recording...should i upgrade?

[meepzork]

hey folks. i could use a few opinions. im new to mac (had an ibook for a couple weeks now, and im diggin it). one of my main goals is to do some medium multi-track recording with garageband or maybe logic express looks good too. ive been working with garageband (remixing the new NIN track (http://www.nin.com/current/index.html)) and it seems sluggish. i currently have a 12" 1.2ghz ibook with 1.25gb ram. i have an opportunity to upgrade to a 12" 1.5ghz powerbook for only about $300 after the dust clears. (at some point in the future i would of course max out the ram on it as well.) my question is basically "is this a worthwhile investment for a somewhat power-user? or is this a waste and the ibook should do everything i want?"

thanks again
*nevermind, i went with the upgrade. i weighed the options (faster chip, faster hdd, larger hdd, faster bus, faster memory, superdrive, audio in, bluetooth, dvi, spanning, etc..... it just made sense. thanks

[meepzork]

ok in lieu of the new pbook, i have a new question...... where do you guys recommend i get my ram upgrade from?

[ghoti]

I doubt that you will see a performance increase. The difference isn't very big (only 20% faster), and if you have less RAM than before, it will definitely be slower. One thing to try is to get a faster harddrive - external or internal. But it looks like it's too late now ;)

[meepzork]

so a faster disk, faster chip and faster memory (eventually maxed) wont be any better? damn i thought pbook was supposed to be a major difference from ibook. i guess the pbook goes back on ebay and ill stick with the ibook.

thanks

[meepzork]

welp, it looks like no one really cares but i thought id put in my 2 cents. anyways i got my powerbook today. 1.5ghz, upgraded ram to 1.25GB, 12", superdrive, 80GB hdd.....heres my impressions on the "upgrade"...

-i was suprised to find out the 12" pb is quite a bit smaller than the 12" ib
-pb gets ALOT hotter ALOT quicker
-due to the heat the pb is alot noisier since the fan is constantly going
-wireless isnt nearly as fast and consistent on the pb. file transfers constantly fail and web pages freeze (airport setup was easier with ibook)
-the ib's corners are more rounded so its more comfortable to rest your hands on
-easier to upgrade ram in the ib, pb requires a microscopic screwdriver
-dvd's burned with idvd on the pb wont play on the pb, but will play on the ib
-battery life is better on the ib
-and to top it all off, garageband doesnt seem to work any better. i think i wasted my time....

[firlgriend]

i also switched from an ibook to a PB (exact same model as yours). I also find it a lot noisier. the fan is constantly going (except when it's waking-up of course). but even with the fan constantly going, the machine remains HOT.
i'm a bit worried but starting to think that it might be normal... but disapointing then,

why does it get so hot??

[flail]

It's case is metal. :confused:

[Yontsey]

im gonna get a powerbook too within the next month and i plan on doing a lot of recording because im in a band and i would like to be able to lay down ideas on the go when im on the road, but would 1gig of ram be enough for what im trying to do???

dustin

[Stevuh]

I have used a 12" PB and i like them they get good battery life and can use the processer more effectivly than an IB can, Trust me I've used both. the real saving grace of the PB line though is in the 15 and 17 where the true power lies, my current lappy is a 15 PB. my sister has a 12 and she uses it to edit video in FCP4 and do livetype and all that, to be honest i think your "problems" with the PB line are related to SW issues and you might want to explore possibilities like repairing permissions and such.

BTW mine is a 1.25G4 witha 64mb VRAM 512 RAM
Sisters is a 867G4 with 32mb VRAM 256 RAM

[jellybonefish]

Congrats on the upgrade, good choice. I am nearing the upgrade boat in the next week, need my financial aid check to come in.

[firlgriend]

Yontsey, i've been recording music with an old ibook G3 500mhz. it worked then. it all depends what you are going to do. now i have a G4 powerbook with 1.25GB ram. i've been doing some tests trying to overload the CPU (regarding my fan problem) and didn't even manage to reach the limits. it's a bomb. you can't get much better laptop anyways. now if you're going to record acoustic stuff, think about the fan noise! not everybody has this problem, but it seems like a lot of people are complaining about this...

[Yontsey]

thats good to hear, maybe ill get 1.25 ram to play it safe. its not really gonna be any acoustic but even if is it wont be too big of a problem cuz its just demo type stuff to have records. anywho, yeah im prolly gonna mess around with a couple of the garage band things, im thinkin rythym and orchastra type stuff? i know its 3&4, i just didnt want to get it and then have those things gion and it boggin down my new system. is the fan really that loud though? like exactly how loud are we talkin? also, do you know if they make like cakewalk type recording programs for mac, all the ones ive ever gotten seem to just be pc supported, but then again i didnt look for macs at the time either. thanks for everything

dustin

[firlgriend]

What about Logic or Cubase? Or even Pro Tools if you want to buy the digidesign hardware..

[Yontsey]

what are those like, any experience and prices off hand, im just being lazy and havent looked, ha

[sunrain]

Logic will give you almost limitless recording and creation options, but is still suffering from its pre-Apple interface. Cubase shines in MIDI applications, but also does recording. Many say that Pro Tools is the be-all-end-all of recording applications, but most pros don't even use the 5% of the functionality that Pro Tools has over other applications. Pro Tools is a hell of a lot easier to use than Logic.