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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: What's best for DJing Laptop or Mac? - Page: 1

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I currently use a laptop with Windows 10 however I'm thinking of switching to Mac

Pros, Cons etc

Thanks in advance
 
Posted Tue 02 Aug 16 @ 12:48 am
Pros: You get to say you have a Mac

Cons: You are paying about double or triple for the same specs in a Mac as you would a PC.

Other: If you spent the same amount of money on a pc as you were going to spend on that Mac, you'd get one kick-ass machine. Lots of Ram, bigger processor, larger hard drive, Windows (the most used OS in the world behind Linux on servers), the ability to add most of the programs in the world, and compatibility with the majority of the hardware on the market.

There really just is nothing a Mac can do that a Windows machine can't. Sure, a lot of people use Macs and a lot of the creative industries have adopted them, but most of the time, I've found, it's a status thing.

If you want good performance and a great deal of support, go with a PC costing what you would have spent on that Mac.

I would suggest ASUS as a good company. Lenovo makes very nice business class machines. Dell is hit or miss, but mostly good with a fresh install. I've also had good luck with HP computers. Make sure you get either an i5 or and i7. Minimum of 8Gb or RAM, more is better. An SSD main drive and if possible, the ability to add a second drive for your music. 1-2TB is a good starting point. If it doesn't have an extra hard drive slot, there are kits on the market that will allow you to convert your CD/DVD drive into a hard drive bay. For DJ'ing, I find a 17" screen nice, but some people consider them to be too big. 15.4" minimum as far as I'm concerned. Also, be careful of the outputs/inputs it has. If you do video, try and get the output that you would use (or plan to use). As well, you'll want a number or USB ports, the new USB type C is going to be popular in the future.

I bought an HP Pavilion DV7 Laptop with 8Gb of Ram and a quad-core processor years ago. It was running Windows 7 just after it came out. I used it for about 6yrs and would still be using it today if it hadn't been damaged. That's a lot of life for a $1200 laptop.
 
I use a mac for gigging. For me, macs= longevity. You get what you pay for. I bought my first mac in 2008, and just bought a new one this year. I did not have one crash in 8 years with it. In that same amount of time I've went through 4 pc laptops...

Having said that, VDJ is more compatible with a PC. There are a few add-ons not available for a mac that would be nice to have (milkdrop, telly media).
 
Using VDJ = PC (Asus)
Producing = Mac (Book Pro)
 
Having spent a weekend wrestling with an HP Windows machine, I'd suggest a Mac if you can afford it.

It's not a question for me about who's OS is better - the fact is that Apple offer a very limited number of machines, and therefore the hardware is pretty much guaranteed to work properly. But because there are a billion different variations of machine that will run Windows, I think you're more likely to run into driver incompatability or other conflicts than on a Mac.

I also use Macs professionally day to day, and I very rarely get crashes or unexpected errors. At the moment I'm using VDJ on an HP laptop, but if I were gigging more than once every few weeks, I'd definitely get a Mac for stability.
 
I just bought a new machine with Win 7 64bit pro on it. Fantastic OS but I think Windows went south after that.

My current gig machine has Windows 8.1 on it and it's rock solid but all the Metro crap bugs the hell out of me.

I wouldn't agree Mac machines are better and they are definitely overpriced, I also wouldn't recommend Windows 10 at all.
 
+1 for Win 7 64bit
 
I've used a laptop for around 15 years, and work in clubs playing videos at least five night a week, I've had around 4 different laptops throughout the years, they have never crashed, I've never paid more than £300 for a laptop. Hope this helps.
 
kradcliffe wrote :
I just bought a new machine with Win 7 64bit pro on it. Fantastic OS but I think Windows went south after that.

My current gig machine has Windows 8.1 on it and it's rock solid but all the Metro crap bugs the hell out of me.

I wouldn't agree Mac machines are better and they are definitely overpriced, I also wouldn't recommend Windows 10 at all.


Download this program:
http://download.cnet.com/Classic-Shell/3000-2072_4-75553853.html

It's safe and I've used it on many Win8 machines. It'll bypass the Metro screen and give you a real start button again.
 
Using computers for almost 35 years now. 10 years ago I made the switch from PC to Mac and I think this was a great decision. If I think about how much time I save for not having to deal with Viruses or awful Antivirus Software, Hardware and Software incompatibilites, making backups thats already more than worth it.

There is a reason why most professionals in the Audio/Music industry or grafik designers or other creatives use Macs. Its easier to focus on the actual work you want to do if you are free from having to mess around with the system. Yes, they cost more, and on paper it looks you get "more" for the same price when you choose a PC. But good quality and a product that is well conceived just costs more. Thats my 2 cents...
 
I use Start8 to bypass Metro, but there are many things behind the scenes it can't change. Windows 8.1 is very stable but the general interface is awful.
 
So... you pay a small fortune for a Mac, and end up with a limited piece of hardware which won't even run the essential milkdrop addon. Sad.

The good thing about windows and a laptop is that its a very flexible cheap combination, although this places demands on the user.

Those with technical ability have few problems with windows.

A DJ without technical ability in 2016 is like a bird without wings....crippled.
 
I started using PC's back in the days when they had 8 inch floppy disks. Later, having moved into the publishing industry I learned how to use those itty-bitty Macintosh computers (with first generation versions of Pagemaker, Photoshop and Quark).
Then it was back to the PC world when I joined the staff of a local newspaper. At homes, I always had PC's. During my over 25 years as a mobile DJ I spent the first 23 years working strictly with CD's.
When it came time to transition to laptops I had enough personal experience, knew enough professionals in my field and had done plenty of homework. I decided to get two identical MacBook Pro's. Both identical to each other and both used only for DJ work.
I also decided to get Virtual DJ with a pro license. Two good decisions in my humble opinion. When you follow the discussions here, just ask yourself how many device driver, graphics card and operating system malfunctions seem to afflict the PC guys. The ones who are technical gurus always find a fix and make it sound easy.
As for me, nine times out of ten I just turn on my Mac's and concentrate on putting on a good show.
My advice is that if you are very good at navigating the PC world go for it. But, if you are lookig for something that just plain works from the moment you take it out of the box -- go with Mac.
 
bigron1 wrote :
So... you pay a small fortune for a Mac, and end up with a limited piece of hardware which won't even run the essential milkdrop addon. Sad.


Correct, on a Mac we use the same visualizations that Itunes uses which is pretty much the same as Milkdrop......

bigron1 wrote :

A DJ without technical ability in 2016 is like a bird without wings....crippled.


So I guess that makes you pretty much dead when it comes to a Mac. Do your research before you talk about things you've never used.

I can do EVERYTHING A PC can do ON MAC!! If anyone questions me, put your money up and ill gladly take it, lmao!!
 
Hi Beatbreaker, no one has yet told me how you managed to change your name, which is fixed for the rest of us?

Anyway..you're technical ability over the years has looked less than geek like.
You often claim you don't want to know about the technical side of things..you say "I'm just a DJ".
You say "I don't want to be a programmer".
I might well be able to find your past quotes in this forum to justify these statements should they be needed.

Furthermore you're forevever posting pro Serato, and Mac comments, and also threatening to move on from VDJ.
Your heart is not that of a VDJ8 windows laptop man.

Most DJ's work just the weekends, they have little spare money for luxuries such as Mac's, and top spec laptops.
What's more there not needed.

I can do EVERYTHING A PC can do ON MAC!!

Dream on..I doubt that.
You could boot camp it I suppose.
The range of applications available for windows is huge!
 
OldTom wrote :

My advice is that if you are very good at navigating the PC world go for it. But, if you are lookig for something that just plain works from the moment you take it out of the box -- go with Mac.


I agree.

And I would add, its not only the question if one is tech savvy or not (and I can claim I actually am). For me its the question where do I want to invest my time in? Dealing with the system or doing the actual work I love and am paid for. My decision is clear.
 
There are far more programs on Windows than Mac, but after using a Mac for a year and going back to Win I will state that the Mac programs are far better quality. Quantity is not everything and many of the supposedly free windows programs are riddled with malware and unwanted installs.

Personally I am not a fan of iOS or Apple hardware, but the platform itself is far better than Windows for many reasons.

Microsoft have made a serious mistake the way they have handled the transition to Win 10 and it will get worse going forward. This will inevitably push more users and developers in the Mac direction and MS have nobody to blame but themselves.

As stated above I have just bought two brand new laptops for my DJ work and they both have Win 7 Pro 64bit on them. It all went to crap after that so who knows what the future will bring for Windows users. I don't have a great feeling.
 
Kradcliffe..you might be right about the future of Win 10.
I've been a little careful to ensure I can retreat back to Win 7.
However my two working laptops, both 2.4ghz, 5gb mem, and 1000gb hdd spec are both working better using Win 10.
A 3rd laptop I'm testing at this moment has the following spec's.. i3 1.8ghz, 4gb mem, 1000gb hdd.
It was a Win 8 machine.
I've played video on two decks, whilst scratching both, and running milkdrop.
All is well..for the time being.

My hope is that Win 10 can be optimised like was the case for previous versions of windows.
I've already made some optimizations on my two working laptops.
 
@Ron, I have never once said I was technically gifted or a computer programmer and don't plan on it either but........ I know alot of smart people when it comes to computers in general. Hell I've sent a Macbook off to a programmer so he could develop a plugin on the Mac side.

None of my Macs are bootcamped and I have absolutely no intentions of ever doing it, thats what my Windows machine is for, duh, lmao!!

As for Serato, they do things better then VDJ and VDJ does things better the Serato, go to there forums and you'll see I bash people who talk shit about VDJ because 1, they have never used it or 2, they're just stupid and have absolutely no clue what they are talking about!!

Now I am pro Mix Emergency but VDJ is slowly closing that gap as well.

And I still stand by comment that whatever you can do with VDJ on a Windows machine, I can do on a Mac. Actually there is one thing I still can't do and thats resize VDJ's master video output.

So what else you got Ronnie boy??

And as for luxuries, I work 3 damn jobs Ron!! What's stopping any of you from working hard to get what you want?? So please dont give me that shit about not being able to afford things.. Working hard goes a long way........
 
I repeat

However my two working laptops, both 2.4ghz, 5gb mem, and 1000gb hdd spec are both working better using Win 10.
A 3rd laptop I'm testing at this moment has the following spec's.. i3 1.8ghz, 4gb mem, 1000gb hdd.
It was a Win 8 machine.
I've played video on two decks, whilst scratching both, and running milkdrop.
All is well..for the time being.

VDJ8 Recommended Hardware requirements
http://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/Minimum%20system%20requirements.html

A cheap laptop with the recommended specs outlined above will work.

And as for luxuries, I work 3 damn jobs Ron!! What's stopping any of you from working hard to get what you want?? So please dont give me that shit about not being able to afford things.. Working hard goes a long way........


Beatbreaker you're speaking for yourself.
Many people in your country can't even get a job.
 
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