Laptop Advice For Mixvibes

[rhopkins]

Hi guys,

So I've been using my mixvibes setup for nearly 4 months now and as I'm enjoying it so much it's time to upgrade my lumbering, (at least) 7 year old desktop PC and get a laptop. My current PC - spec in my signature - just takes an age to startup and I'd like to be able to use Cross without having to set a very high latency setting.

Unfortunately I have a low-ish budget and I've been looking at a basic Dell Laptop like this.

Any other brands I should be looking at that would be better value? And dare I ask, is it worth considering a Mac? I've never thought about this option before but it seems to be the choice for people who mainly use their machine for music related things.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Thought I would turn to you seeing as my main aim is to get better, more reliable performance out of Cross.

Thanks

[Blackbrook]

Hello,

first of all the decision between Mac or PC is to me similar to the question Porsche or Ferrari Both have pros and cons.

You can choose any PC/Laptop you like with high specifications and then it might come to strange errors or you choose another different laptop that runs out of the box without any problems. If you are asking me I would suggest to order a machine you would like and test this one. If Cross works brilliant during the money-back warranty phase (usually 30 days for testing) you can keep it. But if the machine makes any trouble while using Cross you can give it back without any problems and test another machine. Continue this till you found the machine that works best This is my recommendation.

Cheers,

Steve

[Jim B]

You can choose any PC/Laptop you like with high specifications and then it might come to strange errors or you choose another different laptop that runs out of the box without any problems.

Steve is right, many people spend a lot of money a these high end and high spec laptops only to find, when getting home and testing they have all sorts of problems. They could of spent half the money and chose one that worked with no tweaking.

Unfortunately I have a low-ish budget and I've been looking at a basic Dell Laptop like this.

A few years ago Dell where quite bad in knocking out laptops with cheap components in. There problems featured in a lot of DJ forums. I don't know what they are like now, maybe they have improved. You might buy one and have no problems, but I would be careful and do your research first

Any other brands I should be looking at that would be better value? And dare I ask,

I'm a big fan of Acer. I used a Acer 5920G for 3 years now with no problems. It came with Vista (which I didn't mind at all to be honest). When Window 7 arrived I upgraded to that OS and have stayed problem free

Before that, I used a Toshiba Satellite Pro (I can't remember what model thou) Used that for 2 years, again problem free.

I would recommend both the above

Also it's worth saying, be careful when choosing a new laptop with these new Intel i3, i5, i7 processors. It has been reported on a lot of DJ forums that these chips/chipsets do not like USB 1.1 and only run good with USB devices that use 2.0. Many DJ sound cards and controllers still use USB 1.1 so you may encounter problems here. There are 1 or 2 companies that do soundcards and controllers with USB 2, like Hercules for example but you will have to look around

One finally note, when you eventually have your new DJ laptop, please keep it clean. Do regular clean up's, run Disk Clean and De-frags often (like, once every couple of weeks), download a decent registry cleaner. I use this one. And the most important thing, try and stay of the internet with it

I hope all this helps

[Nood]

I have a Dell, with an I3 processor and it works like a charm. I use the u46mk2 soundcard. (Is it USB 2.0?)

My previous laptop was an acer, and I will never buy one again!
It had troubles out of the box. Stupid as I was I never returned it! Untill one day my motherboard failed. 11 days out of waranty

So now I am a very happy dell user

I guess most of the brands out there will give you a decent laptop for a fair price these days. Decent enough to do some godlike Cross mixing that is!

[Blackbrook]

Is it USB 2.0?

Unfortunately not, the only disadvantage I could discover.

Cheers,

Steve

[christiankoopmann]

Hey,

the U46Mk2 is a USB 1.1 device (information from my User manual).
I have also an i5 and it is working without any problems.

But I read in different forums and also here that some chipsets can make problems. I have the Intel QM57 Chip and this is working very well.
(Intel has different variations of the same chip-type. The inputs and also the outputs like USB ports are different).

I can agree (not totaly) to my previous speaker. A friend had a very cheap model from acer and it was not working. He gave it back to the vendor and bought an expensive model from acer (round 1300 Euro) and there everything is working very well. So it is not only the vendor .

I have a Fujitsu Lifebook (I know they are realy expensive) but I use it also for daily work and I have no problems with it.

So you have the chance that your Dell is working without problems or you will have problems after problems. So what Blackbrook said: Test and when not working bring it back and buy a other .

regards
Christian

PS: Sometimes you can read in the White papers of the chipset about problems. Some problems are just known so you can check this before buying it. But this is not the 100% solution because sometimes there is nothing and then you have a problem with the older version of USB.

[rhopkins]

Cheers for the advice guys. Funnily enough I was looking at Acers' range after looking at the Dell laptops. My girlfriend has a simple Dell Inspiron 1545 so maybe I should give Cross a spin on it and see how it goes. At the moment I'm just fed up of having to wait about 20 minutes before my laptop starts up, and then sometimes having cutouts whilst using Cross, and thats with high latency settings.

With a better laptop I hope to be able to enjoy my practice a little more and concentrate only on that rather than whether my desktop can keep up with me.

[christiankoopmann]

Hey,

having to wait about 20 minutes before my laptop starts up

Wow how long is windows installed on the system? When my computer or laptop needs more than 2 Minutes it is not normal. Then I format and fresh up my system with a new Windows installation. After that it is like before.

And yes when someone of your friends have some different laptops or so you can test them first before buying the new one.

regards
Christian

[rhopkins]

I would say about a year now. I would usually do as you say, but I just don't have the time to keep doing that anymore. A more accurate description is to say that although technically Windows boots in about 3 minutes opening additional applications seems to take an age! iTunes is a bad example due to it being iTunes (!) but it pretty much grinds my system to a halt.

I guess it's because its only the 32 bit version of Windows and I only have 2GB of standard DDR RAM.

[Hertz]

Those specs are still more than powerful enough to be able to run Cross at super low latency and startup up very quick: Something is very wrong w/ either the laptop or the best bet would be to say you probably have a lot of junkware and possibly some viruses or malware on there. As I said those are some good specs, no need to upgrade man.


A good a idea whould be to get MalwareBytes: www.cnet.com

CCleaner: www.cnet.com

And Mircosoft Security Essentials: www.microsoft.com

Scan with Malwarebytes and MSE (Microsoft Secuirty Essentials) in safe mode, chances are there will be a boatload of crap on your system - no offense - and then clean your system out w/ CCleaner.

Should run heaps faster and no system w/ those specs, again, should take 20 minutes to start up, 2 minutes tops, and viruses and spware/malicious code can make any top computer run like molasses.

Those apps are the holy grail amongst PC enthuisasts as being some of the best you can get.

I'd be curious if those apps help or not, let us know if you could.