Yo gentlemen, I'm looking at buying a new notebook to run VSL in the next week or so. I cant afford a mac and gonna get a PC.

What do ya'll this of this spec (ASUS) ?

ASUS K52JR Notebook (ASUS K52JR-SX077X)
Intel Core i5-420M Dual Core 2.26GHz 3MB L2 Cache 1066MHz FSB
4096MB DDR3-1066 SO-Dimm Memory (2x2048)
500GB SATA 5400rpm Hard Drive
15.6" WXGA HD Color Shine (1366x768 Resolution) TFT LCD display
ATI Radeon 5470 with 1GB dedicated graphics (HDMI output)
Windows 7 Professional Edition x64

Anyone using a windows platform with similar spec?

HP has a similar model that some members on here have tried to use. it might work, but don't be surprised if you encounter problems.

ive heard mixed reviews on that video card...
and with a new machine you might want to try to play in the 3+ ghz area.
(though I hear a i5 @ 2.26 is comparable to a intel 3.0 dual core)

do you really need it next week?

its also fair to say in this game, this equation is usually followed by regret.

"If you think you can or can't, either way you are right."
- Henry Ford

I suppose I could wait but whats your point?

I have a buyer for my current notebook which will contribute 20% to the cost of this ASUS. Now if I sell it, id have to get another laptop soon.

My Asus runs VSL quite well...about 3 crashes in about a year (Video stopped...audio kept playing....quickly mixed in an audio cd & rebooted).
I however do not use effects/transitions etc & have not tested the latest version of VSL yet
My model is different from yours...it is a Asus M50 series with a different video card. This was initially purchased to test run VSL in 2008 as I switched from DVJ-1000's to software. I quickly switched to VSL once U didn't need a TTM-57 or a Mac. I do however hope to get a mac in the future.

I googled my lappies specs for you & pasted below:

Asustek’s latest 15.4-inch entertainment notebook – the ASUS M50 with the Intel’s “Penryn” 45nm processor and NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS video card – is now available in the United States.

The M50 is offered as the Asus M50Sv-B1 model, featuring the Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU at 2.1GHz and a HD DVD optical drive, and the M50Sv-A1 with the T9300 at 2.5GHz and a DVD burner. The both laptops come with the GeForce 9500M GS 512MB dedicated video card, which manages 15.4″ 1440-by-900 displays. There are also Dolby Home Theatre technology, Altec Lansing stereo speakers, 3GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive in the both models.

Asustek’s press release says the M50 notebook will be also available with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD3650 1GB graphics (M50Sa) and HD3470 with 256MB of video memory (M50Sr). According to the earlier report, some models will include up to one terabyte of hard drive space, provided by two Travelstar 5K500 500GB HDDs. In addition, the M50 will feature a Blu-ray optical drive and a built-in optional analog/digital TV tuner.

The ASUS M50Sv-B1 and M50Sv-A1 sport an integrated 802.11 a/g/n wireless module and a Bluetooth receiver. The M50 systems include Gigabit Ethernet and 56k modem connections, a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera, HDMI and VGA outputs, an eSATA/USB combo port, three standard USB ports, an 8-in-1 media card reader, Firewire port, and an infrared port for remote controller. There is no word on ExpressCard and PC Card slots in the specifications sheet.

Regarding security, the M50 provides a fingerprint reader, accompanied by the Trusted Platform Module.

The new laptops run Windows Vista operating system.

The ASUS M50 Series M50Sv-B1 and ASUS M50 Series M50Sv-A1 models are available through NewEgg and are priced at $1,499.99 each.

quite well.......hmmmmmmmm doesnt sound like quite well to me

should I break down the last 1.5 yrs of vsl and my mbp?
bought mbp installed ssl/vsl and have ran video 3- 4 nights a week
1 glitch(not the macs fault it was a seagate external drive going bad) managed to finish the night no reboot
can use all effects transition turning effects on and off changing transition while im mixing......

save up get a mac or be VERY prepared to be tweaking the ish outta your pc and/ or youll buy it try and try again just to find out you will be disappointed

according to mac rumors, we'll be seeing the new ones any day now

I don't use effects/transitions...didn't say i can't. I really have not tried it....I am still organizing folders (not crates) & trying to impliment DJ sixx's sytem of naming/tagging files & doing smart searches/playlists

One crash was when i first started with VSL & did not know about building overviews. One crash was when I attached Jpegs to mp3's (the first day I did this)....haven't had any problems with Jpegs & mp3's since then.

One crash was scratching & backspinning a file that did not have an overview built.

I Run video 2 night a week for 3 to 4 hours per night.

Also I have not spent a shitload of time tweaking & retweaking. I did the recommended optimizations for VISTA users as recommended on the scratchlive forums...took me all of 15 minutes. I am using USB 2.0 not firewire 800 as the Asus does not have a firewire 800.

I am not comparing my Asus to a mac....I infact said I will buy a mac...probably the new ones when they come out & other people report no issues. I was trying to help the person who started this thread by telling him my experience. I will however say to anyone...if u can afford a Mac for VSL please buy one...I intend to do that too. My Asus that works quite well is 2 years old....the starter of this thread was going to buy a new one.

I also said that I bought the ASUS for Virtual DJ (not for VSL) 2 years ago....luckily it has worked "quite well" with VSL.

DJ Nak...if U trust your mac so much...go mix all night with files with no overviews built & scratch & backspin while doing it & then let me know if U have a crash or not. I don't expect U to do this but that is what happened to me about a year ago WHEN I FIRST STARTED USING VSL & DID NOT KNOW ABOUT OVERVIEWS.

Once again...I'm not for the back & forth thats why i said "quite well"....not optimally

People have had crashes on macs too.....A-swift, Second Nature, etc...if u haven't had one...thank God....but it is coming...and I hope you will be honest enough to report it at the time it happens......if U doubt that people have had more than 1 crash per year on a mac check out these very forums.

JUST FOR THE RECORD & FOR DJ NAK: IF U CAN AFFORD IT....BUY A MAC FOR VSL

^^Thanks for the feedback man. I definitely cant afford a mac.

But just as a reference - Which mac spec is a minimum for VSL?

preface.
as Ive said before, im a PC user with vsl, and i use it flawlessly.
matter o fact last week I spun 36 hours in 3 days...not 1 issues.

you cannot skimp on your computer.
WAIT ANOTHER WEEK IF YOU MUST!

you can get the 15" mbp (with the mid-grade package that handles vsl)
with a student discount for like 1800

you can get a pc, but if u go below 1500 theres a good chance u r gonna run into some issues.
you can save $ by skimping on the internal HD.
you dont need a 500gb @ 7200rpm
your gonna be @ 500gb+ videos in no time and need to switch to an external anyways

I'd have to sell my CDJ's...lol.

So I'm guessing ya'll are using an external HDs. Works fine?

Someone is selling a secondhand mac for $1730 (out of warranty). Here is the specs:
17 inch Macbook Pro - 2.4 ghz Core 2 duo - 160gig hd, 2gigs ram

Worth it?

Id say thats a little high man....

besides you want 4gb ram.

As far as your PC choice, I have an Asus G72GX laptop C2D 2.53, 6GB RAM, Nvidia GT 260M 1GB video..

The only effect I use is the image overlay (VSL 1.2 beta, running Quicktime), with Additive Average transition and I run it on High quality. It runs 58-60 FPS all the time except when auto-filling an overview, it might drop to 45 until it loads. One thing I noticed about Apple vs PC is on a lot of new PCs they have e-SATA ports, which is faster than Firewire (and a lot cheaper to find the enclosures & drives). Also, with my Nanopad, USB-MIDI (for DJM-800), external USB hard drive and SL1, that's 4 USB devices... I actually have 4 USB ports. Strike another one down for MBP for me.

In all my PC experience testing VSL configurations, the video card is everything... There's a night and day difference on the same PC configuration going from a Nvidia 9500GT 1GB to Nvidia 9800GTX 1GB... I tested on a 2.6 Quad Core AMD Phenom... Extra cores didn't really help, changing video cards has a direct impact on video framerate. The 9800GTX would run melt on best with 2 effects on each deck and still get over 45FPS (from what I remember)... But the 9800GTX+ was a $400 dedicated video card at the time I tested it. The 9500GT struggled to run melt past 30. If I can get the new VSL beta w/ DirectShow working, I want to try CoreAVC w/ hardware accelerated H264/AVC1 MP4 decoding..

Here's some sample video card benchmarks (Passmark)

Nvidia 9500GT - 363 (desktop PCI-express)
Nvidia 9800GTX+ - 1124 (desktop PCI-express)
Nvidia 9400M - 138 (Macbook standard)
Nvidia GT 9600M - 333 (MBP dedicated)
Nvidia GT 260M - 717 (Asus G72GX laptop I have)
Radeon 5470 Mobility - 322 (the first laptop you asked about)

< agrees 100%

it amazing, that a handful of us have been preaching this same gospel for over a year.
with the "proof in the pudding" to back it up...a good portion of people dont listen.

my mantra has always been learn from my mistakes...
Ive learned from thos that came before me.

now that we see video cards leaving the 256/512 and going to the 1gb I dont really
forseea any problems with any "quality" video card and a proper hardware configuration.

but understand your probably not goin to get these things for under 1500.


thats a great point about the USB ports Doug, I love having 4 well powered ports.
even though I run my external off of FW800/xpress cardslow adapter I still have
my 57 and my nano pad... its nice to know you have ports..
how many times Ive plugged my blackberry in during a set....

I guess the draw backs of pc are:
SIZE. i dont know about the other units, but this thing is a HOUSE.
but its also go a very intense cooling system... so "fan control needed"

no Mix Emergency.
the more I see it, the more I want it....its mac only.

cool factor, just like silver sonys
Im usually not one for this... but you know it is a factor in alot of peoples heads.


I still have 2nd thoughtd about buying this next gen of MBPs
when I see peple drop 2500 on them and its not running perfectly.
(staggering waveforms and the few other issues)

my point is, save up for the mac. your other post says you can't afford it. you just can't afford it RIGHT NOW. but if you have a bit more time and you're not in a rush, then save up for it. buy right. buy once.

^^ I hear you.

Ok Ya'll convinced me. I'm gonna sell my cdjs and get a mac one-time!

No what 15" spec mac do ya'll recommend?

I have almost the same machine but with the gts360 1gb card, 7200 rpm 500 HD, 6gigs ddr 1333hz memory.


The problem I run into is the fact that I have to use the 2.0 beta for 64 bit win 7 (with standard video sl release (not video beta)). The video is flawless on the high setting with no limitations....but the sound randomly cuts out at various times and I have to turn my 57 on and off (a 64 bit bug I'm assuming). The sound randomly cuts out whether I'm playing video or just audio. I just installed snow leopard on a separate partition so I'll test the software on that side soon. If you are going to get a macbook.....at least wait till the new hardware is out, whenever that may be (hopefully soon). As much as I like macs.....I refuse to pay another 1100 dollars more for a machine with outdated hardware. I will give a nod to the OSX though. This is the third machine I have dual booting.

PS. Over the years I've seen almost as many Mac serato crashes as PC crashes. Always have a back-up plan no matter what.

On another note I paid less than 900 for my machine 2 weeks ago....and I don't use it live yet because of the audio issue. Its happens on average once an hour while testing. But since I've gotten it though I've only done 1 gig. I've been using regular serato on an 32 bit RC build of windows 7 since it was released early last summer and It hasn't crashed once on me. This is on a 3 year old amd turion laptop. Both my desktops are dual boot machines.

trying to save money in beginning always cost you more in the end, when you want to upgrade, have you looked at refurbished mac's a have 2

the current 2.26 ghz MacBook Pro paid $1,000 for it, & a pre unibody 2.4 ghz $1,350 for that one
store.apple.com
store.apple.com

i would go with the second option

just copped a early 2009 unibody macbook pro from gainsaver.com for $1,100. if you have no problem buying used, i highly suggest it.

That's not really true. It doesn't if you know what you are doing. I'll gladly stress myself out for a week to get everything ironed out and save 1000 dollars. My new dual boot machine is running the software on both Os's smoothly. The only issue is the 64 bit windows driver that needs tweaking. As far as macbooks....I agree ,go refurbishment or wait till the new mac laptops are out and get one one the current ones cheaper

Also ON windows 7's 64 I've been running video sl on the BEST setting. I see 45fps and a cpu usage that hovers around 60%. It looks amazing. I haven't had the video beta plug-in crash once. The issue is with the 64 bit drivers for the 57 or something is going on with some other usb drivers because only the sounds cuts out with my 57 mixer. Works good on the snow leopard side as well but the video plug in (beta) has crashed once. I've since modified some video kexts and its running good but in the best setting I'm seeing about 35 to 45 fps.