Notebooks laptop as upgrade to desktop advice needed

I'm now thinking the time has come to upgrade my current desktop PC.

I thought I would get a laptop instead.

My desktop PC is spec wise:
Athlon 64 3500+
Gigabyte nForce4 mobo
2GB memory.
Plenty of hard drives.

my usage of it is not that intensive, but it is on for long periods though (hours a day, off overnight)
I don't really play games on it.
I do web design, office type stuff

I also do DJ'ing with it.

I use Traktor DJ studio
http://www.nativeinstruments.com/index.php?id=traktor3

and a Behringer BCD 3000
http://www.behringer.com/BCD3000/index.cfm?lang=eng


I was thinking a laptop so if I wanted I could take my dj'ing somewhere else other than home.

whilst i'm at home with the laptop,
Would it be possible to use all the peripherals that my desktop has?
keyboard, wireless mouse, 22in monitor

The laptop would be connected and booted up, but closed.

I would need it to run XP if possible...
If not, and I got vista on it, would it be possible / legal even? to swap it with XP on the media computer?

Any suggestions?
I would probably spend about £400, but may raise it if it is beneficial.

 

so can anyone suggest a laptop?

 

£400 isn't much money for a laptop. Your best bet is probably a Dell Vostro. A Dell Vostro 1500 with an Intel T5470, 2Gb of RAM and a 120Gb hard drive is £379 inc. VAT. Link here.

For £400 the laptop isn't going to really be faster than what you've got at the moment to be honest. If you want to increase the longetivity of your current computer, I'd stick a dual-core chip in it, like this one (although if you can get a cheaper one that would make more sense).

 

I'm looking to be able to take my DJ'ing out if I want, so I want a laptop.

It's a good suggestion to get a dual-core athlon 64 though.

I thought they stopped being available, when they moved onto other socket sets.

 

do you have a preference for screen size? also I know you can get HP laptops (dv6700z for example) with a Turion 64 @ 2GHz, 2 gigs of ram, and a 160gb hard drive for around $750 in the US. idk about in the UK though sorry.

 

I was told on another forum, nothing below 15in so Traktor would fit in the display properly, without being off the edge.
I think about 15in would be fine, as I would connect it to my 22in monitor at home.

hard drive size in laptop won't be a problem, as I would just use one of my existing drives in an external case to store my music collection, meaning I can play my tunes on almost any computer then.

Is there any way of doing a thorough check to see if some my drives in my current desktop actually get used for anything?
reason being, that I get new drives, and install eindows (xp) on it, and copy the start menu from the old xp install, anything that runs generally stays. I do a fresh install of anything else that does not run.
gone through several drives, and they are all still connected.
does anyone know of a quick check to see if I still need a particular drive in my desktop it at all (any software requires it there for the software to function)?
I would put this in my icy box (silver) and take my music round with me.

 

About all you need to know is if it's SATA or IDE connection on the hard drive - if the IcyBox is one of these it probably won't support the other, but it's worth checking the specs page...

Even if you don't have a compatible caddy you can easily get a replacement for pretty cheap.

 

It's not the type of physical connection I was on about, but if the drives are still relied upon for software to still work.

 

I don't know of any software that does what you're talking about, but I doubt that they'll have any software on. It should be simple enough to check though - just have a look at the respective drives.

 

I'll try just disconnecting one of them, and see if anything complains.

 

depends where you have stuff stored on your hard drives, if you have been sensible about it, all your software should be on the one drive, with all files, such as your music etc on the others, but as already said, a laptop to be better than what you already have, for £400 is pushing it a little, if i come across anything, will post it!

 

How much do you reckon I should spend then?

 

How much you spend depends entirely on what you want to do with the laptop. I think the laptop that I mentioned will do you fine, but I would spend a little more on upgrading the CPU, pushing the system to closer to the £500 mark.

It is also probably worthwhile spending around £50 more on getting the best screen with it too.

The Vostro 1500 with an Intel T5470 CPU, 2Gb RAM, 160Gb hard drive and the Ultrasharp screen comes to £478.

 

yeah pushing your budget to 500 would be better, more of an all round system, and will last a bit longer too!

 

Now I have a better picture of what I can get for the money, I think I will up my budget a bit to £500

What i want to do with it is in the first post.

I think the most demanding thing would be analysing tracks to get the key and BPM.
and burning discs.

I will need to do the task of finding out if my software will work with vista, or if I can swap vista from laptop with XP from my media center PC.

 

make sure you go dual core, im pretty sure most are now, for the analysing,even that shouldn't be that intensive,

swapping the os's round is possible, but if its legal thats a different matter, it depends what license you have for xp, if you bought the media center pc as a built unit, and xp came pre-installed on it, then im pretty sure that xp is legally tied to that machine.

 

xp media center was bought at the same tim as the hardware (media computer is a self build) oem version, which I installed myself onto a completely blank drive.
It wasn't pre-installed.

 

How about this?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139120
Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo Mobile V5505 Laptop Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2.00GHz 2048MB 250GB DVD-SM 15.4\" WXGA Windows Vista Premium

 

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsung_R60_Plus_NP-R60FY0D-SUK/version.asp
Thats one of the choices avail, but have a look thru that website.

As for the Dj'ing my mate uses Serato on a 13inch White macbook and he hasnt had issues with screen estate but that being said i havent used the software you are talking about.

 

Looks perfect, not exactly a small laptop though.