Need some recommendations for those that run Shake/AE/plan to run Motion

[lukasbarton]

Hey this is my first post and i'm a (hopefully) soon to be switcher. So, I plan to buy either a 12in pb to use on my commute to and from school and on my 20" crt at home or save up some more money and get a dual g5. Im a student at the School of Visual Arts in manhattan and want to know what you folks running shake and after effects would recommend that i do. I have access to g5's at school but dont want to be confined to doing all my work there. my other option is to buy the pb now and save up for around this time next year to get a dual 3ghz. i just dont know how those programs will run with only 1.25 gigs of ram and motion recommends 2gigs. help a fella out

 

[Chaywa]

Hope I can help

Well, I don't use Shake but I do use AE and plan to use Motion and you are right in thinking that you will never be able to get enough ram (not to mention the motorola processor/anchor) in that laptop to do the kind of work you want to. You need dual 64bit processors with a 1 Ghz frontside bus for each. You could get the laptop now as a fun toy and then save up for a big bad G5. But my advice would be to just start saving now. I saved for my G5 for 3 years and when I finally got it it was worth the wait. It is the perfect machine for me. Plus the longer you wait, the more you save. That means when you do get the G5 you can load it up with ram, extra HDs and a wicked graphics card. Patience young grasshopper...patience.

 

[lukasbarton]

i've used after effects plenty on my amd system at home with a 2100 and 1.5gb of ram. i know that all of these programs are ram intensive so i'm not looking for instant renders or anything ive just never worked with shake before and was curious how it would hold up. the real question is if i get the 12" and max out the ram will i have any functionality at all? i'm curious because i think no matter what i should probably invest in a laptop to get work done in the 9+ hours per week i spend on the train. if i cant get decent results in shake/ae/motion i might as well get a cheaper windows notebook and punch myself in the face every day over how much i envy the design and portability of the pb.

 

[Chaywa]

I would think those programs would run as well or better on a PB than a PC laptop. Do they even make Shake for windows anymore? The only problem I have with your buying plan is the 12" screen. I have seen Shake in action and use AE frequently. Sometimes my 19" screen isn't even big enough for all of those pallets and windows. Could you spring for the 15"?

 

[lukasbarton]

nah i want the 12" for its portability. at home id be using it with my 20" crt so on the train itd be used basically for photoshop/illustrator content creation for ae projects and word processing. i would only really be putting those programs to work where i could see what i was doing, i just want to know that it'l give me decent performance until next summer when i can hopefully afford the dual g5. damn you sexy little pb and your relative lack of power...