Some Questions from Mac newbie...

[slinky005]

About to purchase a new MacBook Pro 15" :

I can't find a list of compatible FW Audio Interfaces for PT. Link?
Is anything from M Audio pretty much supported?
Will certain interfaces only work with FW 400 drives?
The new MBP's only have an SD slot. Does that mean I have no possiblity of any type of expansion?

[anthonylv64]

I dont know of any interface that has fw800, yet, to run PTLE you do need a digi interface, for MPower, you can use Maudio, the only xpantion, you need, will be, an external hardrive, 7200rpm and up with fw approved by digi for better results. Fw800 and 400 are backward compatible. Connect HDd to MacBook and interface to hdd
remember, all your audio files go to external hdd

[slinky005]

So the audio interface doesn't care if your hdd is fw 400 or 800?

[anthonylv64]

As far as I know, most audio Interfaces only use fw400, or USB you can plug into fw800 of course your interface is only performing at the speed of a fw400, just the same way you still plug in a device with USB 1.1 into a new computer that only offers USB 2.0

[Alan Z]

Here is a page with compatibility information

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...5&itemid=36993

[sharptoothyouth]

Originally Posted by slinky005

About to purchase a new MacBook Pro 15" :

I can't find a list of compatible FW Audio Interfaces for PT. Link?
Is anything from M Audio pretty much supported?
Will certain interfaces only work with FW 400 drives?
The new MBP's only have an SD slot. Does that mean I have no possiblity of any type of expansion?

I have the same set up as you do, and when I found this little baby the thought of expanding quickly left me... this completes me.

http://www.uaudio.com/products/uad/uad2sl/index.html

[slinky005]

Ummm....not understanding your post, if you have the new Macbook 15" there's no expansion slot. Why the link to the UAD site?

[Eric Seaberg]

How many inputs do you need? In my opinion, if you can handle a smaller input set, you'd be better off looking at a USB interface and keep your FW800/400 connection for an external drive for audio.

If you really need more I/O than that, then you'll either fight with making the FW interface and drive work on the single FW port, or you'll need to upgrade to the MacBook Pro 17" which still has an ExpressCard slot. This will allow you to add an ExpressCard FW host giving you another buss to separate the FW interface and FW drive. There are LOTS of posts about this.

Congrats on doing the research BEFORE you go out and buy the Mac.