Help me find a laptop...
Raggaholic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright gang, I'm in the hunt for a laptop. I haven't bought anything computer related for a while, but when I do, I always come here first (by the way, thanks on the EEE PC).
I'm looking to get a full sized laptop which will be used primarily for professional dj work. My Pavillion ZD8000 held the line for a long time (six years or so), but it's getting to the point where it can't run some of the new programs that are coming out as effectively as I want them. My issue is like I said, I haven't been into anything system related for a long time. I don't know who has the best chipset and what the chipset is best for what. I can spend up to around two grand for it, but I'd like to stay around $1200. I've been looking at PCs because, although a lot of my friends have switched to Macs, I'm not seeing the great edge over PCs there.
So, any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
I'm looking to get a full sized laptop which will be used primarily for professional dj work. My Pavillion ZD8000 held the line for a long time (six years or so), but it's getting to the point where it can't run some of the new programs that are coming out as effectively as I want them. My issue is like I said, I haven't been into anything system related for a long time. I don't know who has the best chipset and what the chipset is best for what. I can spend up to around two grand for it, but I'd like to stay around $1200. I've been looking at PCs because, although a lot of my friends have switched to Macs, I'm not seeing the great edge over PCs there.
So, any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Raggaholic on
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I would strongly suggest looking at a MacBook Pro. Working with their glass trackpad is amazing, I'm sure multitouch would be useful for quickly navigating through music.
I'm not a professional DJ so I have no idea what software you would be using - but make sure its available on the mac, or find an alternative for the mac.
Chances are at some point within the 3 years any laptop you buy will need to be serviced - the great thing about Apple's method of providing service is that rather than having to mail it in to them, and have them fix it and then mail it back (could take weeks) you can go to any Apple Store or "Apple Certified Technician" and have them fix it and give it back to you. There are no Apple Stores near me so I go to a certified technician store, and they never seem to have the part I need but even so I usually get my computer back the next day. Ymmv obviously depending on where you are and whats near you, but I much prefer being able to get this quick service and not think about whether I can live without a laptop for 3 weeks while it gets fixed, because when stuff went wrong with my HP laptop I didn't bother getting it fixed because I would lose it for too long and needed it.
Asus G73
EDIT: Looks like that best buy URL didnt seem to work. Try this youtube review: Asus G73 Review. There are about 2 different models sold; a lower end version with smaller hard drive and 6GB memory, and the deluxe version which has 1TB of space and 8GB. The smaller version is what I'd recommend, as that runs just about 1200 bucks (or a little cheaper).
I know from experience that this laptop is a BAMF. Giant screen, core i7 processor (pretty much the best on the market right now, windows 7 basically sees 8 logical processors even though it's just a quad core), 6GB of memory, a giant video card (so it can run anything including current gen games at high settings), all at the drawback of an incredibly short battery life. You won't travel far from your AC adapter with this guy, but it's infinitely more portable than a desktop (~1.25 hours off battery).
For the more price conscious, check out:
Toshiba Satellite
Youtube:
Toshiba Sattellite
Core i5 processor
4gb memory
Site claims to have around 5 hours of battery life unattended
500 GB of space
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Regardless of whatever laptop manufacturer you choose, there is no real magic involved in buying a laptop. It's simply a collection of components, and you choose which weighting to apply. So for example:
Core i3 = Core 2 Duo < Core i5 < Core i7. Basically, Intel has a large share of the market right now. The core i7 currently just about reigns supreme in terms of processing power for the consumer.
So when looking for a laptop, just find the laptop that has the best processor you can find, combined with the most memory (6GB is better than 4!), combined with the largest hard drive (although pretty much everything comes with 500GB these days and that's a helluva lot of space), combined with the largest screen size, combined with the largest battery life.
It's like a racing game in a way. The Asus above would be:
Processor: 9.5
Memory: 7.0
Display: 8.0
Battery: 2.0
Space: 7.0
The toshiba would be something like:
Processor: 7.0
Memory: 6.0
Display: 4.0
Battery: 9.0
Space: 6.5
It's just bars going up and down as you change components out. That's how I like to think of it anyways.