Apple Macbook White 13" 2.4GHz

[Rawer]

Hello, I am just wondering if it would be possible to run pro tools on that mashine:

Apple Macbook White 13" 2.4GHz (Intel Core 2 Duo, 2Gb, 250Gb, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, up to 10 hour battery life)

Usage would be for a little bit of production on the go+ vocal recording, not really home studio, few exports as well


Thanks in advance

[huzzam]

Yes, for tracking & editing you should be fine. I wouldn't expect to do heavy mixing on it though. The 2gb RAM will be your biggest drawback. Is the 250gb drive a Hard Drive, or SSD? If it's an HD, you should definitely record to an external drive 7200rpm or SSD, connected via firewire.

I used a 2007 2gHz core2duo/4gb ram white Macbook as my first Pro Tools system, with PT 7.3 through PT 9 with an Mbox 2 Pro. Recorded & edited my first two albums on it, with a 10 piece band, but mixed them in a pro studio. Perfectly capable tracking & editing system. & considerably more reliable than PT 12 on my current system

~peter in athens

[huzzam]

Originally Posted by huzzam

Yes, for tracking & editing you should be fine. I wouldn't expect to do heavy mixing on it though. The 2gb RAM will be your biggest drawback. Is the 250gb drive a Hard Drive, or SSD? If it's an HD, you should definitely record to an external drive 7200rpm or SSD, connected via firewire.

I used a 2007 2gHz core2duo/4gb ram white Macbook as my first Pro Tools system, with PT 7.3 through PT 9 with an Mbox 2 Pro. Recorded & edited my first two albums on it, with a 10 piece band, but mixed them in a pro studio. Perfectly capable tracking & editing system. & considerably more reliable than PT 12 on my current system

~peter in athens

also: don't expect anything like 10 hour battery life. more like 3-4 in regular use, 1-1.5 when using pro tools.

[Rawer]

Ok, well I have no clue, looks like I could boost it to 8gb, I do have two external drives so I'm not really looking much into details but its nothing crazy not a slate disc in there, but if you are telling me that I can run my PT on it, I'll get it, will be good to be back on it instead of doing my Vocal on my iPhone lol

[huzzam]

Originally Posted by Rawer

Ok, well I have no clue, looks like I could boost it to 8gb, I do have two external drives so I'm not really looking much into details but its nothing crazy not a slate disc in there, but if you are telling me that I can run my PT on it, I'll get it, will be good to be back on it instead of doing my Vocal on my iPhone lol

cool, yeah, you should be ok, as long as your external recording drive is 7200rpm (most cheap ones are 5400 or lower), and ideally connected by firewire. A 7200rpm recording drive is more important than the 8gb ram, if you need to prioritize. Another option would be to replace the internal drive with an ssd, like a Samsung 850evo 256gb, which can be had for about 90 euros these days. Then you could record to the internal drive.

~peter in athens

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Rawer

Hello, I am just wondering if it would be possible to run pro tools on that mashine:

Apple Macbook White 13" 2.4GHz (Intel Core 2 Duo, 2Gb, 250Gb, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, up to 10 hour battery life)

Usage would be for a little bit of production on the go+ vocal recording, not really home studio, few exports as well


Thanks in advance

If you are thinking of buying this there are lots of better MBPs that you can find that will be much more capable of running Pro Tools. If you have it already or somebody is giving it to you for free then sure try it out. But you will need more memory. You really want at least 8GB with Pro Tools 12.

Core 2 Duo are underpowered if you want to run many plugins/virtual instruments. It is VI use that will quickly kill many underpowered computers. It is not clear at all what what you mean by "production". Very basic editing is one thing, even a few audio plugins, maybe a little elastic audio and a little automation may be entirely a different world of hurt.

Running Pro Tools on a 13" screen can be a PITA, you look at one or think how small the screen is compared to what you have now it before spending money on anything that small.

And you should have an external drive to record to, not many great choices on such an old computer, you are mostly stuck with old 7,200 RPM FireWire external drives. A low-cost USB3 SSD on a modern Mac offers much better performance at good prices. Another reason that this is not a good choice of a system.

[Rawer]

Originally Posted by huzzam

cool, yeah, you should be ok, as long as your external recording drive is 7200rpm (most cheap ones are 5400 or lower), and ideally connected by firewire. A 7200rpm recording drive is more important than the 8gb ram, if you need to prioritize. Another option would be to replace the internal drive with an ssd, like a Samsung 850evo 256gb, which can be had for about 90 euros these days. Then you could record to the internal drive.

~peter in athens

Yeah I have two lacies, it's cause I sadly had to sell my iMac cause of money issues, just trying to at least do a little beat of work here and there but the mix part and recordings will be at the studio, it's really the need of something against doing just the singing part when I do have the producers knowledge.

[Rawer]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

If you are thinking of buying this there are lots of better MBPs that you can find that will be much more capable of running Pro Tools. If you have it already or somebody is giving it to you for free then sure try it out. But you will need more memory. You really want at least 8GB with Pro Tools 12.

Core 2 Duo are underpowered if you want to run many plugins/virtual instruments. It is VI use that will quickly kill many underpowered computers. It is not clear at all what what you mean by "production". Very basic editing is one thing, even a few audio plugins, maybe a little elastic audio and a little automation may be entirely a different world of hurt.

Running Pro Tools on a 13" screen can be a PITA, you look at one or think how small the screen is compared to what you have now it before spending money on anything that small.

And you should have an external drive to record to, not many great choices on such an old computer, you are mostly stuck with old 7,200 RPM FireWire external drives. A low-cost USB3 SSD on a modern Mac offers much better performance at good prices. Another reason that this is not a good choice of a system.

I hear your point, I have found 1 for £199 and I can't stand pcs, had one for that price it didn't even load PT10, and after I had 2 iMacs I can't go to PCs, not for music.

Like I said earlier I could at least some of my projects and get everything in order before I hit the studio, so depressing when you have to go for a session, everything's on a drive that you haven't touched for months, as a producer I need at least something to get me buy while pushing my vocals to the front side of things at the moment