Good Laptop choice for Live 3??

Alex Reynolds · Post by **Alex Reynolds** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 3:33 am

Anonymous wrote:At this point someone will come along and point out that Mac lappies are "in fact" no more expensive than their PC counterparts.

Low end:

14-inch iBook G4 -- $1299

933MHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 cache @ 933MHz
14-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
256MB DDR266 SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA drive
Combo Drive
ATI Mobility Radeon 9200
32MB DDR video memory

Dell Inspiron 1100 -- $1186

Intel® Pentium® 4 processor,2.4 GHz
14.1 XGA
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
256MB Shared DDR,266Mhz,1 Dimms,PC2100 SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive

High end:

15.2" PowerBook G4 -- $2599

15.2-inch TFT Display
1280x854 resolution
1.25GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA/100
ATI Mobility Radeon
9600 (64MB DDR)
Backlit keyboard
Gigabit Ethernet
FireWire 400 & 800
AirPort Extreme built-in
DVI & S-Video out

Dell Inspiron 8600 + Firewire 800 card + FW power supply -- $2519 + $79 + $15 = $2613

Pentium®M Processor,1.7 GHz,15.4 in WUXGA
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
512MB,DDR,333MHz 1 Dimm
64MB NVIDIA® GeForceTM FX Go5200 Go
80GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Dell TrueMobile™ 1300 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card (to bring up to 802.11g)
Dell™ TrueMobile™ 300 Bluetooth Internal Card
No backlit keyboard
No DVI out

And most all with the misfortune to actually have to use a Dell laptop will tell you they suck ass in build quality.

Go ahead and price a Sony -- ever hear your wallet cry?

Anonymous wrote:DO the sums yourself.

Thank you, I will!

Anonymous wrote:Look at which platform people are having problems with using Live the most and the best of luck with whichever platform you choose. People aren't saying thy are happier running Live on a PC just because they have nothing better to do.. well some may but then some Macheads think Steve Jobs should be the next Pope.

I was going to mention something about irony or pots and kettles but this thread is so boring already. Don't you have Bill Gates' knob to polish or something?

-Alex

ryansupak · Post by **ryansupak** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 4:59 am

FWIW -- i've found ableton to be stable even on a pentium ii laptop / audiosport quattro. ableton tends to be very light on the processor if you don't go crazy with the reverbs.

i think any new low-end laptop will run it just fine.

rs

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 5:52 am

I was going to mention something about irony or pots and kettles but this thread is so boring already.

Ahhh! You're the guy who on the one hand spouts off about he he's not going to be updating or using Live much until certain areas are fixed on the Mac. On the OTHER hand you tell people asking what is the best setup to run that very same program to go out and buy a Mac!! Very objective and useful. He didn't say he wanted to run Logic? He didn't say he wanted to have a firewire port that has an extra pin (big deal). Ge wants to run "LIVE"! And even by YOUR admission it doesn't run as hot on a Mac as it does on the PC (regardless of who is to lame, he wants to run it NOW).

Don't you have Bill Gates' knob to polish or something?

Well why not. Polishing Steve's did me no wondrous favours personally plus you amply demonstrate that the glare caused your expert polishing of Bills counterpart has blinded your ability to give an objective answer to a straight question.

"Pretty polly! But a Mac! Pretty Polly" Pieces of eight!!"

Alex Reynolds · Post by **Alex Reynolds** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 9:30 am

Anonymous wrote:Very objective and useful.

Any Objectivist worth her salt will tell you that you can't get much more objective than the bottom dollar.

Sure, you can argue who needs Bluetooth or powered FireWire blah blah, but it seems nice to have it all in one well-designed box. Maybe good design (not aesthetics, but Design design) is worth something in itself. These days, maybe not.

If you're going to make music and you don't want as much of a hassle getting up and running, a Mac still seems like one among many good options.

Live's problems are caused mostly by Live. If you want capital-O Objective proof that your platform choice won't matter too much where reliability is concerned, don't listen to anyone else here, but instead read reports from Windows users using Live in Windows:

-- http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 7491#27491

If you want to run music applications, I think I would still recommend a new PowerBook to my friends, Live's problems aside. Live is not the end-all be-all of music software, thank god, nor it is Instant Ersatz Creativity in a box.

If you are only running Live and nothing else, and having 124,007 clips and 5,935 reverbs running simultaneously is vital then a Wintel box is in order. Enjoy your electric bill and newfound sense of manhood!

Cheers,
Alex

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 9:52 am

Awwww geeee! Did da man weccomend or even suggest sowmething other than a maccy waccy? He weally should know better dan to do dat when evewybody knows Macs wun evewything prefectly out of the box and are no more expensive dan an eqwuivalently pewformance, if you can find one, PC lappie wappie.

Alex, lighten up ffs. You're talking to a Mac owner as well. Get off your pious high-horse for cryin out loud, it doesn't become you. You seem to think you can attack guests just because you have logged in as the magnificent Alex Reynolds, master of all he talks about (and boy doesn't he want you to know all about it).

Go on, have the final word. You're always right and you know it makes you feel so much better....

To the original poster: My experience above with live is as I find it. I have 2 Mac setups here and a Compaq based PC setup that I run Live on. The Compaq runs FAR better than on either Mac be it OS/9 or OSX. There we have it, it's information that will hopefully be of use to you. Enjoy whatever you choose, Live is a great application.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:50 am

Alex Reynolds wrote:Sure, you can argue who needs Bluetooth or powered FireWire blah blah, but it seems nice to have it all in one well-designed box. Maybe good design (not aesthetics, but Design design) is worth something in itself.

I definitely agree with that. But, going back to your price comparison, are you saying that the iBook's 933MHz G4 processor is -at least- as fast as a P4 2.4GHz? Or the 1.25GHz G4 as fast as the Pentium M 1.7GHz? What I've read on various places on the Web tells me otherwise (for example, here).

pa.101 · Post by **pa.101** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:53 am

That last post was me, by the way.

qchapter · Post by **qchapter** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 4:44 pm

Seems like these threads are inevitable no matter how useless they are. Live runs reliably on PC's and Mac's. It's just a matter of personal preference really. I suggest going to your local computer shop and spend a little time playing with both systems. Personally, I chose an iBook, mainly because of OSX, which is (IMO) more refined than Windows. I also prefer the design of Mac notebooks, again, a more refined product in my opinion.

YMMV(Find out for yourself for crying out loud)

-Kevin

pa.101 · Post by **pa.101** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 3:45 pm

Sorry but these threads are not useless. Personally I have no way of going to a local computer shop and playing with stuff because local computer shops here know nothing but selling you a bloated stupid consumer desktop. I doubt most would even know what a PowerBook is, much less let me play with one.

And I prefer to ask my question here rather than to people who use a $2500 PowerBook for web surfing only and say things like "we don't need the speed anyway" (e.g. Apple's discussion site).

I do understand seeing this kind of threads all the time gets irritating but I guess you can always ignore them.

qchapter · Post by **qchapter** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 4:16 pm

pa.101 wrote:Sorry but these threads are not useless. Personally I have no way of going to a local computer shop and playing with stuff...

Are you really going to make your purchase decision based on arguments on a discussion board? It's interesting to hear other's opinions on the mac vs. pc debate, but these threads always end with people insulting each other based on the type of computer they choose; which is absolutly rediculous!

-Kevin

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 4:34 pm

I agree! And I'm the guy that got told to polish Bill Gates' knob for bothering to pass on experience using Live on both machines!!