. And SSD, I'd love it but I'd need at least the 512GB model and I'm not about to pony up $1200 for a hard drive lol I think I'll keep to a regular 500 or 750 GB and keep the rest of my music on my externals, unless I can magicly pay for a small SSD. And I am not familiar with ram usage on macs, I'm used to loadin it up on pc's. I have 3GB in my dell right now and on Win 7 its barely hanging in there. is the stock 4GB Plenty? Thanks guys

[Djmike209]

This is question that is open to user preference.
Mac guys will say mac. PC guys will say PC
Chevy Guys are going to say Chevy....well you get the point.

Do your Homework Figure out what you need.
You are paying for the brand name. Most of the parts inside are the same
Seagate, or WD Hard Dirve
Crucial Memory
Intel Processor i5 or i7 or AMD

Best buy always has great deals. I picked up a Lenovo W series laptop. i7, 500GB HD, 4 Gb memory. Nice screen. long batt life.

Dont skimp on the warranty. Get the accidental coverage if you can. My gig laptops get beat up!

Good Luck.

[jazzyj]

Ok so last year, I started out with a 17" i7 Intel Toshiba Satellite. Traktor S4 controller. Traktor Pro 2.x software.

It worked. In 6 months, I made a lil over $3G's with my lil setup. Nice. For my area, for the gigs I was doing, and for the equipment I had. BUT... EVERY SINGLE gig... I was concerned about duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuh drop outs. aka the millisecond audio drop of silence that occurs when your PC can't handle streaming real-time audio even with a large buffer. It happened a couple times during gigs - thank gawd never during a first dance or ceremony music or anything that was important but still - it would kill my nerves; anxiety would rule over us the whole time. Even with creating a bootup profile which loaded NOTHING but mandatory stuff. Still. A drop out was 80% inevitable.

Finally... tax season is here. I take my money, go to a great friend of mine, and purchased a 1yr old 15" MacBook Pro. I installed Traktor Pro, hooked up my Traktor S4, Turned the buffer on the sound card all the way down, turned up the speakers, and played music for about 4 hours solid. Mixing/switching/loading... and facebooking, emailing, twittering, app installing, web surfing, etc. and guess what....? Not NERY one drop. Perfect sound. Not one glitch the whole time.

I am sold. MacBook Pro? Why? Because everything... just works.

[Schreiber]

I'm definitely in the Mac camp too. Never once have I had problems with it crashing. It's reliable as hell.

Obviously I would never do this during a gig-but in my room when I've been practicing, I've had VDJ running on one screen, a few new songs downloading in the background, & Skyping a friend all at once. No problems at all.

Mine is a 15" i7 w/4G Ram.