Laptop Help

[SmellyCat]

Hey guys, knowing almost nothing about costs/prices/stuff about laptops myself I was wondering if anyone out there could give some useful advice or find some reasonably priced stuff.

Basically, I'm looking for a laptop that will be used primarily for DJing. It pretty much will have no other use (the purchase isn't for myself here, but instead a group of us). So yeah, pricing up high RAM/CPU laptops is giving quotes around £500 but I don't really know what I should be looking for (for a reasonably fast laptop and for a laptop designed specifically around DJing).


Some additional useful info..
We have a 1TB external HD so the internal hard drive space is not something that's important, the only consideration is the software we'll be using must fit on it . Price isn't really an issue but obviously nothing too expensive (thinking around the £500/$700 mark).

Just bear in mind that I'm a Euro here so if there's some good sites that only ship to America then I'm afraid that they're of no use to me. Any thoughts/info/prices/help in general will be appreciated.


Cheers.

[Demasu]

If your software will work on a Unix-like OS, then I'd get a cheap laptop with Windows on it, and then replace it with that OS so you'd have a nice stable and free OS for it. If not, what are you doing with it exactly? Like is it just playing music, or will you be doing a bunch of things at once? I don't have any experience with DJ'ing, so I don't know those things.

This seems like it could be good for you. Not too much graphics processing in there, but I don't think you'll be needing much of that, but it has a good processor and good RAM(3gb), and a HDD that should hold all your programs, and it's only 649 as it is right now, and you can upgrade it if need be.

[Innoc]

The only thing to watch out with Linux right now is WiFi. Some of the newer Intel wifi controller chips are not enumerated automatically. Supposedly some of that is being addressed in RHEL 5.3 but I've heard nothing firm as of yet. This means that all of the RHEL derivatives are lacking this as well. Ubuntu *might* have those newer drivers...but I'd definitely check out the ability of your distro of choice to handle this if WiFi matters to you.

[Mooga]

DJing as in MIXING or DJing as in playing music?
The main thing to consider is the software that will be used and what hardware is needed.

Why do you need a laptop? For DJing, you can do more things with multiple sound cards. You're not going to find a laptop with multiple sound cards. Plus you can pump up graphics for visual displays running on the same box.

[SmellyCat]

I think that the software we have does pretty much everything we need for music playing, it's just I have no idea what the price/quality cut off point is for laptops (ie. the point where the money you put in isn't worth the increase in power that you get). I guess for what it'll be used for it doesn't need to be a powerhouse of a machine, but we've got some money to spend on getting something good that will hopefully last for a few years, where an expensive graphics card/HDD isn't important here.


It needs to be a laptop because it will have to be transported weekly to a club night (no thanks to carrying a tower into town each week) and also for any other social events we run. But yeah, not knowing too much about audio outputs myself, is it possible to have two sound outputs from a laptop? Or does that fall into the category of needing two sound cards? Reason I ask is because it'd mean we could set up anywhere and not have to worry about using someone elses/buying our own decks.

We're quite happy to stick to Windows, what're the advantages of using another OS (considering I've barely ever had any stability issues with XP for a long time)?

Also, are there any things that should be considered in order to make sure we get good sound quality from the laptop?

Thanks.

[Demasu]

Originally Posted by SmellyCat

I think that the software we have does pretty much everything we need for music playing, it's just I have no idea what the price/quality cut off point is for laptops (ie. the point where the money you put in isn't worth the increase in power that you get). I guess for what it'll be used for it doesn't need to be a powerhouse of a machine, but we've got some money to spend on getting something good that will hopefully last for a few years, where an expensive graphics card/HDD isn't important here.


It needs to be a laptop because it will have to be transported weekly to a club night (no thanks to carrying a tower into town each week) and also for any other social events we run. But yeah, not knowing too much about audio outputs myself, is it possible to have two sound outputs from a laptop? Or does that fall into the category of needing two sound cards? Reason I ask is because it'd mean we could set up anywhere and not have to worry about using someone elses/buying our own decks.

We're quite happy to stick to Windows, what're the advantages of using another OS (considering I've barely ever had any stability issues with XP for a long time)?

Also, are there any things that should be considered in order to make sure we get good sound quality from the laptop?

Thanks.

Take a look at the link I provided, it seems like it'd be good for you. It only has one sound card, but I don't think you can get two on a laptop. I did see on Dell's website(where I got that computer before) that you can get a sound card that plugs into a PCMCIA port(I think), but I don't know if that would still enable you to have multiple inputs or not.

Other operating systems can give you greater stability. What you don't need is for things to crash while you're doing something. Granted, XP is pretty stable, but the chance is higher for it to crash than some other systems. So it's just helping to ensure that you can stay doing what you're doing without interruption, but the downside is your programs have to be able to run in it(or at least run smoothly under WINE or something).

What is it EXACTLY that you're doing? Knowing the details of what you're doing, whether it's playback, or mixing, or a combination of the two, or something completely different, will help us figure out the best options for the best price for you. There can be vast differences in build, and price, depending on what you need.

[Titan`]

Originally Posted by Demasu

Take a look at the link I provided, it seems like it'd be good for you. It only has one sound card, but I don't think you can get two on a laptop. I did see on Dell's website(where I got that computer before) that you can get a sound card that plugs into a PCMCIA port(I think), but I don't know if that would still enable you to have multiple inputs or not.

Other operating systems can give you greater stability. What you don't need is for things to crash while you're doing something. Granted, XP is pretty stable, but the chance is higher for it to crash than some other systems. So it's just helping to ensure that you can stay doing what you're doing without interruption, but the downside is your programs have to be able to run in it(or at least run smoothly under WINE or something).

What is it EXACTLY that you're doing? Knowing the details of what you're doing, whether it's playback, or mixing, or a combination of the two, or something completely different, will help us figure out the best options for the best price for you. There can be vast differences in build, and price, depending on what you need.

Demasu, you seem quite educated on the topic of operating systems and their respective qualities...

I recently purchased a fairly nice laptop (4G ddr2, 2.2 dual core, HP 17"). But, of course, it came with Vista Home Premium. I'm using this for mostly Adobe and Office applications, nothing else. Vista is very slow and quite unstable, so I am wondering what Linux dist you would reccomend for general purpose use.

[Demasu]

Originally Posted by Titan`

Demasu, you seem quite educated on the topic of operating systems and their respective qualities...

I recently purchased a fairly nice laptop (4G ddr2, 2.2 dual core, HP 17"). But, of course, it came with Vista Home Premium. I'm using this for mostly Adobe and Office applications, nothing else. Vista is very slow and quite unstable, so I am wondering what Linux dist you would reccomend for general purpose use.

For just general purpose I'd go with Ubuntu, which is a nice and simple install and so far has been painless to use, or Kubuntu if you like the KDE interface better than the GNOME one. My dad has been using SUSE, and he likes it so far, and it seems to be fairly user-friendly. So I'd start with those and see how you like them. Ubuntu has a live CD thing going on, so you don't even have to install it to test it out, just download the .iso and burn it to a CD and boot off it.

Now if you're doing things like Photoshop or Flash, then you might want to consider getting an OEM version of XP. If you're used to Photoshop's interface, it'll be harder for you to switch to GAIM, even though GAIM is reported to have the same capabilities as Photoshop(I haven't been able to test that myself since I can't get around the interface). There is one called Ubuntu Studio, which is like XP Media Center, except Ubuntu, so that's another choice for you. Open Office.org is a really good replacement for Microsoft Office too, so any problem with switching will have to do with Adobe software. You can also get WINE, which will let you run Windows programs on other OS's, but I haven't tested it with memory intensive programs, so it may or may not work well for you.

Your computer should be able to run any of those without any problems at all, so try out Ubuntu, or Kubuntu, or SUSE, and if you like them, great, if not, go ahead and pick up a copy of XP, or wait for Windows 7 since it seems stable so far, but it won't be out for a little while yet.

[Skanky Butterpuss]

multiple outputs with a laptop would be best handled by a firewire interface of sorts (or usb... but usb = blegh). you just have to make sure your interface works well with your laptop, or else you will be getting a lot of hiccups (my presonus firebox doesnt get along with my laptop, specifically the TSST optical drive i have, so in order to avoid lots of hiccups, i have to disable my CD/DVD burner unless im specifically using it. )

[Titan`]

Originally Posted by Demasu

For just general purpose I'd go with Ubuntu, which is a nice and simple install and so far has been painless to use, or Kubuntu if you like the KDE interface better than the GNOME one. My dad has been using SUSE, and he likes it so far, and it seems to be fairly user-friendly. So I'd start with those and see how you like them. Ubuntu has a live CD thing going on, so you don't even have to install it to test it out, just download the .iso and burn it to a CD and boot off it.

Now if you're doing things like Photoshop or Flash, then you might want to consider getting an OEM version of XP. If you're used to Photoshop's interface, it'll be harder for you to switch to GAIM, even though GAIM is reported to have the same capabilities as Photoshop(I haven't been able to test that myself since I can't get around the interface). There is one called Ubuntu Studio, which is like XP Media Center, except Ubuntu, so that's another choice for you. Open Office.org is a really good replacement for Microsoft Office too, so any problem with switching will have to do with Adobe software. You can also get WINE, which will let you run Windows programs on other OS's, but I haven't tested it with memory intensive programs, so it may or may not work well for you.

Your computer should be able to run any of those without any problems at all, so try out Ubuntu, or Kubuntu, or SUSE, and if you like them, great, if not, go ahead and pick up a copy of XP, or wait for Windows 7 since it seems stable so far, but it won't be out for a little while yet.

Alright, thanks for that. I have a copy of the Ubunutu Live CD already (had to crack some administrator passwords in the past ) and I like it. I've just never run it as a main OS.

One question, before I install a clean Ubuntu on the Laptop, should I run something like http://www.dban.org/ on the laptop to wipe it? How should I clean the current OS off? I'm not worried about backing anything up, other than plopping a few OneNote files to my flash drive.

[Demasu]

Originally Posted by Titan`

Alright, thanks for that. I have a copy of the Ubunutu Live CD already (had to crack some administrator passwords in the past ) and I like it. I've just never run it as a main OS.

One question, before I install a clean Ubuntu on the Laptop, should I run something like http://www.dban.org/ on the laptop to wipe it? How should I clean the current OS off? I'm not worried about backing anything up, other than plopping a few OneNote files to my flash drive.

You can run it if you like, but a regular format should be fine, especially if it's a newer drive.

[Mooga]

SmellyCat: You still havn't quite told us what you're going to be usingit for?
What other equipment will you be using?
For example, are you brining all the speakers and amps and equipment? Or are you just patching into an existing system?
Will you be using a sound board? Will you have Mics? Where will the mics be connected?

Also, what software do you plan on using? Depending on your software needs, we might recommend different hardware.

Also, how do you plan on just carrying around a laptop? DJing requires a LOT of equipment.