oliwynn
Hi,
Ive got my summer of djing coming up and i'm thinking i need to upgrade my 4 year old laptop. Its an inspiron 1150 1.83 celeron processor, 512 mb ram 40gb harddrive running a stripped down version of xp. Ive been looking at upgrading to another laptop but im a poor student and can only really afford about £500 max. There is another option though that i need advice on, upgrading the ram. I can buy 2 1gb ram chips for £80 which is a lot cheaper than getting a new laptop but will this be better performance wise. Im not really sure whether virtual dj is hard on ram or on processor power. Can anyone advise? has anyone done this? if so what were the results?
thanks,
Oli
Ive got my summer of djing coming up and i'm thinking i need to upgrade my 4 year old laptop. Its an inspiron 1150 1.83 celeron processor, 512 mb ram 40gb harddrive running a stripped down version of xp. Ive been looking at upgrading to another laptop but im a poor student and can only really afford about £500 max. There is another option though that i need advice on, upgrading the ram. I can buy 2 1gb ram chips for £80 which is a lot cheaper than getting a new laptop but will this be better performance wise. Im not really sure whether virtual dj is hard on ram or on processor power. Can anyone advise? has anyone done this? if so what were the results?
thanks,
Oli
Posted Sun 25 May 08 @ 6:20 am
DJ-ALF
Hi
You must tell us will you do video or not? For audio you can use your old one, but it is better to get something new with 2 core cpu and 2gb ram as not only amount of memory is important, it is also speed.
For 500 you can get decent laptop with dual core Cpu, 2Gb ram, 160Gb HDD and some integrated video card (not for video use).
You must tell us will you do video or not? For audio you can use your old one, but it is better to get something new with 2 core cpu and 2gb ram as not only amount of memory is important, it is also speed.
For 500 you can get decent laptop with dual core Cpu, 2Gb ram, 160Gb HDD and some integrated video card (not for video use).
Posted Sun 25 May 08 @ 7:47 am
oliwynn
Its just for audio no video at all. Would the new ram improve performance a lot or not? It seems to work fine at the moment just for audio so maybe it will be ok with some new ram in it?
thanks
oli
thanks
oli
Posted Sun 25 May 08 @ 5:59 pm
DJ-ALF
You can upgrade with additional 512mb and it will work ok.
Posted Mon 26 May 08 @ 5:54 am
olisharp
Oli
I've been thinking about this too.
My laptop's the same spec as yours, and I've found that increasing the size of the Paging File helps VDJ run a bit smoother.
Control Panel
System
Advanced
Performance Settings
Advanced
Change Virtual Memory
I've heard that 3xRAM is a good starting point, although my laptop never seems to use more than 750MB. You can monitor it's use with Ctrl Alt Del, "Performance".
I've also read that changing "Processor Scheduling" to "Background Services" is recommended if you use your computer for audio, although this doesn't make much sense to me, and I haven't really seen much gain from it.
If you're running stripped down XP you may already know all this stuff.
If you do go for more RAM, let us know how that works out for you.
If you're from the UK, PC World seem to be doing stupidly cheap laptops at the moment, but obviously not Dell, Sony or Toshiba, so not sure how long they'd last you.
Another pointer for the summer that might help is to make sure your laptop gets enough ventilation to the underside, if that's where the fan draws its air supply from like mine. I've seen people glue stuff (eg those circular rubber door stops you screw to the floor that are a couple of centimetres high) to each corner of the underneath of their laptops to lift it up a bit and help the air flow.
Hope this helps!
I've been thinking about this too.
My laptop's the same spec as yours, and I've found that increasing the size of the Paging File helps VDJ run a bit smoother.
Control Panel
System
Advanced
Performance Settings
Advanced
Change Virtual Memory
I've heard that 3xRAM is a good starting point, although my laptop never seems to use more than 750MB. You can monitor it's use with Ctrl Alt Del, "Performance".
I've also read that changing "Processor Scheduling" to "Background Services" is recommended if you use your computer for audio, although this doesn't make much sense to me, and I haven't really seen much gain from it.
If you're running stripped down XP you may already know all this stuff.
If you do go for more RAM, let us know how that works out for you.
If you're from the UK, PC World seem to be doing stupidly cheap laptops at the moment, but obviously not Dell, Sony or Toshiba, so not sure how long they'd last you.
Another pointer for the summer that might help is to make sure your laptop gets enough ventilation to the underside, if that's where the fan draws its air supply from like mine. I've seen people glue stuff (eg those circular rubber door stops you screw to the floor that are a couple of centimetres high) to each corner of the underneath of their laptops to lift it up a bit and help the air flow.
Hope this helps!
Posted Mon 26 May 08 @ 4:54 pm
Caliente123
you can buy a good laptop for 500 bucks. 1 gig of ram is ok but i recomend using 2 gigs. It will run smooth and very quick when you load up songs on each side with no delays and a freeze up
You might be skeptical about this but this is what i did when i wanted to buy a good laptop at a very good price. I went to the dell website and looked in the dell outlet section for referbished laptops. I bought one for 5 and change and the specs are AMD turion 64 X2 2.0 ghz dual core with 2 gigs of ram and a 256 mb video card. It was referbished but it was brand new... I ended up buying another one a year later
Im still using it when i dj night clubs and private gigs. If you are interested in buying one, get the ones that only say " Certified Referbished " You wont be disapointed.. Now my friends want to buy one from seeing my laptops
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
You might be skeptical about this but this is what i did when i wanted to buy a good laptop at a very good price. I went to the dell website and looked in the dell outlet section for referbished laptops. I bought one for 5 and change and the specs are AMD turion 64 X2 2.0 ghz dual core with 2 gigs of ram and a 256 mb video card. It was referbished but it was brand new... I ended up buying another one a year later
Im still using it when i dj night clubs and private gigs. If you are interested in buying one, get the ones that only say " Certified Referbished " You wont be disapointed.. Now my friends want to buy one from seeing my laptops
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
Posted Tue 27 May 08 @ 1:44 am
oliwynn
Thanks for the replies, I think i'll go down the ram upgrade route as its cheaper. I'm only a poor student!
I'll let you know if I improve performance, i hope it does. Also I have noticed my laptop does get quite hot, i'll look at gluing on some extra feet and raising it up for air flow. I asked someone about laptop cooling systems and they pointed me at amazon because they have a good range
check this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/203-2118407-9812737?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=laptop+cooler
Thanks for the help.
Oli
I'll let you know if I improve performance, i hope it does. Also I have noticed my laptop does get quite hot, i'll look at gluing on some extra feet and raising it up for air flow. I asked someone about laptop cooling systems and they pointed me at amazon because they have a good range
check this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/203-2118407-9812737?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=laptop+cooler
Thanks for the help.
Oli
Posted Sat 31 May 08 @ 12:55 pm
jimmy b
oliwynn wrote :
Thanks for the replies, I think i'll go down the ram upgrade route as its cheaper. I'm only a poor student!
Hi Oli,
Check at the website. It has a free system scanner that you can run.
It will scan your system and tell what is already inside your system, and give you recommended upgrades.
Posted Sat 31 May 08 @ 1:04 pm
djynnad
if your laptop is a dual core its fine if not max the ram___ sam hahahah youll be fine, if you use harddrive for music dont use over 160gig it will slow you down
Posted Mon 02 Jun 08 @ 2:59 pm