Help with choosing a new laptop

I am a PC/Windows guy (although my Windows love died with Windows 8 to be frank). I have several machines and all are windows-based.

One exception, my DJ laptop. It’s an MBP15 (i5/4GB/don’t remember what HD). I bought it 2 1/2 years old and spent the same money on it as I would have on a new i5 Windows laptop. Took out the HD and replaced with SDD (first 128GB, now 256GB), an easy fix you could easily do yourself. Unless you intend to do lots of fancy stuff (including running stacked FX, heavy key lock stuff and such simultaneously), 4GB should be fine. Swapping it out and replacing it with 8GB is always an option. But 4GB seems to be working just fine for me.

I am not sure why you’d want such ridiculous amounts of disk space for DJ-ing, but that is up to you of course. If budget is an issue, I’d say get a decent i5 used MBP (2 yrs or so), either swap the HD for a GOOD! 256GB or 500 GB (it’s your wallet) SSD or use the extra mounting kit to just add the SSD. I don’t like the SSHDs, they somehow seem to be like the worst of two worlds, imho.

But certainly get an MBP if you can work it financially (again, no need for new). It has a lot of advantages for DJ use. The only drawback will be the backup you have. Swapping prepped files between both platforms can be somewhat of a hassle, not to mention transferring DJ program settings.

I’ve been a Windows and Linux guy all my life, my “real job is in the business / software development industry. I’ve found the Lenovo’s T-Series that D-Jam mentioned to be built very solid and very reliable. I would also agree with doing a clean windows install without all the crap the manufactures add on. What I’m about to say next however still makes me cringe being that I have always been anti Apple.

I recently acquired a used 13″ Mid 2012 Macbook Pro. It is the Core i7 2.9 ghz model. I upgraded it to 16GB of Ram, There is a 256GB SSD running the OS and a 2TB spiny Drive used for data. (I swapped that out for the optical drive) I will say that this is by far the best laptop I’ve ever owned. Everything just works!! I’ve got plenty of horsepower to run windows 7 in a virtual machine using virtual box, but VM ware or even the Apple bootcamp software will let you run windows on this machine. Everything runs really snappy and I haven’t had a problem with it for the year that I’ve had it. My next personal laptop will likely be a 15″ model.

In looking out on eBay, it appears you could get a similarly equipped 15” MPB with similar specs that I’ve described for around $1100-$1200. The Macbook is just a better running machine in my opinion, and I would probably go that route if it were up to me.

I have to say working in an IT company myself that sadly the quality of Lenovo has been going downwards the last year. We have loads more warranty issues than we had in the past and still Apple has the least warranty issues within the first 3 years.
I mean I have a Titanium PowerBook from 1999 at home that still works flawlessly.

I can attest to what Terry’s said when it came to their more consumer-model laptops, like the Ideapads.

However, I haven’t had issues with Thinkpads. Plus the steel frame construction means it can take wear and tear.

And honestly, I love the plain black blocky look of them. Just screams that you’re not fooling around.

but fear it could end in tears

Uhmmm, what tears. Only thing I saw was people saying that the MacBook is a great choice for DJ-ing, if not the best?

Well folks, as I said I am a windows guy, but after 2 1/2 years with my (now) almost 4 year old MBP, I have to say that it just has too many extra features (metal casing, backlit keyboard – love it in a dark booth, magnetic power connector – this stuff breaks all too easy on regular laptops, no audio drivers – yeehahw, simple install/uninstall – just drag and drop, no registry and I can go on a bit longer) to be brushed aside with a “you can do the same with a decent Windows laptop”. It is true, you CAN do close to the same. But the amount of effort it takes to finetune your windows laptop to get close to the ease of use and performance of a MacBook is a LOT higher. And that is disregarding all the extra features I mentioned. All these things I don’t care about for other purposes, but for DJ-ing (and Live and Recording Sound) the fact of the matter is that it really is the best piece of kit out there for the purpose.

YES, new prices are ridiculous, even knowing you can still ask a sh*tload of money for it used, if you want to get a new one after 2 years. YES, Apple is not the friendliest, open and flexibel of companies. But for OUR purpose, I find the MacBooks hard to beat.