Mac Question - sorry (2 Viewers)

[Alan Remorse]

hello,

buying a new mac and looking for a bitta advice. was gonna put this in techy forum but seeing as i'll be using it mostly for recording and live use, i put it here.

i currently have a powerbook that's about 3 years old. it's constantly crashing during playback in protools and it's driving me insane.

i was gonna buy the 2ghz macbook (the £1199 one):

http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?mco=MTE2NTQ

think this'd be reliable enough? i'll also be using it live with ableton. i could stretch to get the memory upgrade to 4gb (an extra 140 quid)

if anyone has any advice that'd be cool

thanks

 

[the departed]

if you can do the 4GBs then do it..
thats all you need to know really.
how much ram did you have before hand?

 

[Alan Remorse]

i... dont know.

i got it second hand for a steal, was always fine up until a few months ago.

would i be better off going for the 2.4ghz?

 

[the departed]

it's more about the ram to be honest. and really, current macs are far more stable than ones from even 4 years ago.

 

[Alan Remorse]

Yeah was thinking as much about ram.
My one is on it's way out anyways
ta for advice

 

[Barry West]

yep, go for the 4 gigs of RAM, but remember the new macbooks don't have a firewire port now, which will mess things up if your interface is firewire based, or if you plan on recording to an external firewire drive.

Some apple dealers were selling off the remainder of the old macbooks (which do have firewire) a few weeks ago, they might still have some. It would be worth your while checking that out if you want it purely for recording, plus you would save a few quid!

 

[Alan Remorse]

i don't use a firewire interface, but why would they not have it on new macs? seems a bit silly?

 

[Barry West]

just clicked on your link and saw you can still get the old macbooks from the online store too.

yeah, it is silly. it means that apple make more money out of firewire users who will now have to buy a macbook pro to use their firewire gear.

you should still think about the old macbook though, even though your interface isnt firewire, you will get higher track count and general better performance if you record to an external firewire drive. external usb drives dont really cut it for recording.

 

[Alan Remorse]

So the old ones are just the white ones yeah?

 

[Barry West]

yep. works out around the same with 4 gigs of ram as the new one does with 2 gigs. I'd quite like one myself.

 

[the departed]

just clicked on your link and saw you can still get the old macbooks from the online store too.

yeah, it is silly. it means that apple make more money out of firewire users who will now have to buy a macbook pro to use their firewire gear.

you should still think about the old macbook though, even though your interface isnt firewire, you will get higher track count and general better performance if you record to an external firewire drive. external usb drives dont really cut it for recording.

yep.

 

[Alan Remorse]

cool, thanks for advice dudes.
it actually works out cheaper to get the older kind. sweet.

 

[Goodbye]

Get your ram from here not from apple.

 

[Alan Remorse]

I don't know how to put the card in the fancy box though.

 

[plug]

you mean you don't know how to install the ram? I thought you worked in apple!?

I wouldn't worry about it; it's generally pretty easy.

 

[Break Neck Speed]

I got the white macbook when i was in NYC. Couldnt have been arsed shelling out the extra dosh for the new model as it was same spec nearly (AND NO FIREWIRE!!) for $400 more. Opted to spend the extra dough on the 2 yr apple care instead. The white ones are nicer looking imo.

Got my extra ram here: (Irish company dabs.ie)