For new laptop, internal or external HDD?

[djdonny]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop -- it's main task (besides helping me write a textbook) will be to transfer my CDs to MP3s, but I may want to try it "live" at home, just for practice, using PCDJ Red. After I transfer most of my music, I'll probably purchase a new laptop for dedicated live performance, but that's not for another 2-3 years.

If I were to get a small internal HDD (say 20GB), but then attach a large external HDD (say a 300GB USB2 7200), would this be sufficient? Would PCDJ run properly if it were reading the music off an external? I assume it loads it into memory prior to playback anyway? Oh, and is there any preference between a USB2 or Firewire drive?

Thanks for your help!

[mp3jrick]

Donny,
Any old laptop will let you get your feet wet with Red 5.2.
This is good solid non taxing program that will get you started.
Bear in mind that once you start to learn a program, new ones will be different requiring more set up and proficiency.
Using pcdj "groups" which imports your files to the program can be a bit of a pain compared to new programs that instantly see the files by reading your main browser.
Also understand that support for older programs will stop eventually, not that 5.2 really needed any support.

Firewire or usb will work fine for an external hard drive.
Do try to seperate your sound card output source from your data input source.
Use a usb sound card with a pcmcia/firewire drive, or a pcmica/sound card with a usb hard drive.

Generally, you will want your os on the internal and your music on the external.
This effectively creates a partition between the two protecting your music files.

Naturally I would suggest you try the demos particularly Virtual DJ.
For $30 more you can have it all.

[djdonny]

Thanks for the advice to seperate the hard drive / sound card as far as USB / firewire.

I will definitely look into Virtual DJ before making my final decision. Seems they have a new version out (3) -- is it fully tested? Any known issues?

[mp3jrick]

No issues with regular play, scratchers and people doing video with sub par hardware are having some troubles.

These issues are soon to be addressed.
The demo is fully functional excluding multi channel output.
It's perfect for patching your laptop signal into your mixer and testing the waters periodically during a normal gig with cds in play.

The interface can be a little ugly, I can help you out there with other skins.


R

[djdonny]

I decided on the following laptop:

Dell Inspiron 6000
Pentium M 725 (1.60GHz/2MB/400MHz)
1GB RAM, 80GB HDD
2yr warranty
$1072

How'd I do? Again, I don't intend to use this for LIVE performance. It's only DJ-related functions will be to rip my CDs, test out Virtual DJ, and perhaps bring it on jobs for music database lookup. It's main function will be as a writing tool as I start to write a textbook.

[Cap]

Never mind. Missed the part about not being for music. Disregard and deleted.

[Professor Jam]

lol @ Cap

[Cap]

Jam : Yeah, I know. (At least it shows I'm reading. Not paying attention, but reading nonetheless)

[Professor Jam]

Hey I'm just as guility of that from time to time [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

[dkproductions]

Donny....
if you already have a laptop an external hard drive would be just fine. If you really wanted you could get the smaller 2.5" externals that operate only on usb2.0 as well. In any case if you are already familiar with PCDJ's product, i'd stick with that. I use the FX version and would not even consider going back to anything else. You mentioned the RED. I've used the red before. It's a great place to start. My only recommendation would be to get the VRM version. I believe it's on sale right now for 99.00. The VRM version is a little more advanced and if you ever decide to do karaoke you'll be able to use the plug in version instead of the stand alone. PCDJ will run just fine on an external hard drive. Good luck...