512 Ram Enough

[danger mouse 0]

just wondering if 512 is enough in a new machine running an external hard drive and sound card without getting any grief from your dj program freezing/crashing. what do you have?

[TonyB 0]

just wondering if 512 is enough in a new machine running an external hard drive and sound card without getting any grief from your dj program freezing/crashing. what do you have?

 

Lack of memory should not cause system freezes or crashes. When the RAM is used up, windows creates virtual memory on the hard drive but it will slow the system down. XP should be okay with 512mb (thats what I have). Vista needs at least 1GB and a graphics card with at least 128mb to run efficiently.

[jeffwall 0]

processor speed is far more important than large ram size.

 

512 is fine, however your processor speed may be too slow? what spec is the laptop?

[danger mouse 0]

havent got one yet hence 50 questions , any ones going cheap ish under £400 new let me know , ha., some one told me he had probs with celron processors so anything but them would be good, ta

 

heres the spec of one i got my eye ball on its a hp

Fast DDR2 Memory (533Mhz)

Intel 10/100 LAN

Integrated Wireless Lan 802.11 b/g

65w AC Adaptor

4 Cell Li-Ion Battery

 

Ports:

2 x USB 2.0

VGA

Heaphone

Microphone

Power

RJ11

RJ45

1 x Type I/II PC Card Slot

 

Spec Rundown:

Intel Centrino PM 770 Processor

512MB System Memory

60GB Hard Disk Drive

DVD+/-RW Optical Drive

15.4" WXGA Brightview Display

Integrated Wifi Wireless Lan

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

good enough? i have to get a sound card to go with my external hard drive so dont need a super duper mega bucks one , just one that does the job

[TonyB 0]

havent got one yet hence 50 questions , any ones going cheap ish under £400 new let me know , ha., some one told me he had probs with celron processors so anything but them would be good, ta

 

heres the spec of one i got my eye ball on its a hp

Fast DDR2 Memory (533Mhz)

Intel 10/100 LAN

Integrated Wireless Lan 802.11 b/g

65w AC Adaptor

4 Cell Li-Ion Battery

 

Ports:

2 x USB 2.0

VGA

Heaphone

Microphone

Power

RJ11

RJ45

1 x Type I/II PC Card Slot

 

Spec Rundown:

Intel Centrino PM 770 Processor

512MB System Memory

60GB Hard Disk Drive

DVD+/-RW Optical Drive

15.4" WXGA Brightview Display

Integrated Wifi Wireless Lan

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

good enough? i have to get a sound card to go with my external hard drive so dont need a super duper mega bucks one , just one that does the job

 

It'll probably do the job but 2 USB ports seems a bit mean. I have four which get used for soundcard, hard drive, back up hard drive and optical mouse. You could get a USB hub though for more ports. I use a mouse because I have accidentally touched the touch pad a bit hard which has the effect of hitting the enter key and caused a couple of problems :aa

[EdBray 0]

because I have accidentally touched the touch pad a bit hard which has the effect of hitting the enter key and caused a couple of problems :aa

Doh! You can turn off the tapping feature of the touchpad in the control panel under mouse, goto 'device settings', then 'settings', then select 'tapping' then DESELECT 'enable tapping'

 

Most people i know with laptops disable the tapping feature, it is a 'pain in the butt'

[danger mouse 0]

Doh! You can turn off the tapping feature of the touchpad in the control panel under mouse, goto 'device settings', then 'settings', then select 'tapping' then DESELECT 'enable tapping'

 

Most people i know with laptops disable the tapping feature, it is a 'pain in the butt'

yeah i dont like it, do u just press the button instead ? :shrug: only had a play once with my mums laptop

[TonyB 0]

Doh! You can turn off the tapping feature of the touchpad in the control panel under mouse, goto 'device settings', then 'settings', then select 'tapping' then DESELECT 'enable tapping'

 

Most people i know with laptops disable the tapping feature, it is a 'pain in the butt'

 

Thanks. I'll have another look next time I use it. Tried to find someway of turning it off before and all I could find was a sensitivity adjustment.

[TonyB 0]

Using lap top at the moment and have found the tapper off switch. Still prefer the mouse though.

[jb discos 0]

just wondering if 512 is enough in a new machine running an external hard drive and sound card without getting any grief from your dj program freezing/crashing. what do you have?

512 is plenty m8 but if thinking of using laptop for karaoke youll need a gig as i find the words and music sometimes out of sink with 512 memory but plenty for doing discos

[danger mouse 0]

now theres something i didnt know,ta for the advice

 

any links to shops doing good deals would be cool, dont want celron proccesor and in the £400 or less category if poss, go go gadget tech guys :hphone:

[Karl 0]

Sounds like the system would be ok for disco work but I would advise to not use Vista, it not only requires more resources but also has some serious compatibility issues with quite allot of software, there is now the service pack 1 out for Vista but still has a few problems that need to be sorted.

The main thing you have to consider with a laptop is were you place it within your setup, you have to make sure that the laptop gets plenty of air intake from the bottom as this being restricted will cause problems such as freezing as its running too hot and will eventually bake the motherboard which generally ends up with it getting hairline cracks

[vokf 0]

I agree with Karl,

the best surface is something hard - don't put it on a carpeted surface!

There are some cheap laptop coolers which plug into a spare USB port (or plug into a cheap psu). These pump air into the base of the laptop. Ebay has lots of cheap ones, and I'll be using one.

 

Ensure your laptop has cooling vents at the bottom before you buy one (unlike my GF who wondered why it didn't make a difference when her laptop had vents at the side...)

 

The other advantage, is that they raise the laptop off the surface, a spilt drink next to the laptop shouldn't cause a problem if the laptop is raised 10-15mm.

 

Jason

[Gary 0]

There are some cheap laptop coolers which plug into a spare USB port (or plug into a cheap psu). These pump air into the base of the laptop. Ebay has lots of cheap ones, and I'll be using one.

 

Cooling a laptop is essential - however, if possible I'd recommend the coolers which have their own power supplies that plug into 220v-240v rather than the ones that plug into the USB port.

 

The more load you apply to the USB ports the harder still the laptop has to work to provide the increased current to the USB ports...and the harder the laptop has to work...the more heat it generates.

 

True, the cooler fan pack should be reducing/expelling more heat than its creating via the USB loading, but...with the mains powered ones, its just less heat creation in the first place.