Ableton Forum

Hello,

I am on the verge of buying a laptop, so the age old question is what do I get?
I am thinking of 2 machines. An ASUS 1.8 Centrino and an Apple G4 powerbook 1.33. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
First the ASUS:
It is a 1.8 centrino, 60gb 7200 rpm drive, 15" 1024 MB Ram.

Points for: 600 euros cheaper than a powerbook, 7200rpm drive.
Points against: Plastic, not as cool looking.

Powermac: 1.33 ghz, 1gb ram, a 5400 HD, 15"

Points for: Power (maybe), reliability, good build
Points against: Expensive, 5400 rpm hard drive, some software is PC only.


So what would u do? Can you get by with a 5400 drive? I have Ableton for PC, so would I be able to change it for no cost for a mac version? Though I think for me the only thing really stopping me getting a Mac is the 5400 HD.

I'd be intersted in any feed back please

Thanks

it always come to the mac vs pc debate but for myself i always prefered pc ,i think there as faster & cheaper.
for the reliability they are both the same , it all depends of how you take care of your system.
also there is more software choice for pc than mac.
mac are slow pc for rich kids

That's pretty easy...

If you are comfortable using Window$, then a Centrino laptop without a doubt. It'll pretty much blow away a G4.

The IBM T40/42 series are the best Centrino/Pentium-M laptops around imo. Better than the ASUS even. I've had a T40 for about 14 months and it has been a complete joy & performance has never been an issue. Mine has a 5400 rpm drive, but I believe you can upgrade to a 7200 manually as well as getting tons of memory cheaper thru crucial.com.

Look at tomshardware.com & anandtech.com for reviews of the T40 & other laptops.

BTW, don't get 'Centrino' confused with 'Pentium-M'. Pentium-M is the actual CPU used in a Centrino system. Centrino is more of a definition of the system... not the CPU itself.

I'd go with the g4 and would not think twice about it.

"macs are slow pc's for rich kids"

Ignore comments like this. That's just a stupid thing for anyone to say.

I use a G4 PowerBook 1.5Ghz and I am not entirely happy with its performance. I really like OS X, but my PB really is underpowered for the $2500 I paid for it. It is frustrating to see people I know running old PCs that blow away my brand new PB when running music apps. If I wasn't so used to Macs, I would definitely consider a Centrino based notebook instead. Apple probably won't have a notebook computer that outperforms a Centrino 1.8 Ghz for at least another year. By that time Centrinos will be up to 2+ Ghz and still leave Apple in the dust.

It's cool to get other opinions, but ultimately it boils down to what you're used to, comfortable with, and/or can afford. Both will do exactly what you need. I've released 3 albums using "underpowered" mac laptops.

For me, having used both windows and mac units, I opt for macs. My experience with them has been better, and like I said, it does everything I need for it to do.

I can't say I haven't been tempted by the Centrinos though. I just finished the laptopalooza tour with 2 other pc users--one of them on a Centrino. His junk worked perfectly and sounded great live.

Try the beta on both before it runs out.

Hello,

I have owned both. I use MACs for digital imaging, Photoshop etc and they are awesome , powerful machines...BUT...

My old G4 TiBook had BIG problems using LIVE 2.1 when I had 10 tracks with lots of FX. and I got sick of reading on this forum about how much faster/better/more tracks with effects/ that PCs were. SoI took a gamble and got a PC laptop (SONY Vaio).

I can state with out hesitation that LIVE preformed MUCH,MUCH better on my PC . I would not switch back until a very stable, Altivec optimized ,G5 comes out and passes the scrutiny of this forum.

Understand that IM really a MAC person and I prefer OSX over XP by 10,000 times...BUT:

You WILL get much better performance and more bang for the buck with a PC running LIVE. The faster HD will probably give you better performance if your are using a ton of clips on each scene.

Hope this helps

Vdrum

rahlo wrote:It's cool to get other opinions, but ultimately it boils down to what you're used to, comfortable with, and/or can afford. Both will do exactly what you need. I've released 3 albums using "underpowered" mac laptops.

For me, having used both windows and mac units, I opt for macs. My experience with them has been better, and like I said, it does everything I need for it to do.

I can't say I haven't been tempted by the Centrinos though. I just finished the laptopalooza tour with 2 other pc users--one of them on a Centrino. His junk worked perfectly and sounded great live.

I forgot to add that I get much better perfomance once I installed a 7200 rpm drive into my Powerbook. MUCH better!

windows in the studio when i need the headroom to be creative..

mac on the stage when i need the stability of Unix.

also, 5400 vs 7200 is minimal, but 4200 vs 5400 is a definite must. at least in powerbooks.

see benchmarks here: http://www.barefeats.com/pb12.html scroll to the middle of the page

only when writing to the Disk do you see the benefit of a 7200rpm drive over a 5400 (in a powerbook). and Live is more for reading from the disk.

so i wouldn't let the 7200rpm drive sway your decision.. if one were 4200 and the other 5400, then you could consider it as a big difference.

See this thread why I chose the Ibook : http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 8&start=30

Maybe some things apply to you ...

I'm a long time Mac and PC user and I recently bought a 1.25 MHz 15" PowerBook, when Apple reduced the price with 25 %. I'm not particulary concerned with "getting as many tracks as possible" since my main studio computer is a dual 2 GHz G5. I just needed a laptop to perform live with - not for producing recordings. Before the G5 machines arrived I would never have thought about using anything different than a Pentium 4 PC. Another reason for my choice was OS X and some music software, only available for OS X (Numerology and Logic) that I want to use. My third reason to go with an Apple machine was the FireWire 800 protocol that is yet not available for PC. With the powerbook I also bring an external FW800 drive and that makes it extremely easy to move laptop projects on the studio machine for remix or refinement. Finally, my last reason was that my excellent sound card, a RME Multiface, can be used both with the stationary and the portable (as well as with PC's, if I should have to).

Whatever you decide to buy I strongly recommend to look into a fast external drive. This will enchance your machines performance a lot and make your system more stable.

Kodama wrote:Try the beta on both before it runs out.

That's definitely the tip to follow - take the beta to an electronics store that carries both laptops and try it out.

smutek wrote:I'd go with the g4 and would not think twice about it.

"macs are slow pc's for rich kids"

Ignore comments like this. That's just a stupid thing for anyone to say.

you must be a rich kid cos there is no doubt that mac is one of the biggest rip off ever