Seperate laptop for lighting?

[Daryll]

I will be using a Toshiba equium L 10 laptop (512 ram 80gig drive) for the music side of the disco ( sam party dj).
would I need a seperate laptop for DMX control of lights, just basic functions.
Cheers.
Daryll

[Vectis]

Need? Probably not.

Best practice? Most definitely.

Windows is not 'clever' enough to run multiple software products in true isolation and certainly can't (easily) be programmed to prioritise CPU cycles and memory allocation in favour of one application over another.

If you can live with the two products conflicting for (the admittedly limited) resources with the resultant pauses, apparent hangs and worst-case scenario, crashes, then go for it.

Me? I carry three. One for audio (which is backup to my d2 anyway), one for video and a third for lighting control. If one gives trouble, I can sacrifice another. Two of the three are of a lesser spec. than yours.

[Larry B Entertainment]

I agree for the same reasons as Vectis really. If your only using one laptop and it goes down, not only do you lose the audio but you lose the lighting control as well. Even if you have backup cd decks, you may not carry a backup dmx controller.