New Apple MacBook out

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:13 pm

robin wrote:
divi wrote:
tomperson wrote:I just found out by reading about ExpressCard. Too bad, it's such an elegant, portable soundcard. And i just got it in March

What options are there for really portable sound cards that will work with FW or ExpressCard???
motu ultralite? probably a bit overkill if what you need is an echo replacement.
who knows, echo might come with an expresscard version.
i got in touch with them about this when the MBP came out, they replied by saying they're working on a firewire solution.

Interesting, i hope they come up with something as portable as the Indigo DJ. Echo seem to be a good brand, i'm waiting for whatever they come up with!

It seems I'll have to sell my Indigo DJ soon...

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:17 pm

glu wrote:I wonder how this will compare to my AMD 3400 w/1.25 GB ram. I guess it doesn't really mean shit until Live 6 is out. Damn! Have to wait it out and see.
Excited!

I am really tempted, but I will wait. I've got a cpu demanding gig on july 7th. I suppose there is a chance in hell that 6 will be out by then.

Two things to take into consideration for cats like myself with tight funds are these:

1) Comparing the different makes of distibuted processing hardware with the processing methiods of live 6. Waiting till at least July would help.

2) taking into consideration not only that the price in intel chips is supposed to drop in June, but that the first slated 64bit intel processors are slated to come out pretty soon.

I'm waiting. And if I can resist the need to buy until after this gig, I will keep waiting until at least generation two merom or beyond.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:40 pm

LOFA wrote:
glu wrote:I wonder how this will compare to my AMD 3400 w/1.25 GB ram. I guess it doesn't really mean shit until Live 6 is out. Damn! Have to wait it out and see.
Excited!
I am really tempted, but I will wait. I've got a cpu demanding gig on july 7th. I suppose there is a chance in hell that 6 will be out by then.

Two things to take into consideration for cats like myself with tight funds are these:

1) Comparing the different makes of distibuted processing hardware with the processing methiods of live 6. Waiting till at least July would help.

2) taking into consideration not only that the price in intel chips is supposed to drop in June, but that the first slated 64bit intel processors are slated to come out pretty soon.

I'm waiting. And if I can resist the need to buy until after this gig, I will keep waiting until at least generation two merom or beyond.

yeah, i agree completely, there are too many variables that will change in the next 6/12 months. Even if live 6 is out by Q3 as they said, i'd wait until 2007 to change platform...

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:49 pm

The thing that is really holding me up is that some of the software I want can only be used on the "First" computer it is installed on (namely MAYA-academic.) I want to integrate this in my sets, and I want something that will not be not act like a dinosaur, comparatively, the next month.

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Wed May 17, 2006 7:23 pm

hey all,
just got back from the mac store in seattle where i loaded up the live demo and performance test on a few machines...don't count on total accuracy, as i didn't make sure the machines were all set to the performance test specs:
macbook 1.83, 1gig ram: 40%
macbook 2.0, 1gig ram: 39%
macbook pro 1.83, 1gig ram: 54%
i don't know what the problem was with the pro model, maybe some settings had been messed with as its probably been a demo for at least a few weeks. the macbooks were straight out of the box plus a ram upgrade, and had been set up the night before...so had only been in use for an hour or two.
also, i asked about drive upgrades, and they were not recommending 7200 rpm drives. since they aren't offering them as a build to order option, i'm assuming they were having heat issues. so its an at your own risk situation and definitely out of warranty. i went with the 1.83 since there just wasn't much difference between that and the 2.0. i'll post more definitive results in the performance test thread after i get things set up.

kenn michael · Post by **kenn michael** » Wed May 17, 2006 7:46 pm

please remember that all the laptops are speedstepping, so NONE of them are running at full CPU speed. because Live doesn't tax both processors, the chip won't rev up to full frequency.

so don't think that 54% and 39% is normal for these laptops. the 2.0s go down to 28% when the speedstepping is off.

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:03 pm

i remember reading about some tricks on optimizing laptop performance (by trashing some system resource or something). is this what you're talking about? how is it done? i searched but didn't come up with anything...

kenn michael · Post by **kenn michael** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:17 pm

trash this file (make a backup first)

/System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext/

reboot.

the speedstepping will be turned off and your machine will run at top speed... and will probably run a little hotter too.

then you get the real performance numbers!

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:58 pm

excellent, thanks! i'll post before and after numbers in the performance thread.

capta1nA · Post by **capta1nA** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:03 pm

i'm having a hard time believing that a 7200 RPM drive would void the warranty. Why would they make the hard drive easily upgradeable?

dave999z · Post by **dave999z** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:34 pm

I just swung by an apple store too and have to say these aren't the greatest looking things. size is perfect (hopefully the pro will come out in this size instead of 12"). but the white case looks same as the iBook (which i thought got cheaper looking as time went on--G3 ones were the best looking... after that the keyboard wasn't cool translucent and the paint looked more gray than metallic) and the black model is just sort of blah (like a Wallstreet G3 laptop or like any number of PC laptops). I don't like the glossy screen. No reason that shouldn't be an optional feature and I think will be looked back upon as one of Apple's ridiculous decisions. It glares much more than the MB Pro that was sitting next to it, and wasn't amazingly brighter or anything (just more shiny).

A decked-out MAcbook is at least $1700-1800 if you get a white one and put in aftermarket RAM and aftermarket hard drive.

A decked out 15" MB Pro is about $1000 more. It certainly probably doesn't perform that much better, for audio, to make it worth it. But I'd sure rather have one.

Dave

sniffio · Post by **sniffio** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:39 pm

kenn michael wrote:trash this file (make a backup first)

/System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext/

reboot.

the speedstepping will be turned off and your machine will run at top speed... and will probably run a little hotter too.

then you get the real performance numbers!

is this only for the intel-macs ???
I've got PBG4.
thxx

kenn michael · Post by **kenn michael** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:54 pm

only for intel macs.

sniffio · Post by **sniffio** » Thu May 18, 2006 12:12 am

kenn michael wrote:only for intel macs.

thanks

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Thu May 18, 2006 1:49 am

re: voiding the warranty...i'm just repeating what the employee said. but when pressed who knows what they'd do with a repair claim. at the store they were a little unfamiliar with the concept of how easy it was to exchange hard drives... so for them its better safe than sorry. my best guess is throwing a 7200 rpm drive in won't be a problem, and i'll probably try it out in a month or two if the preinstalled drive isn't cutting it.

re: speed stepping...i pulled the extension and ran the performance test. the cpu savings were not that great. i went from 39% to about 37%. probably not worth monkeying with your system. we'll see how things change with live 6.
edit: kenn, i just saw your note in the performance thread about running other apps...i haven't tried anything beyond live running alone. i'll mess around some more and see what happens.

re: the look. i'm with ya...the new computers aren't anything special visually. its a step down for me going from aluminum to white plastic.