maxing out my system resources

[Azure DC]

My apologies if this has been covered. I searched and couldn't find it. Please point me to the appropriate thread if so.

I use Pro Tools and Reason on a new Macbook with a 2GHz dual-core processor, 2 megs of RAM, external Firewire drive, and an original M-Box.

Playback stops regularily, and I get the dialog box that says I've maxed out my CPU power.

I've put the buffer setting in the Playback Engine up to 1024, but it hasn't helped much.

Typically my songs are running 5-6 audio tracks, 1 reverb plug-in, 1 delay plug-in, one or two eq or compression plug-ins, and Reason via Rewire.

Up until a few months ago, I was using a 1GHz iBook with a single processor and 1 gig of RAM. I've essentially doubled my system power, but I get that dialog box with the same frequency as I used to on my old machine.

So I have the feeling that my sessions could be running much more smoothly using my current hardware, if I just tweaked some things a bit. I just don't know what they are.

[Azure DC]

I've been doing some more reading about this - what if I disable some OSX features, like airport, dashboard, etc? Some people recommend that.

[Park Seward]

Yes, look at the Troubleshooting thread here on the DUC. Digi recommends a bunch of stuff.

From the comments I have seen here, the Intel units are not giving the performance many expected. I'd expect an improvement on the next round of software.