WHICH LAPTOP TO USE FOR RANE SERATO SCRATCH ?

wax inspektor · Post by **wax inspektor** » Sun May 04, 2008 10:47 pm

... I had a rane ssl month ago but I had to sell in the need for money...
Now I'm planning to get it back. BUT:
I'd like to know how powerful a laptop must be to work well with the ssl? You know I just need a laptop for serato so I don't wanna waste money on another computer...

Funkyoldcrate · Post by **Funkyoldcrate** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:41 am

I have alot of friends that use serato and I know one of them has a crappy little laptop with BARELY the requirements to run it and he plays out all the time so I guess as long as its this good http://scratchlive.net/about/specs/

I've read conflicting things on the net about it, though, because I want to get it as well but some ppl have trouble with just the min reqs. Let us know what you deside and how it works out.

Hot Sauce · Post by **Hot Sauce** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:47 am

if you have the money a macbook is the way to go

cartesia · Post by **cartesia** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:11 am

yep,

the macbooks are actually very good value, once you rule out the cheap PCs (dell etc)

DONT buy an HP laptop, if you plan on getting an external audio interface - they have dodgy firewire ports that cause noisy signal through firewire gear... other cheap laptops are like this too -

- good PC laptops - acer, sony, toshiba, probably a few others. . these are the ones im aware of.

but yeah macbook ftw!

wax inspektor · Post by **wax inspektor** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:10 pm

... Yeah I know about mac book but as I said I just need that laptop for serato... so it has to be cheap cause serato itself costs a lot anyway.
So what are you're expierences with "weak" laptops? What influences latency most? RAM or CPU?
I really won't make compromises on latency... but I also won't spent more than 250€ / 400$. Is it realistic to get a used laptop that works fine with ssl at this price-level?

Can't wait to cut and juggle my own beats (again).
(I'm thinking of a sp-battle mixed-up-tape, too.)

jbl · Post by **jbl** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:25 pm

i'd bet a 1.5 gig cpu with 1 gig ram would be allright especially if you don't load a bunch of programs that were not needed. i use a dell with 1.7 cpu and i had 512 ram (that is a very cheap upgrade btw, i got another gig installed for less than a bill) and i could run tractor all right. i also never had to many glitches on downloading files and all.

though i feel a bulletproof system for cheap will be hard to come by.

PHeMoX · Post by **PHeMoX** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:34 pm

Wax Inspektor wrote:So what are you're expierences with "weak" laptops? What influences latency most? RAM or CPU?

If you don't have a separate soundcard, the CPU will take care of sound related stuff, so this should be your main focus. RAM is also important, especially when the CPU is weak, however RAM is possible to upgrade at a later time.

I'd advise a reasonably good soundcard, a more than sufficient CPU (2.0Ghz or more) and about 1 gig of RAM (at least).