I really want order a Macbook Pro
- Thread starter tunes4046
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Ok, $1499 for a Alienware 17'cheap'. I said quality .. and no crapware.
I believe he was referring to editing video not jamming out to youtube
Let me ask the questions then. What laptop are using for your main laptop to DJ with and why? Do you like what you have or wish you had something else? I love what I have as I don't do video or fancy tricks with my VDJ software. Mine does what I need it to do and that's what is important to me. My friend that one of his jobs is repairing computers along with fixing DJ gear had me buy the main laptop I'm using now. He personally hates HP.
I use a 9 year old Dell as my main machine. Bought it in 2007 and had it for a backup machine. I put it in service in '09 and haven't done anything but add music and defrag since. Works like a charm.
I also have 2 newer (less than 2 years old) HP machines, another Dell that's retired ( I could still use if need arose) and a Lenovo that I picked up when I bought some gear out a few years ago. It pretty much came free so I took it. I also have an HP desktop for a studio machine that's is fully loaded to DJ if disaster were to strike and an older model that I built myself around 2010 that I store off site that is fully loaded to DJ
I also have 2 newer (less than 2 years old) HP machines, another Dell that's retired ( I could still use if need arose) and a Lenovo that I picked up when I bought some gear out a few years ago. It pretty much came free so I took it. I also have an HP desktop for a studio machine that's is fully loaded to DJ if disaster were to strike and an older model that I built myself around 2010 that I store off site that is fully loaded to DJ
I use a Dell , I dont recall what year I bought it, but it was right after W8 was released, i5 , 1TB , 8GB ram, came with 6, I would go higher if I could. So far, I have no real issues with it other than the sound drivers, been a real PITA.
Damn do you have enough laptops? Why not 2 more just for safety's sake? LOL. My reason for asking this question is to see how many have a laptop that is not a Mac and are happy.
Personally I have found certain things are way over priced. Just the name is a hot commodity. For example did you know those sneakers from Nike that people pre order costing $150-200 and even more are made in either China or Japan for no more then $20-25 at the most. Such a thing became popular after Micheal Jordan came into the NBA and for his time the best player of all times.
Certain things I can see spending more money for. For example my ex-partner tried to get me to buy a pair of Mackie Thump speakers. I looked at the selling price in GC and knew to pass. I call them instead of Mackie Thumps Mackie Junks. A Macbook is a nice laptop but there are others that will perform just as well. It's really about the name and popularity of them. Now please remember that's just my opinion. Just like some like certain manufactures of speakers and others can't stand that brand. One thing I found out that all laptops are made by man and not God. If they were made by God they would never fail. You would never need a backup and nothing would ever damage it. Not to mention they would never get a virus. Ultimately you would never have a worry in the world.
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You should use whatever you want. The ONLY people who care what you use are other dj's and who cares what they think. Honestly, do you think your guests are out there saying... "he is using a pc, so he must be having problems with viruses and drivers.". No. Only dj's have this issue.
I prefer Macs, the other dj likes PC... Ok, conversation is over!
We always try to get into these debates to boost our own status. WHO CARES? Use what you want.
And LEAVE THE PRICE OUT OF IT when discussing this. If you are buying a $299 Dell, you will have problems. If you buy a $500 Macbook Air, you are going to have problems. Stop cheeping out dj's and making this about "overpriced" computers. Mixmaster, you put in nearly every post how something is over priced... Buy quality and buy what you want. It's only overpriced if its too much for you.
Moving on... these debates are boring and very unproductive.
I prefer Macs, the other dj likes PC... Ok, conversation is over!
We always try to get into these debates to boost our own status. WHO CARES? Use what you want.
And LEAVE THE PRICE OUT OF IT when discussing this. If you are buying a $299 Dell, you will have problems. If you buy a $500 Macbook Air, you are going to have problems. Stop cheeping out dj's and making this about "overpriced" computers. Mixmaster, you put in nearly every post how something is over priced... Buy quality and buy what you want. It's only overpriced if its too much for you.
Moving on... these debates are boring and very unproductive.
But I can remove that pretty easily .. I suppose an extra $700 might be worth it to someone who can't ..An i7, 8GB, 1TB quality grade PC with no crapware cost a pretty nice penny too.
I have never own an apple computer but have several Ipads, phones, even the watch, honestly one of the big reasons for me is windows 10 and Microsofts scare tactics into converting to it, download by July 29th or it won't be free, sure I would like to try windows 10, however I read constantly about having to make tweaks to it to make it work right, If they could just say download and everything will work the same but better I would be all in, I don't want to have my time to make a new operating system work for me.
My current gig machine is a 7 year old HP with a 17 inch screen always online at gigs, but has never seen anything but Itunes and virtual DJ, works flawlessly and has never had 1 issue, however at 7 years of age it is time to replace it, I have been extremely impressed with everything Apple I have ever owned, plus it all works so well together,
But I can remove that pretty easily .. I suppose an extra $700 might be worth it to someone who can't ..
I don't disagree with you Steve. As I said previously, I think you're an advanced user. Many are not (not limiting this to the DJ arena). I have many friends and relatives that had issues in the PC world - alot were because of viruses, etc. Also had a bunch of reliability issues (failing hardware). When they went shopping, they bought low to mid grade and thought, it's only a machine, so who cares - I'll deal with it if / when a problem happens. I'm the one that was called in to resolve those problems (which I have no problems with). The pains (and lost time) for the user were when trying to recover lost or corrupt data, figure out what is not working, driver issues (MS updated a driver that was working and now isn't), reinstall apps, viruses, etc, and / or rebuild. A few of them have moved to the Mac world - and amazingly, no more problems, no more hand holding. The Mac users barely need support. They just work.
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For the big 'tweaks', it takes a few minutes to turn them off - nothing crazy. If you can run Win7, you can run Win10. For those that want the desktop to look the same, it will take a little more time. The basics (such as turning off the reporting), takes no more than 10 minutes.
I put a like to your post but disagree with one thing you. I nearly in every post mention price. Again taking it away for now from a laptop, I've know other things that are way over priced. Yet some people are caught up into labels and that's why they buy items that are way over priced. Let me give you 3 examples. I went to Short Hills Mall looking for a place to buy some CD's at the time. I go into one of the stores. Not sure which one. They had for sell a thin leather jacket that you could only wear during early spring and it's not to cold. The price was over 2k. Then in another store they had a tan/brown leather brief case that has the 2 carry handles on it. It was really hot. I tell people to guess how much it cost. People tell me $500 and think that's too much to pay. They want 2k for that brief case. A friend of mine has a daughter who said she bought a True Religion jean jacket for $400. To me and her mother that is crazy. Especially since she lives in the projects right where my friend that DJs with me lives.
Now anybody can do what they want. Me and her mother both agree she lost her mind. I have never seen anybody's jean jacket that I would pay $400 for. I remember a story where a guy that owned a store stopped selling certain things because he knew who was coming in to buy these items. He said he knew it was drug dealers. Some things are priced that way to sucker in some people to waste their money on that item.
I wish I had a product that I could make a fortune off of taking suckers money because they see a name and think it's worth the price when it's super way over priced. I really don't have a problem if a person can comfortably afford something. Now if you got to struggle to pay your rent just to get a particular item, then I say you should really rethink if you really need that item. What gets some people in trouble is their wants and not their needs. Everybody has things they want and that's not a bad thing at all. It's only bad when a person neglects their needs for their wants.
My best friend bought a 2015 SUV because the one he had that he bought brand new in 2002 died. The engine was gone. So need to fix that one. He needed another vehicle to get back and forth to work so he could pay his bills. I bought another van myself because the one I had I didn't buy brand new was a 2002 and it started having a lot of problems. So I opted out to buy a more reliable vehicle. Only major thing I've had to do so far is buy some new tires.
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They aren't boring or unproductive .. We get in these debates because, unlike a debate between which is better: red or blue or rock or pop, there are specifics that can help someone else make a decision. Too much unsubstantiated information has been said that a counterpoint is necessary.
Starting with the Macintosh, Apple has marketed their computers as an appliance - and theirs OS's reflect that. They now run a common theme across "all" their appliances - phone, pads, laptops, desktops - which is very intuitive. Really good for people who don't understand computers, like my wife. She struggled in the PC world, but took to her iPad and iPhone like a fish to water. I'm the exact opposite, and learned a long time ago that computers are not some king of magic.
I inherited her older iPhone 4s, and you cannot count the times I've wanted to smash it to pieces - it's "intuitiveness" literally drives me crazy. IMHO, you can't easily get under the hood with Apple stuff - a form of Linux you can't screw with (who the hell wants that, right?). As long as Microsoft maintains a true directory structure, with a GUI sitting on top of it, I'm their guy.
I inherited her older iPhone 4s, and you cannot count the times I've wanted to smash it to pieces - it's "intuitiveness" literally drives me crazy. IMHO, you can't easily get under the hood with Apple stuff - a form of Linux you can't screw with (who the hell wants that, right?). As long as Microsoft maintains a true directory structure, with a GUI sitting on top of it, I'm their guy.
Because Apple doesn't have a directory structure? 
Depending on your definition of 'under the hood', you have just as much, if not more, hands on with OSX.
Depending on your definition of 'under the hood', you have just as much, if not more, hands on with OSX.
There's a difference between value and price...I used to buy $20 sneakers at Walmart and go through 4 or 5 a year. I now buy $100 sneakers at Sportcheck or other shoe stores now and I get a year out of them...No frustration, no trips to Walmart to replace, and they are much more comfortable on the feet. I chose value over price. In reality by choosing value I probably saved money long term
About 6 years ago a friend of the B&G told me I should have a mackbook. I told him I got my first mac in 1996 and I had one at home, but that didn't stop him from telling me I should DJ with one. He came off as an apple snob IMO, and ironically some people might have thought the same of me at one time! Macs are great, but not needed to run a DJ program IMO.
Here is my "why".
1) software choices. I didn't try macs years ago because the software I liked or wanted to try wasn't available. Yes, I know now that you can run Windows programs. But if something doesn't work, will it be the DJ software, the Windows software, the software to run Windows, or the computer? I don't want to have to find out. I want it fixed. How does the software tech support help me now?
Windows is not perfect by any means. But the reality is it is very reliable when people use it reasonably. I'm guessing a good number of BSOD's are because someone is trying to run something on a computer that simply was not designed to do. Many times people buy a cheap computer then a game that will suck up all of the resources, then blast Windows because it didn't work.
I typically don't buy gaming laptops as they are a bit overkill for what I need. I buy good computers that have plenty of room for what I need. But I buy 2 at a time.
If my software choices were made naitivly for OS X, I would have tried Apple by now. I was a big android user and am amazed how much better iOS is compared to Android. And the software choices are better on iOS too
Just like cheap Windows computers, many people get sucked into getting "free" or cheap android phones, which are the WORST. But most high end android phones are much better.
I have very little patience for things that glitch at a gig. I gave up on Vdj after a few crashes. Pcdj same thing. My ots software never crashed. It won and I've paid more for it. If Windows crashed even a few times, I'd be all over the place figuring out how the boot camp thing works to get my software running on a Mac.
I pay more for sound equipment, mics, and iPads because I feel I can give my clients a better event with these tools. If there was any better performance I believed a computer could give me, I'd gladly pay more for it.