LAPTOP or MACBOOK For DJing

A PC Laptop is going to give you a better price point obviously. You also have much more elbow room because you can do more with it. For Example if it runs slow, you have the option to add more RAM or upgrade your processor(stuff MAC won’t allow). On the other hand, Macbooks have pretty good stability which will let you DJ with ease at a gig without worrying about your computer surprising you with a sudden stop in your music. There are also good stable PC’s out there too if you wanna spend a little extra money. Either way you can still do good with any. If you buy a PC I recommend that you make sure it has about 4 Gigs of RAM. The more the better

I’ve never had an issue with my HP laptop. I bought it about two years ago with the intent of using it to DJ and music production. If you maintain the laptop I don’t think you should have any problems.

There are a lot of advantages imho to Macbooks over PCs.

And I am a big PC fan (have several AND and a windows 7 laptop for work) but I will not use anything but a Mac for DJ and sound engineering work anymore. Yes, you can tweak a windows PC to work well. But, it involves running a dual-boot system if you intend to do other work with it as well. Also it is actually tweaking, meaning you need to spend time and effort into making it stable. The sound driver system Windows uses is far less suitable than that of Mac OSX. User separation (i.e. having a different user profile for DJ-ing and for private stuff for example) is nothing more than a joke on Windows (except for personal files pretty much everything you do in any of your user profiles affects the entire windows installation – hence the advice of dual-booting). And, not unimportantly, Mac OSX does not work with a registry system like Windows. The registry system has an inherent problem, it gets corrupted, clogged up, stuff stays in there long after you have removed the programs it was associated with and thus Windows needs some kind of regular cleaning to keep running optimally. Most if not all this stuff is handled by OSX straight out of the box.
While Mac’s can and do crash, I think it is safe to assume that the CHANCE of a Windows laptop going blue screen on you is statistically higher.
I like to have far more control and tweakability over my OS than I can have with OSX for my day to day stuff. Windows offers me that. But when it comes to having a system to dependably run my DJ software gig after gig, I don’t need that flexibility. I just want to install the software, hook up the controller and know it will work, every time. And OSX does offer that.

As for the hardware. While a few hardware manufacturers are mimicking a lot of the MBP features, like backlit keys (VERY handy in a dark DJ booth) and full metal casing, those can usually only be found on the higher end models, thus making the apparent price difference a lot smaller. Things like the magnetic power adapter connector are unbeatable (anybody that has ever had to replace a mainboard in a laptop because the connector for power broke off knows what I mean). Also you CAN upgrade memory (have done it myself), you CAN replace the HDD with an SSD and/or even remove the DVD (who needs one these days) and put a second HDD/SDD in. Only thing you can’t change is the processor, but this is true for 99.9% of windows laptops too.

I’ll second the notion that overall the MacBook Pro holds it value way longer than a windows laptop. Try selling a three year old Lenovo or HP and be glad you get any kind of money for it. Post a 3-yr old MBP at an online marketplace and they’ll be outbidding your asking price. So, taking write-off into consideration, if you were to spend on a new MacBook Pro today and decide to upgrade every three years or so, your total write-off wouldn’t be all that much higher than with a PC laptop and you’d be almost guaranteed an easy (re)sell.

I’ve been in IT since I was 17 or so (which was a LONG time ago) and as I said, I love my PCs to this day. But I have, grudgingly – I admit, switched to MBP for my DJ and sound engineering needs about two years ago and never looked back.

Just my two cents, as usual. Flame away! LOL

I’ve used a PC laptop for DJ use since I started using digital in 2009, the only issues I’ve had were all my fault. My old Acer cheapo lappy was overheating (I couldn’t be arsed to clean it), and my current Dell Latitude once switched itself off halfway through a gig (I forgot to plug the power lead in).

The rules of PC laptop DJing are simple:
1- Demand the Windows OS disc from the vendor.
2- Buy a SSD and fit it if your lappy didn’t come with one.
3- Do a fresh install of Windows.
4- Don’t download porn.

A couple of simple tweaks are all that is required after that, you don’t need a degree in computer science to do them either. There’s nothing a Mac can do that a PC can’t do, apart from run Logic Pro.
And cost more 🙂

Actually, cheap laptops (and IMHO, Windows but I haven´t used it from let´s say 2004 so it´s not a solid rock opinion) are that bad.

Good stuff is always a better pick, that´s all. And, as Terry said, a dj needs a stable rig (and beauty and usability won´t hurt)

If you buy a cheap laptop with Windows you get a cheap laptop with Windows, no more, no less.

People that buy macs for work won´t care much about the apple logo, believe me, it´s all about usability and stability. You can´t compare a $600-800 laptop to a $1500 Macbook. And the Apple logo is not the reason. Of course nowadays you can do great with stuff with anything (as you can djay on a Hercules controller) but that´s not the point. 😉

If a cheap laptop works great and cover one´s needs, excellent. But , again, it´s not about the logo.