I need a set up reccomendation!

[SRSound]

12" PB G4 1.5GHz 1.256GB RAM Superdrive 80GB HD + 20" ACD

~or~

15" PB G4 1.67GHz 2GB RAM Superdrive 80GB HD 128MB vRAM

I need enough power to drive Pro Tools LE, while enough portablility to carry around campus all day! What do you all think?

 

[faintember]

12" PB G4 1.5GHz 1.256GB RAM Superdrive 80GB HD + 20" ACD

~or~

15" PB G4 1.67GHz 2GB RAM Superdrive 80GB HD 128MB vRAM

I need enough power to drive Pro Tools LE, while enough portablility to carry around campus all day! What do you all think?

A mod may want to move this to the Digital Audio forum. You might get some more info about a Pro Tools machine there.

If the PB is going to be your only Pro Tools machine, get the 15" PB. Why? Well it is small enough to lug around campus. With the 12" i am very much afraid that you wont have enough screen area to see what you are doing (that is unless you want to lug that 20 ACD around with ya!)

If you really want to have more screen space when you are not mobile, get the 15" and a less expensive flat-panel for your room.

Both the 12" and 15" will have plenty of power for Pro Tools, and you will probably like the 15" better when you have a lot of tracks loaded in because of the 2gigs of ram, and the slightly faster processor. You might want to think about getting a hardware interface as well (if you dont have one already).

My 15" PB 1 Ghz 512ram 60gig HD is more than plenty for me right now for Logic and Cubase, as well as some other music apps. I may upgrade to 1 gig of ram soon, but it runs great right now.

The main thing for you is would you rather have the same screen size in your room, in class and out in the field + more ram and a slightly faster processor, or would you rather have a smaller PB with a large display in your room with a little less ram and a slightly slower processor.

Oh yeah...also...are you going to be adding the extra ram or ordering from Apple? I hope you are doing it yourself, b/c it is a lot cheaper than Apple!!!!! There are plenty of good threads out there about ram, but crucial is always a good place to start.

Hope this helps..

-cameron

 

[SRSound]

Everything is helpful! I've been gathering as much information as possible here as I prepare for the switch.

I already have pro tools and the 002R interface which Ive been using for a long time. Small screen space is fine for a mobile session, but the larger the screen the better when it comes to editing. I just need to know if the 12" PB will be able to handle the app sufficiently. How much difference can .17GHz and 768MB RAM make?

 

[SRSound]

Also, I had planned to get 3rd party RAM from Crucial, because I'm not too thrilled with Apple's prices

 

[doumbek]

Both are fine for Protools as per Digidesign

Supported CPU Models, Speeds & Requirements

Power Mac G5
Power Mac G4
PowerBook G4
iMac G5
iMac G4
iBook G4
Mac mini

I personally would get the 15" and an external firewire hard drive before you get the external display. Don't get me wrong you'll like having as much display as you can get, but you will wind up needing the hard drive space quickly.

As of right now I'm still on Panther until Digi gets LE updated. TDM is up to date, but us lowly LE users have to wait a little bit longer. Hopefully, it will be smoother than the Panther transition.

Anyways, good luck with the new system.

 

[SRSound]

As with the 002R system, I also have an ext HD waiting to be formatted to apple. Right now I'm working on a 15" laptop with a 1400x1050 and it's a fine ammount of workspace but it looks like the apple 15" PB is only 1280 x 854! I don't want to downgrade my workspace size, you know?

 

[doumbek]

The only Apple laptop with anything close to that screen resolution is the 17", which is a whopping $2,700. But, in the scheme of things, is about $400 more than the 15" with superdrive. I don't know what kind of budget your looking at, or if the 17" is just too big to lug around with you all day.

 

[faintember]

I agree with doumbek, you will want all the screen space you can get. One of my friends asked me to help him with some stuff in Reason on his 12" PB. Lets just say i was VERY happy to be done with that chore and back to my 15".

The resolution may be a little lower on a 15" PB than your current laptop, but i bet the PB has a larger viewable screen area (just a guess, but from experience thats typically what i have found to be true).

If you have the extra $$$bling-bling$$$ for the 17" i would go that way. You get more screen space, a larger HD, higher resolution than the 15", and lightpipe out for audio.

As far as 15" vs. 17" when it comes to lugging it around. The 17" is a pound and half heavier, big deal. lol To me carrying around a laptop is a pain anyways, always something to look after and another thing to take care of, but i still lug it around and rarely complain about it. (if i had a 17" i would carry it everywhere, just to show off..hehe)

edit...Also the external hd you have...is it usb 1, usb 2.0 or firewire? If you are going to be backing up raw audio (like i do) i would really reccommend firewire, as in my experience usb 2.0 is less reliable (i do hope this changes in the future)

 

[SRSound]

FW HD. Truthfully I dont care how much it costs as long as it works and is practical. The truth is 85% of the work that will be done on this powerbook will be academic stuff i could do on any laptop, but when it comes time to record, I need it to be able to pull through. Thanks again to everyone for your help. I dont think my question will ever be answered until I buy one and try it myself.

 

[Poeben]

I would recommend the 15". It is a good size for a 16-track mobile session. I have used both a 12" and 15" and hands down would prefer a 15". Also, you won't ever catch me turning down extra ram. My G5 came with 1gig--I thought that was enough to get started. I recently upgraded to 3gigs and ---wow--- it screams now.

My 2 cents -- Do whatever you feel is right, just as long as it is a 15" with a lot of ram