New Laptop - 15" Powerbook G4?

[JFreak]

Getting 1GB Memory cost an additional $537AUD...I will consider it though, if it is worth the money...

if you don't buy the gigabyte now, at least buy your 512MB in one memory stick (and not two 256MB), and you can always add the second one later.

So you're saying that I should connect the 002r to my powerbook and then connect the harddrive to a PCMCIA firewire card? How much better is that compared to just using the 2 ports already built-in?

yes, definetely. those two built-in ports share the same firewire buss internally, so connecting your audio interface to the same buss than hard drive, WILL be a problem as the system cannot keep up with the real-time requirements as easily.

i have had a lot of trouble using only one firewire buss, but none whatsoever after i bought the pcmcia card. it doesn't actually matter so much if the hard drive uses the fw400 speed, as long as it's on a separate buss (pcmcia is connected to pci buss internally, which is connected straight to the system controller, just the same way the internal firewire buss does.)

with the second firewire buss i can easily record 32 tracks to a fw400 hard drive. not possible with a shared buss. i am of course talking about a test session, because LE hardware has 18 input maxx, but anyway, for testing purposes, i recorded 32 tracks for 150 minutes without a single hiccup and then i decided that it's enough and stopped recording. very nice performance.

also, optimize your audio drive's seek performance by partitioning it correctly - do not make one huge partition, as it will lead to slower seek times. it is good to have a small "work" partition in the beginning of the drive - say, about 50GB - and the rest of the drive can be "storage". that way, keeping your work session in dedicated partition, you will dramatically shorten seek times, which is everything for protools.

Anywho - I found a PCMCIA FW card on eBay - will this do? It's FW400...

it will do, as long as it is recognized by osx and can handle your firewire hard drive. i'd recommend the lacie card, though, because it also has fw800 and it is active (external power supply that feeds enough power to the three fw ports). the lacie card cost me 80 euros but i think it's cheaper elsewhere; finland is a very expensive country...

[Phydaux]

I've been using a similar system for the last year, a 17' 1GHz/1gig of ram.

The standard 4200rpm hard drive is meant to be to slow for Pro tools but it works OK and just as well as my external 7200 rpm drive. It spits the dummy around 30 tracks even going easy on your plugins. You can now purchase a 60 gig 7200 drive for powerbooks.
You are also pushing it to rewire more than one other application at a time.

I have also been using reason and Live very effectively on stage with no problems.

I just helped a friend set up a new 1.5ghz power book and they are great computers.

PS I'm also in Sydney.

Powerbook 17" 1 GHz/1gb ram/ Mac OS 10.3.4 Digi 002/ Protools 6.4 /Reason/ Live/Cubase SX 2.2/ Meldoyne 2.5/ Waves 002 etc

[jyang]

Does the 002r utilise the FW800 speed? If not I was thinking of using the EX HD on the built-in FW800 port, and using the 002r on the PCMCIA card (FW400)... What is your HD/002 port config Jfreak?

Ok, thanks again for the responses, its been a great help in my decision making - at the moment what I am thinking of getting is as follows -

15" Superdrive Powerbook G4
1.5Ghz PowerPC G4 w/128MB Graphics Memory
1GB (2X512MB) DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA drive @ 5400rpm
Etc...

Cost: $4,191 AUD

External Firewire Drive (I'll link a few that I've been looking into)

120GB FireCube 8MB Cache - $323

80GB Lacie d2 (cache?) - $315

120GB Lacie d2 (cache?) - $369

I'm thinking the FireCube, as far as bang for buck goes...

And lastly the PCMCIA FW card I linked to earlier on eBay.

If I got the FireCube HD, the PCMCIA card and the PB the total cost would be $4544 AUD. Hopefully I can get a little 'help' with my purchase, so I might only have to pay half of that amount for all the gear...Which is $2272, roughly $1600 US.

So.... What do you guys think? Will it satisfy my wants for a kickass recording AND live setup? Any other suggestions/tips?

[MarkH]

I would like to chime in as I recently purchased a 15.2" Aluminum Powerbook 1.5Ghz. A couple helpful pointers:

1) I swapped my 4200 RPM drive for a Hitachi Travelstar 7200 RPM. You get your money's worth here as everything loads incredibly fast and you get desktop performance and speed.

2) Omni Technologies makes Apple Certified memory and they sell direct. A single 512MB stick for an Aluminum Powerbook is just $129 and 1GB is $249. I purchased one of each and have 1.5GB total memory for around the same price as one of Apple's 512MB modules.


I'm convinced the 1.5 Aluminum Powerbook is enough power to let you write and record music without hitting brick walls all the time. I am using Ableton Live which is not Altivec optimized but I average around 28-40% utilization for a complete song. I do not go plugin crazy like some people, but I still have plenty of breathing room. The beauty of Live 4 is that you can record soft synths into audio 'phrases' so rather than freezing and committing a whole entire track, you can just 'freeze' say 8 measures into an audio clip on a seperate track and still keep your virtual instrument available for later use in the song. Another thing is that Live supports Audio Units and Apple's AU that come with OS X are quite good both in quality and CPU usage. A reverb from Apple typically uses at least 8% less CPU than TC Works or Waves.

The Powerbook 1.5 really gives me all the power I need for the style of music I write. For the longest time I was always trying to fill up my mixer with as many plugins as possible for no valid reason at all. It was just the thing to do. What I've learned is let your ears decide for you. Don't think about how many plugins you can make work on your machine. There are always ways around limitations, you just need to think outside the box.

Good luck with purchasing your Powerbook! I think you will be more than happy!

[tele_player]

Got a link for that Omni RAM? I didn't find it using Google or Yahoo...

[MarkH]

Got a link for that Omni RAM? I didn't find it using Google or Yahoo...

I found them through ebay or you can call 1-800-805-5655 to place an order over the phone. They shipped my memory the same day I ordered it and I had it the next morning. Shipping was $12 for FedEx although I could have opted for ground for $6.

[rpb]

sorry i didn't get back to you all sooner,

yes, my powerbook G4 15'' works great with REASON/PRO TOOLS/GARAGEBAND!!! i also use the lacie 200 GB drive (partitioned right down the middle- half for audio and half for backing up my hard drive). although, after hearing the seek time issue, i may just reformat with an extra little work paritition. thanks for the tip.

however, i still only have 512 RAM. it seems to work ok most of the time (as long as i'm not running extra applications), but sometimes limits track playback (very rarely) or plugin use.

question: are the mac stock ram chips ok to use? i dont' know a ton about it. isn't ram ram, despite the brand of chip?

rpb

[jyang]

Thanks for the helpful post MarkH.

How much did it cost you to get the new memory and HD installed? Or did you upgrade it yourself?

Oh, and further comments by anyone regarding my potential purchase is welcome. I want to be sure of my decision to spend this amount of money...

[OmniMedia]

I swapped my 4200 RPM drive for a Hitachi Travelstar 7200 RPM. You get your money's worth here as everything loads incredibly fast and you get desktop performance and speed.

hi MarkH

where you got this installed and how much did it cost
i'm buying a 17" Powerbook next week and would like to do the same

please reply and let me know
regards,
CJ

[MarkH]

I purchased the Hitachi Travelstar 7200 RPM drive from Fry's Electronics, but several places online sell it as well. It's around $250. I've also heard the Hitachi 5400 RPM drive (offered by Apple as an optional upgrade on their online store) gives fantastic performance as well. Either way, both are significantly faster than the stock drive. Keep in mind the *only* reason I purchased the 7200 instead of the 5400 is for using Ableton Live in the DJ booth. I didn't want to lug around an external drive but wanted enough speed to stream several WAV/AIFF files at a time and apply real time VST effects. Otherwise, I would have gone for the 5400 RPM upgrade from Apple.

I did the memory and HD upgrades myself. The RAM is simple. I am experienced with notebook upgrades and did the hard drive swap out but it's very tricky. If you're in the U.S. I would suggest Powerbook Medic as they have taken apart all models of Aluminum Powerbooks and know what they are doing.

Most people use this link to figure out how to take apart their Powerbook. WARNING: DO NOT DO STEP 4 AND 5! You will warp, bend, scratch, and destroy your outer casing. You can lift the top keyboard face without prying anything and it will come apart. I don't know why xlr8yourmac is showing this. It is not necessary and it's a quick way to destroy your beautiful laptop.

Personally, I think you will see huge application performance gains just by getting the Apple 5400 RPM drive. People have reported phenominal differences. Again, the ONLY reason I went for 7200 is I use Ableton Live in a DJ booth and didn't want to lug around another hard disk. For studio use, if you use a Firewire for your audio and use the system drive for applications, the 5400 should be stellar. Besides, if you do the 5400 upgrade on the Apple site you're not spending that much more for the upgrade and you're not wasting a drive. I've seen the benchmarks for the 5400 and also heard it from users, 5400 RPM smokes the 4200 RPM and is one of the 'must have' upgrades.


Hope this helps,
MarkH