Ableton Forum

ill be ditching my windoze laptop (FINALLY) and going the mac route. the main reason is to run traktor and live, later ill get a power mac for full production.

im either going to get a 17in powerbook, or a 20in imac. i will be using this to travel with, so i know the powerbook will be more suited for that, but i really wouldnt mind getting a custom case for the imac.

i really dont know a great deal about the difference between the "oomph" of the powerbooks and imacs. i am reasonably sure that i will get the powerbook, but as far as power goes would the imac be the better choice? i did read somewhere here that the the g4s use the full processor speed as the fsb, versus the g5 using like 600mhz.

thanks in advance for the responses.

I wouldn't bother with a 17. Its not worth the $1K. They have been known to be more fragile, and the vid cards are pushing more pixels , so the refresh rate is slower (gaming only). If you need more real estate, you can plud ANY PB or iBook into a second monitor at home for screen spanning (not just mirrored).

Save the cash.

(Come to think of it, unless you plan on running a PCMCA card, go with the 12. Same muscle as the PB I have now, which does a GREAT job.) Buy a $20 USB keyboard light and you are set.


Good luck

I agree that you should skip the 17" pb but I would reccomend going for the 15" -

I use a 12". With the money you save on the smalller screen, you can purchase an external LCD when you use it at home. It's really nice to have such a small yet powerful device.

I think of it as a MIDI sequencer, only with a 12" monitor instead of a 4" LCD, and nearly unlimited sample capacity.

I tour with a 12" PB 1.33 with 768RAM ... the most powerful PDA on the market!

Live runs 200% reliably; it's not too shabby when running Logic 7 either. Have really got my money's worth out of that machine since buying it 8 months ago, and plenty more life in it yet.

Although I would HIGHLY recommend partitioning the internal drive; 20GB for system & apps, the the rest for audio files & whatever. OSX really benefits from a regular drive wipe & re-install. Search for Carbon Copy Cloner to make this job absolutely painless.

Dan

Sorry - should add that OSX on slower/portable machines really benefits from a wipe & re-install; especially if you rely on them for performance.

Never had to touch the G5 since switching it on 12 months ago. Just regularly keep permissions in check.

Dan

Anyone using a new G5 iMac with Live? I don't really need the battery portability (and associated expense!) of a Powerbook. There are some really cool new iMac cases for gig transporting. No PCMCIA for audio.. but what about the digital audio out? Or the tons of Fireware audio solutions out there... And the second monitor option on the new iMacs is easy with the firmware update.

im currently running a 16in sony vaio, so there is no way i'd be able to downgrade the size if my display. i really enjoy having a large display, and im not worried about the extra grand the 17in costs. ill be adding a secondary display (probably apple's 20in) in august anyway. i really like having a lot of display real estate.

DISUYE,
i am going to be using an external firewire hard drive for content, so partitioning the internal drive will not be necessary for that. do you still suggest wiping the hdd clean and reinstalling OSX? i thought that was one of the benefits of macs... never have to worry about the dreaded windows format / reinstall on a regular basis.

also, logic 7 runs ok on your powermac? i have a friend that has a dual 2.0 powermac with a gig of ram and he says that logic 7 really pulls on his resources with the powerhouse he has. i would think it'd hardly be functional on a powerbook.

Damon - Check out this article: http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_tracking_big_cats/

Great read if you're dedicated to making your Mac a production monster.

thats a long article! thanks for the link... ill have to read it in "parts."