Laptop DJs

[NeedleSharp]

alright so i just picked up a dell latitude laptop and plan on trying out some serato on it but i got a few questions for yall pros. until i can find a good deal on some kind of CD interface like serato or TS, i will be using iTunes with an external behringer sound card.

guess the only actual question i have at the moment is going to be what kind of external drive should i use for my music? is there any brands/types that work particularly better? i need something 200gigs or higher and these are what i found so far.

250g western digital
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136247

320g calvary (?? shit i guess ??)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822101109

both $100, usb 2.0, about same size, and 5400 RPM

looking for something under $150 if possible. which drive would you get and why?

Thank!!!

[Roos]

I use an Acomdata 300g hard drive and have not had a problem with it in over a year since I purchased it. I believe it was around $120 and I got it at Fry's. It's USB 2.0 and Firewire.

For Serato, you will need to get a drive that has Firewire. If you try to run Serato (which uses USB) and a hard drive both off your USB ports, you may have problems... especially using a PC as opposed to a Mac.

[MC Twinkie]

^USB specs are the same on PC and Mac. They shouldn't run any differently. I do know what Roos is talking about. I tried to run some songs off a jump drive with serato and it lagged. I only have USB 1.1 on my laptop. I think you should be ok with USB 2.0, and all modern laptops have that. The 1.1 vs 2.0 thing might be what Roos is talking about.

how big is the HD on your laptop? The less shit you have to set up and the less cables the better. If you have 120+ gigs on your laptop I wouldn't worry about it yet. Hell if your HD isn't full I wouldn't worry about it. These days for just mp3s, I don't think it will matter much what brand you pick. If it has a good long warrenty it will probably last. If it doesn't you have a warrenty. As for size you are the only one that knows what your storage needs are. So how big is your mp3 library?

If you have your laptop sound card and a second external sound card, there are programs out there that work just like serato and tracktor. They only cost like 40$ and you can probably find a demo or pirated version if you are hip to that. It will let you try it out before you go pro.

[Roos]

Yeah. The only time I had that problem was once when I was running Serato (USB) and my external drive (Firewire) and a friend wanted to come play with me. His external drive didn't have firewire, so I couldn't chain it with my external drive... so we plugged his into my second USB port on my Mac. It worked fine for a while and then all of a sudden it froze up. NOT a good thing when you have a floor dancing. Ever since then when I have used two external drives, we chain them using Firewire and I have never had a problem.

since Serato runs on USB, I wouldn't try to run anything else on USB. Of course, if your PC doesn't have a firewire AND a USB, I guess you don't really have an option but to just chance it or store all your files on your internal drive.

[Deff Gordon]

it's due to the bus speed of the USB... gonna pose probs with anything. hard drive should go on the firewire and interface on the usb. you may have exta usb ports... but the computer can't handle all the computing power and data on those ports.

[Roos]

Originally Posted by Deff Gordon

it's due to the bus speed of the USB... gonna pose probs with anything. hard drive should go on the firewire and interface on the usb. you may have exta usb ports... but the computer can't handle all the computing power and data on those ports.

that's what I was trying to say... in my expert computer lingo.

[Deff Gordon]

usb is kinda pussified compared to firewire.

[Roos]

Originally Posted by Deff Gordon

usb is kinda pussified compared to firewire.

more expert computer lingo.

[MC Twinkie]

The reason you are getting better performance using firewire is that all USB shit shares the same bus. But if you use USB and firewire together you get 2 buses to do twice the work. If serato ran on firewire, and you had a firewire HD, you might see the same lag issues. I say might because firewire is probably the better technology.

Actually there are other options. You can get a HD caddy and take your CDrom out and put in a second HD. No cables, or lag issues. The only problem is that you cant use the CDrom and the HD at the same time. You can hot swap them.

They look something like this. Look on ebay or contact dell.
http://powertoolbattery.org/dell-ins...ny-p-1378.html

[Pablo Discobar]

just put a big ass hard drive in your machine and fuck the external shit. I have a 500 gig in my macbook and it works like a champ.

but i use vinyl and i am old school.... fuck laptop dj's.

[Tyler J]

If you're going to run something like live or even traktor its nice to have a 7200 rpm internal HDD.

[J. Fees]

yeah, larger internals are cheap and ez to install, at least on mac's.

[DJMishap]

Keep in mind while playing out,

Turn off all wireless devices on your computer while playing as well.
wi/fi, infared, blue tooth..

[Deff Gordon]

Originally Posted by DJMishap

Keep in mind while playing out,

Turn off all wireless devices on your computer while playing as well.
wi/fi, infared, blue tooth..

shit... fuck that. on my macbook i can surf the web while i play the boring shit.

[J. Fees]

Originally Posted by Deff Gordon

shit... fuck that. on my macbook i can surf the web while i play the boring shit.

no doubt, serato doenst take much processor power. i love to web surf on easy gigs.