exactly what i ended up doing..(2 powerbooks, it'll be another year for me before a new computer is an option). live and modul8 is the shit!continuous wrote:When I get a Macbook I'm keeping my pbook to run Modul8/video stuff.
Should i sell my powerbook for a macbook pro?
yep
D K wrote:well, since you asked....
devil's advocate for a moment:
i don't think it's worth selling a mac pb if you bought it new and it functions properly. i feel they've lost their value to the point where you are better off having an extra computer than losing half your investment.....so i'd say keep it.
powerbooks are still great, reliable computers.....it'll be a few years until they're useless....all tech gets outdated eventually.
you could use it for video, or to run vsti's off midi for example.
i'd at least wait for the 15" mp to have 800 speed firewire and a few other updates...
Yeah i did my research and your pretty much right. Its a complete waste to try and sell your powerbook now. Ive seen it go for as little as 900usd. Ill be damned if i sell something i paid 2400 for half the price! What worries me is the rumors that all upgrades for alot of programs are eventually going to be only for macbooks. Like old macs are going to become expensive and pretty paperweights. That would suck my ass!! I hope they can last atleast another 2 yrs before there completely useless...Anyway im gonna do what i should have done from the beggining and get and alienware or a nusystems laptop!! But not now since my job sucks and i live in a 600 sq ft cube i call a home....
Two technics 1210 turntables, alot of guitars, 2gig Sony vgz fz290, 2gig frankenstein pc, mbox, ableton, flstudio, recycle, the infinity gauntlet, and alot of spare time..
Alienware vs MacBook
I've had a terrible experience with Alienware. In fact, I'm online now looking into buying one of the cheap Macbooks because everytime I use my Alienware I want to throw it against the wall. 
Moral version of the story - avoid Windows computers unless you are patient and already know a lot about them, and I mean a lot - as in you can tell the software/hardware/computer companies when their product is at fault and can easily troubleshoot yourself (or use forums). Macs just work (at least in comparison to PCs).
If you're interested, here's the short version of the story (seriously): My screen seemed like it was about to go on my 667 PB G4, and I had abused it over the 2-3 years I had it. It always worked well, but I'd had some bad experiences with Apple (that story summarized - paint came off when 6months old, Apple claimed paint "isn't hardware" and thus not covered by warranty, and tried to charge me more than 900 Euros to paint it). Friends kept telling me that Windows had improved so much, and that Alienware was awesome. I also used Windows at work, but no music software. I called and talked to Ableton and Propellerheads (I think Tascam, too) about the system I was thinking about (3.4ghz pentium, 7200rpm hd, 1gb RAM, the "artists'" version of the Area51 - a $2,800 machine), and they all said something to the effect of "screamin' machine". Well, I'd run out of processing power before on my G4, but I'd never had pops and crackles and drop outs in my audio, and I'd never had such a long latency when playing softsynths live (had no audible latency on G4PB after adjusting settings). I fiddled for months with the Alienware's software and my hardware, and got the runaround from the companies (that's a software problem - call PHeads, that's Hardware call Tascam, that's computer - call Alienware, Repeat, retrograde repeat, about two months). Alienware would not take the computer back because it "still worked". The primary problem turned out to be that the USB bus didn't supply enough power, and my Tascam US428 (still being sold at the time) required slightly more power than standard, even though it has its own power source. So, I purchased the EMU 1616m to just not have to worry about the USB except maybe for midi. The 1616 seems to work OK, but the software interface is confusing to me - fancy looking, but confusing. Eight months after purchasing the Alienware (2 months for other personal reasons) I finally had a machine that almost worked right. Except that I can never seem to turn everything off - I don't want automatic reminders that my machine is vulnerable - it's not networked! Although the sound is 95% better after all of this work, there still is the occassional glitch (more so than the mac), and the latency is still worse than on my first generation G4. I've never had a hardware problem kill my music mojo like that - I haven't used my $3700 machine (with the new hardware I had to purchase) in more than 3 months: I've gone acoustic and keyboard based, with the occassional Sibelius arrangement on my old Mac. I was a computer music major, and now I'm a luddite/pianist...
Moral version of the story - avoid Windows computers unless you are patient and already know a lot about them, and I mean a lot - as in you can tell the software/hardware/computer companies when their product is at fault and can easily troubleshoot yourself (or use forums). Macs just work (at least in comparison to PCs).If you're interested, here's the short version of the story (seriously): My screen seemed like it was about to go on my 667 PB G4, and I had abused it over the 2-3 years I had it. It always worked well, but I'd had some bad experiences with Apple (that story summarized - paint came off when 6months old, Apple claimed paint "isn't hardware" and thus not covered by warranty, and tried to charge me more than 900 Euros to paint it). Friends kept telling me that Windows had improved so much, and that Alienware was awesome. I also used Windows at work, but no music software. I called and talked to Ableton and Propellerheads (I think Tascam, too) about the system I was thinking about (3.4ghz pentium, 7200rpm hd, 1gb RAM, the "artists'" version of the Area51 - a $2,800 machine), and they all said something to the effect of "screamin' machine". Well, I'd run out of processing power before on my G4, but I'd never had pops and crackles and drop outs in my audio, and I'd never had such a long latency when playing softsynths live (had no audible latency on G4PB after adjusting settings). I fiddled for months with the Alienware's software and my hardware, and got the runaround from the companies (that's a software problem - call PHeads, that's Hardware call Tascam, that's computer - call Alienware, Repeat, retrograde repeat, about two months). Alienware would not take the computer back because it "still worked". The primary problem turned out to be that the USB bus didn't supply enough power, and my Tascam US428 (still being sold at the time) required slightly more power than standard, even though it has its own power source. So, I purchased the EMU 1616m to just not have to worry about the USB except maybe for midi. The 1616 seems to work OK, but the software interface is confusing to me - fancy looking, but confusing. Eight months after purchasing the Alienware (2 months for other personal reasons) I finally had a machine that almost worked right. Except that I can never seem to turn everything off - I don't want automatic reminders that my machine is vulnerable - it's not networked! Although the sound is 95% better after all of this work, there still is the occassional glitch (more so than the mac), and the latency is still worse than on my first generation G4. I've never had a hardware problem kill my music mojo like that - I haven't used my $3700 machine (with the new hardware I had to purchase) in more than 3 months: I've gone acoustic and keyboard based, with the occassional Sibelius arrangement on my old Mac. I was a computer music major, and now I'm a luddite/pianist...
Oh yeah..
Alienware also got my name wrong even though I spelled it out "C as in Charlie", "H as in Hotel", and so on (I ordered over the phone). So, it was about two weeks before I had convinced them that I was a legitimate owner, and even then they wouldn't correct my name - I always had to give them the misspelled version. "Christopher Goodman" isn't a weird name, is it? 
But no, I am now "Cristopher Goodmen."
But no, I am now "Cristopher Goodmen.".
Sorry to here about your probs with Alienware. The truth is a ive heard alot of bad things about alienware, im still researching. I guess im just pissed at apple for releasing the macbook like 2 months after i bought a powerbook. Right now im looking into methods of window emulation on the mac, things like virtual pc, wboot. Supposably you can run windows at an acceptional speed on these, ive heard claim that ableton runs really well. But then i think they are just emulation its not like they actually boot from the hard drive like the new macbooks when they run windows using boot camp. Anyway about alienware, i live in miami and they are based here. I actually applied for a job at the company rescently. Then i heard from someone who works there that most of the people who assemble the comps are under 21 and have no experience with computers!!! I have only known one person whose alienware runs without problems, and it required months of tweaking to get it right. Now that it works it works very well though. I guess its left up to chance when dealing with alienware. How about nusystems???
Two technics 1210 turntables, alot of guitars, 2gig Sony vgz fz290, 2gig frankenstein pc, mbox, ableton, flstudio, recycle, the infinity gauntlet, and alot of spare time..