PLEASE - need to know: More Power - MacBook Pro 2.16duo or Dual G5.18 PPC

smilinjames · 20th March 2007, 07:21 PM

I have a G4 Powerbook and a dual1.8 G5 tower, and it occurred to me I could sell both and have a laptop that is possibly faster than my tower.

I run DP5 and Waves, so compatibiltiy won't be an issue. In fact I'm hoping for improved stability - comments on that would be welcome, too.

smilinjames · 21st March 2007, 05:57 AM

bump - somebody help me - no replies so far - if not with personal experience a good resource for doing the research myself (a site that benchmarks computers for audio workstation performance)

tsvisser · 21st March 2007, 06:19 AM

i don't have experience with your applications, but the Intel MBP or MB should be significantly faster than the G4 or G5 with universal applications. the only downside with the MBP is the relatively slow drives (compared to desktop options), so perhaps invest in an external SATA or FW800 RAID-0 drive to keep that from becoming a bottleneck.

statikcat · 21st March 2007, 01:07 PM

If you dont care about the difference between a desktop and a laptop then go MBP. It smokes.. you can get an internal 7200 drive. Of course you also have firewire 400/800 and an expresscard slot that can be expanded with more firewire or Esata for ext hard drives.

smilinjames · 22nd March 2007, 07:41 AM

I'd love more input - my reason for selling both my tower and my laptop is to afford SOMETHING that is stable with the projects I'm doing. I'm only running 15-30 tracks but at 88.2 it gets hairy when I start adding plugins (or even before!). I'm not sure if I have a problem with my tower or what, but I've tried replacing the drives the ram and loaded the OS fresh, I have the right DP5.x drivers and updates to match my OSX version, it just won't get stable enough that I'm comfortable tackling larger projects.

6strings · 22nd March 2007, 12:50 PM

One great thing about a tower is redundancy.

You can have:
-two monitors
-two hard drives
-multiple memory sticks (RAM)

It's fairly easy for a user to swap out an optical drive, graphics card, whatever.

If any one component of a laptop fails (or you drop it or spill a hot coffee all over it), you are S.O.L. until it gets repaired... Plus there's the paranoia that goes along with carting dongles around with a laptop...

Obviously, I prefer a laptop for field work or non-critical duties. I'd keep the G4 laptop (I have one as well) and get a Mac Pro (hang on a couple more weeks for 8 core models - or the corresponding price drop on current quads).

statikcat · 22nd March 2007, 01:15 PM

A few things reguarding the above post:

The 17" MBP screen is 1680x1050! That is huge for that size. This means you can dual monitor it with almost any 20.1" WS and have two screens with the same screen space. It works very well infact I do it often.

The 17" MBP can have 3GB of RAM which should be plenty or more than enough for most.

Good points above though.

I will also add a Mac with an Intel processor simply has a longer life span. I have a feeling in 3-4 years a G5 will be worth squat and the MBP will still retain a good value.

20th March 2007, 07:21 PM	#1
smilinjames Gear nut Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Nevada City, CA Posts: 82	NEED TO KNOW - purchase decision question: More Power - MacBook Pro or Dual G5 I have a G4 Powerbook and a dual1.8 G5 tower, and it occurred to me I could sell both and have a laptop that is possibly faster than my tower. I run DP5 and Waves, so compatibiltiy won't be an issue. In fact I'm hoping for improved stability - comments on that would be welcome, too. __________________ "...and knowing is half the battle." - GI Joe

21st March 2007, 05:57 AM	#2
smilinjames Gear nut Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Nevada City, CA Posts: 82	bump - somebody help me - no replies so far - if not with personal experience a good resource for doing the research myself (a site that benchmarks computers for audio workstation performance) __________________ "...and knowing is half the battle." - GI Joe

22nd March 2007, 07:41 AM	#5
smilinjames Gear nut Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Nevada City, CA Posts: 82	thanks I'd love more input - my reason for selling both my tower and my laptop is to afford SOMETHING that is stable with the projects I'm doing. I'm only running 15-30 tracks but at 88.2 it gets hairy when I start adding plugins (or even before!). I'm not sure if I have a problem with my tower or what, but I've tried replacing the drives the ram and loaded the OS fresh, I have the right DP5.x drivers and updates to match my OSX version, it just won't get stable enough that I'm comfortable tackling larger projects. __________________ "...and knowing is half the battle." - GI Joe

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21st March 2007, 06:19 AM	#3
tsvisser Lives for gear Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: NYC and HI Posts: 1,367	i don't have experience with your applications, but the Intel MBP or MB should be significantly faster than the G4 or G5 with universal applications. the only downside with the MBP is the relatively slow drives (compared to desktop options), so perhaps invest in an external SATA or FW800 RAID-0 drive to keep that from becoming a bottleneck.

21st March 2007, 01:07 PM	#4
statikcat Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: USA - Indiana Posts: 799	If you dont care about the difference between a desktop and a laptop then go MBP. It smokes.. you can get an internal 7200 drive. Of course you also have firewire 400/800 and an expresscard slot that can be expanded with more firewire or Esata for ext hard drives.

22nd March 2007, 12:50 PM	#6
6strings Lives for gear Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: New England Posts: 1,199	One great thing about a tower is redundancy. You can have: -two monitors -two hard drives -multiple memory sticks (RAM) It's fairly easy for a user to swap out an optical drive, graphics card, whatever. If any one component of a laptop fails (or you drop it or spill a hot coffee all over it), you are S.O.L. until it gets repaired... Plus there's the paranoia that goes along with carting dongles around with a laptop... Obviously, I prefer a laptop for field work or non-critical duties. I'd keep the G4 laptop (I have one as well) and get a Mac Pro (hang on a couple more weeks for 8 core models - or the corresponding price drop on current quads).

22nd March 2007, 01:15 PM	#7
statikcat Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: USA - Indiana Posts: 799	A few things reguarding the above post: The 17" MBP screen is 1680x1050! That is huge for that size. This means you can dual monitor it with almost any 20.1" WS and have two screens with the same screen space. It works very well infact I do it often. The 17" MBP can have 3GB of RAM which should be plenty or more than enough for most. Good points above though. I will also add a Mac with an Intel processor simply has a longer life span. I have a feeling in 3-4 years a G5 will be worth squat and the MBP will still retain a good value.