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As we're on the topic of laptops, the one thing people overlook is the build quality.
Most laptops these days can easily run DJ software - especially if not using video.
What is more likely to break is the actual laptop, especially being moved around so much.
Look for a genuine business machine, rather than a consumer one.
As mentioned above, eBay has lost of manufactured units.
I picked up a cheap Dell Latitude laptop off eBay earlier this year for £160. It's a Intel i5 processor with 8gb of ram. I just bought it as cheap laptop to have in the living room (am using it now to write this), but it's surprisingly powerful. It even runs the Adobe Creative Suite quite happily - I can even edit video on it quite happily, which is a good indicator of power. But more importantly, this thing is absolutely solid. Yes, it's chunkier and heavier than most laptops, but I know it won't break easily. So would be a good option for anyone wanting a DJ laptop.
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Originally Posted by
rth_discos
Yes, it's chunkier and heavier than most laptops, but I know it won't break easily. So would be a good option for anyone wanting a DJ laptop.
Everyone wants sim and small, but I am more than happy with my 2011 MacBook with solid perspex Spek cover on it. Give me that over an uber slim MacBook Air any day. Good that yours can run creative suite. Mine is a bit jittery on Lightroom and Raw files (only just started using it) but never misses a beat on Ilustrator, iMovie or garage band. I liked the fact I could buy a 2.8 ghz I7 and upgrade it from 8gb to (an unadvertised) 16gb ram. Stick in a decent SSD and you have a machine as powerful and arguably more reliable than almost anything portable on the Apple store shelfs today. I need to upgrade my iPad Mini now as its flagging a bit and the software is starting to get old as i can't update. See other post for my music issues.
Last edited by yourdj; 08-10-2017 at 11:42 AM.
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Originally Posted by
DazzyD
You've lost me off, there. You would choose the Dell Inspiron even though your last one was very disappointing?
The only issue I ever had, which made my mind up about never using Dell again, was Dell's customer service.
It was a choice between 4, the Dell seemed the best suited, that was all. I was disappointed, but I personally would probably be unhappy with the other 3.
Originally Posted by
yourdj
Everyone wants sim and small, but I am more than happy with my 2011 MacBook with solid perspex Spek cover on it.
I'm 100% with you on that, I don't get all this interest in thin lightweight designs with screens being incredibly crisp etc. I want a laptop that does things quickly!
I have the same issue with mobile phones. Why isn't there big phone player making phones that are durable anymore? Everybody seems to care more about appearance than if it does the job well nowadays . I'm always hearing about people smashing their phones, I think every one of my friends has had a cracked screen in the last 2 years (I haven't because it's always in a case).
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With those costs of storage being so cheap these days, it make sense to have a laptop with a decent size hard drive and no need to go external (apart from a backup drive). Even SSD drives are dirt cheap these days.
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Talking about hard drives, I came across this video last week. Turns out hard drives with platters have vibration sensors in them and won't perform certain operations (mostly write operations from what I know) if they sense vibration - and that includes sound waves! I came across this because a bunch of researchers have managed to find the resonant frequencies for some of the common hard drives (mostly around 130hz) and have successfully crippled them for minutes at a time using just sound!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4
So.... if hard disk performance is important and you have a habit of producing ground shaking bass, turns out you should buy an SSD. Otherwise you might find yourself waiting for your disk quite a lot.
Julian
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Originally Posted by
DJ Jules
Talking about hard drives, I came across this video last week. Turns out hard drives with platters have vibration sensors in them and won't perform certain operations (mostly write operations from what I know) if they sense vibration - and that includes sound waves! I came across this because a bunch of researchers have managed to find the resonant frequencies for some of the common hard drives (mostly around 130hz) and have successfully crippled them for minutes at a time using just sound!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4
So.... if hard disk performance is important and you have a habit of producing ground shaking bass, turns out you should buy an SSD. Otherwise you might find yourself waiting for your disk quite a lot.
Julian
If this was a big problem, then I don't think club DJ's would be using hard drives very much as its pretty loud there. Interesting though, I wonder if Jet fighter engine test engineers used to use them?
Last edited by yourdj; 16-10-2017 at 06:22 AM.
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Originally Posted by
yourdj
If this was a big problem, then I don't think club DJ's would be using hard drives very much as its pretty loud there. Interesting though, I wonder if Jet fighter engine test engineers used to use them?
To be honest, I find all of the research at odds with personal experience. Might have to read up on it more...
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I had a Toshiba laptop which would constantly "detect vibrations" I took it back after a couple of days.
I think most decent laptop's have free fall sensors to move the needle from the platter when dropping but I'm not so sure all hdd have "vibration protection".
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Originally Posted by
ukpartydj
I had a Toshiba laptop which would constantly "detect vibrations" I took it back after a couple of days.
I think most decent laptop's have free fall sensors to move the needle from the platter when dropping but I'm not so sure all hdd have "vibration protection".
Well we all remember the original CD players, especially in cars and before too long they stopped skipping, so I am sure the same technology was applied to HDD's when they became more mainstream/mega produced for the mass consumer market, especially for laptops.
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I would assume DJ software like Virtual DJ 'stores' the actively playing some in the RAM (solid state), rather than literally 'reading' it off the hard drive whilst it's playing?
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