iBook vs PowerBook [for music production]

One thing about the iBooks is they don't have an audio line in on them.

I'd go with the powerbook. Apple's i line is not for professional use like you want but it's great for regular people.

A athlon 3200+ notebook will be faster, but it will be bigger and have lousy battery life. Get a powerbook (after MWSF) and get 1.0GB+ of RAM and an external HD. Laptop hds isn't as good as exernal 7200rpm hds, and if you want to work with many audio tracks you'll need a fast and large hd. Ofcourse a 5400rpm internal will be great, but if you are doing much recording, 80 GB will be a problem..

Apple powerbooks seem to be the number one choice between musicians. I'v been to 10+ concerts with bands using powerbooks onstage, but only once i've seen a pc-laptop onstage..

ephex said:

thanks for your input guys
...so much for saving money 😛.

Apple's educational discount doesn't apply to high school students either does it?

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I believe it does apply to high school as well. Could cary from country and state. 🙂

It applied to me...

Go the PowerBook. The iBook isn't cut out for Pro use but rather for the average guy sitting around.

get the i-book

There's an interesting bunch of things going on in this thread.
First....having a line in, does not make for pro sound. If you want pro sound, get an external firewire sound card like the M-audio Firewire Audiophile. You'll want that on either the iBook or PB.
Also, you're talking about reason here. It's not "pro" audio. Don't get me wrong. I use it as my primary workstation. An iBook will save you over 2K, and will have roughly the same specs. The resolution differences will not be noticeable - all that much. You still have just a 14" or 15" screen. Not that much difference there.
I have pressed tracks on vinyl and distributed them pretty widely without any problems from using just my iBook.
Reason is written in assembler, and is intended to be very easy on a processor. If you are running the current 1.3 Ghz (i think) iBook, you will be getting along quite nicely with Reason. You'll also probably want to buy Recycle and Peak as well for editing audio and creating your own loops.
There are plenty of people on this list that will tell you to shell out for the PB, but I am not one of those people, and yes, I have produced tunes on an iBook without a problem. Most people just think that paying more means getting more. At this point, I don't think that that is the case for the iBook and Powerbook - unless you want to get a 3G wireless card, which can only be done on a PB, but who wants to pay for a wireless service that's only available in a few US cities when there is Kismac which will let you enjoy many Wifi sites in the US that you never thought were there.
Save the money on the iBook and get an Edirol PCR30 as a controller, a firewire audio interface and all of your software. You won't be disappointed.
If you were doing graphics primarily, I might would say otherwise, but I doubt it cosidering the price difference.
Forgive my ranting....I'm drunk. 😛

The education discount does NOT apply to high school students in any circumstance. It applies to faculty and staff at K-12 and higher education, and to students at higher education institutions.

magikpants said:

An iBook will save you over 2K, and will have roughly the same specs.

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I fully agree with the general argument of magikpants, that you shouldn't buy an expensive computer if a cheap one will serve you just fine or if funds are an issue. Still, I have to disagree with the specifics ...

14" iBook 1.33GHz with 512MB = 1674
15" PBook 1.5GHz with 512MB and 5400rpm HD option = 2549.

So what does the $875 get you?
- slightly bigger screen, widescreen resolutions
- better, faster video card with twice the VRAM
- official support for non-mirrored external displays
- faster HD
- faster processor, faster system bus, faster RAM
- backlit keyboard
- aluminum case, is also less thick
- gigabit ethernet
- FireWire 800
- PC Card slot
- audio line-in
- built-in Bluetooth ($50 option in iBook)

Now, for $875, I can see all that being worth it-- unless, as magikpants cautions, you don't need or want, or just can't afford, any of it. That, of course, is for you to decide. Plus, if new PBooks are coming next month, you might just want to wait.

I called apple one time. One guy told me it did work for highschool students. I didnt think that it did. You may be right I am not sure myself.