Avid Pro Audio Community - Mbox "3" on a dated Macbook?

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- - Mbox "3" on a dated Macbook? (https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=288635)

bfx	11-30-2010 08:28 AM

Mbox "3" on a dated Macbook?

Hi guys and gals

Thinking of buying a new Mbox (3rd gen) or Mbox Pro for an upcoming project. Just recording 2 to 4 channels max using the built-in Mic preamps. Macbook is around 4 years old, has version number 2.1, 2.16 GHz Core2Duo, 1 GB RAM, 667 MHz bus, OS X 10.5.8. This setup must run reeeeally stable cause the machine will be on its own once the recording got started, DAE errors or else are not an option...

Will this work? Any differences in performance regarding the FW / USB? Opinions, experiences? I don't seem to be able to find a Mac hardware compatibility grid at the AVID support site – is there any around?

Thanks in advance! ;)

.bfx

EDIT: Oh yeah, will run 8.0.4, not going 9 so far...

DigiTechSupt

11-30-2010 09:54 AM

Re: Mbox "3" on a dated Macbook?

It should work fine (it does on my Macbook, which is a 2.0ghz model) - I would STRONGLY recommend maxing out the RAM, though!

sunburst79

11-30-2010 10:47 AM

Re: Mbox "3" on a dated Macbook?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bfx (Post 1713044)

Agreed with Digi about maxing out the RAM. It should have 2 GB minimum. Also if your just tracking and latency is not an issue then maxing out the buffer is going to give the machine a little more headroom.

bfx	12-01-2010 12:53 AM

Re: Mbox "3" on a dated Macbook?

Ok, thanks a lot to both of you!

Was wondering already about maxing out the RAM. Just was not sure if RAM would be an issue with recording only up to 4 channels at once. Well... apparently it is – but I guess shared video memory has something to do with it, right? Well, anyway, just curious.

Thanks again

Dism	12-01-2010 01:02 AM

Re: Mbox "3" on a dated Macbook?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bfx (Post 1713555)

Just overall performance, really. Any computer shows a significant performance increase by doubling or tripling the RAM.

While 2GB vs 1GB doesn't seem like much these days... on a computer that old, it represents a pretty massive performance difference.

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