stevendrennan
I am looking into getting a new laptop to run with VDJ8 & Denon MC4000 Controller. Has any of you got any good suggestions of what to buy.
geposted Fri 17 Mar 17 @ 9:43 am
DJ Varium
Everyone is going to recommend whatever they have. That goes for whether its speakers or a laptop. People are biased on whatever they own. Just get the best one you can afford. Best processor, best Ram and separate graphics ram if you can. I would say go for a gaming laptop of some description if you are planning on doing video.
geposted Fri 17 Mar 17 @ 9:57 am
nassausky
Ratings aren't perfect but I usually try not to get something that is rated under 4 stars on a 5 star rating system. Usually looking for a high quantity of reviews. :)
geposted Fri 17 Mar 17 @ 2:17 pm
VDJ Ron
Hm for video mixing using VDJ...
Windows, and VDJ plus a couple of open websites rarely uses more than 3Gb of memory. So 4gb is a little close to whats needed therefore 6Gb is my recommended minimum. 8Gb is comfortable and 16Gb pleasant.
I'm impressed by the modern onboard Intel graphics solutions, a gaming machine is not essential, it is something of a +1 luxury.
A big +1 for the Intel onboard solution is that it is fantastically reliable!
The gaming graphics chips often fail.
A minimum of a 1Tb hdd is essential ..in my eyes.
The critical component is the cpu.
I'd recommend Intel.
Manufacturers are deceitful, and many new budget machines have an inferior cpu to an old 2.5Ghz Intel core 2 duo.
Be careful!
Check the cpu benchmarks.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html
If you get above a 2000 benchmark things will work.
Buying a i5 or i7 with a good clock speed is desirable.
If you buy a machine with a budget cpu then you should ensure it can be upgraded, in particular to an i7.
I'm getting ready to upgrade mine to an i7 quad core.
Beware..some cpu's cannot be upgraded since there soldered to the motherboard.
Note: VDJ is a well designed and efficient piece of software with frugal hardware requirements, other bloated DJ software may need a higher minimum spec. laptop.
Windows, and VDJ plus a couple of open websites rarely uses more than 3Gb of memory. So 4gb is a little close to whats needed therefore 6Gb is my recommended minimum. 8Gb is comfortable and 16Gb pleasant.
I'm impressed by the modern onboard Intel graphics solutions, a gaming machine is not essential, it is something of a +1 luxury.
A big +1 for the Intel onboard solution is that it is fantastically reliable!
The gaming graphics chips often fail.
A minimum of a 1Tb hdd is essential ..in my eyes.
The critical component is the cpu.
I'd recommend Intel.
Manufacturers are deceitful, and many new budget machines have an inferior cpu to an old 2.5Ghz Intel core 2 duo.
Be careful!
Check the cpu benchmarks.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html
If you get above a 2000 benchmark things will work.
Buying a i5 or i7 with a good clock speed is desirable.
If you buy a machine with a budget cpu then you should ensure it can be upgraded, in particular to an i7.
I'm getting ready to upgrade mine to an i7 quad core.
Beware..some cpu's cannot be upgraded since there soldered to the motherboard.
Note: VDJ is a well designed and efficient piece of software with frugal hardware requirements, other bloated DJ software may need a higher minimum spec. laptop.
geposted Fri 17 Mar 17 @ 2:40 pm
DJ Varium
Very true Ron, but most people dont have either your skill or time to be soldered new CPU's into their laptops, and if you are buying a machine today, you are buying one to cope with tomorrow too.
geposted Sat 18 Mar 17 @ 5:18 pm
nassausky
Yeah I agree too, though they might not be solder-in processors. I built a few PC's in the past but laptops are a pain to take apart at times. Memory, HDD/SDD, Battery are usually the easy things to replace but i rarely seen an easy processor on a laptop to install. When a laptop does have that capability it's a little more work to replace it. Usually the larger laptops and the clone brands are more flexible. Nowadays you can find a few videos on how to do some of the replacements/repair.
I also agree that processor speed is the most important in that aspect too. Being it's harder to replace, if you bring it to a shop instead of doing it yourself, they will charge more for their time to upgrade it. Thus when I shop for a laptop for me and my clients, I tell them to try to get at least an i5 and if they can swing an i7. Then depending on what kind of applications they intend to use and operating system (we're mainly talking windows here) should consider 6 gig or more for Windows versions greater than 7
Depending on your region, if you can get your hands on a laptop, I'd definitely recommend that too. Not sure if you're around many computer stores but you'd be surprised how something looks in an article or video only to receive it and realize it's not what you expected. Heavier on one side (Unbalanced), the touch pad is too sticky, rough , the 3.5 mm headphone jack doesn't make a good solid connection, etc.
Also from now on personally I look for backlit keyboards for DJing so I can see what I'm typing before I adjust my lighting to aim to my setup.
Oh again I back my findings with online ratings too. Unless I find a specialized laptop with features that I need and it's hard to find on other laptops or a laptop for such a great deal that I can't pass it off.
I also agree that processor speed is the most important in that aspect too. Being it's harder to replace, if you bring it to a shop instead of doing it yourself, they will charge more for their time to upgrade it. Thus when I shop for a laptop for me and my clients, I tell them to try to get at least an i5 and if they can swing an i7. Then depending on what kind of applications they intend to use and operating system (we're mainly talking windows here) should consider 6 gig or more for Windows versions greater than 7
Depending on your region, if you can get your hands on a laptop, I'd definitely recommend that too. Not sure if you're around many computer stores but you'd be surprised how something looks in an article or video only to receive it and realize it's not what you expected. Heavier on one side (Unbalanced), the touch pad is too sticky, rough , the 3.5 mm headphone jack doesn't make a good solid connection, etc.
Also from now on personally I look for backlit keyboards for DJing so I can see what I'm typing before I adjust my lighting to aim to my setup.
Oh again I back my findings with online ratings too. Unless I find a specialized laptop with features that I need and it's hard to find on other laptops or a laptop for such a great deal that I can't pass it off.
geposted Sat 18 Mar 17 @ 6:15 pm
hungfrance
geposted Sat 18 Mar 17 @ 8:08 pm
sureview
Just replaced my gig laptop, the old one was a core i3 4gb 1tb, ran everything fine.
For what I think is a reasonable sum (£650) I have just purchased a HP core i5 , 8gb , 1tb , with a 17inch full HD screen and dual graphics controllers.
Seems to be running effortlessly, one or two bars peaking on the cpu, and I have not done any optimisation yet
For what I think is a reasonable sum (£650) I have just purchased a HP core i5 , 8gb , 1tb , with a 17inch full HD screen and dual graphics controllers.
Seems to be running effortlessly, one or two bars peaking on the cpu, and I have not done any optimisation yet
geposted Sun 19 Mar 17 @ 7:41 am
VDJ Ron
I have a slower cpu than you, but never go above 40% usage..no red bars.
I did a clean install of Win 10 using a Microsoft download, they even provided a Asus driver pack.
Also I used Intel graphics software to update my drivers to the latest version.
This means I have no manufacturers added rubbish.
Within Win 10 I use two main optimizations, the first is just setting the VDJ song loading speed to idle, the other is disabling Win 10 updates in the services. I was unsure about the need to disable the updates..but Microsoft did a few little things without my permission. I don't like surprises related to the operating system, it makes me nervous.
Win 10 does not need much optimization, although I suspect Microsoft will in the future induce obsolescence via the updates.
Hm I forgot that I turn stuff off in the control panel..at almost every option.
I did a clean install of Win 10 using a Microsoft download, they even provided a Asus driver pack.
Also I used Intel graphics software to update my drivers to the latest version.
This means I have no manufacturers added rubbish.
Within Win 10 I use two main optimizations, the first is just setting the VDJ song loading speed to idle, the other is disabling Win 10 updates in the services. I was unsure about the need to disable the updates..but Microsoft did a few little things without my permission. I don't like surprises related to the operating system, it makes me nervous.
Win 10 does not need much optimization, although I suspect Microsoft will in the future induce obsolescence via the updates.
Hm I forgot that I turn stuff off in the control panel..at almost every option.
geposted Mon 20 Mar 17 @ 5:27 pm
freppa
For video, I would go for i7 (intel) and videocard 2Gb or above and 8Gb ram.
For audio, the same ;-)
For audio, the same ;-)
geposted Tue 21 Mar 17 @ 6:31 pm
VDJ Ron
I'll just point out that there are 6 or 7 generations of i7 using a variety of clock speeds, cores and cache. Some are very slow!!!!
geposted Tue 21 Mar 17 @ 9:21 pm
VDJ Ron
Cough..so there are many different types of i7 cpu but also the same can be said of the Intel gpu which is on the cpu die. So if I upgrade my cpu it is likely I will upgrade my gpu, although not in all cases.
geposted Fri 24 Mar 17 @ 3:14 am