Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

440 Forums _ Mac PowerPC _ Powermac G4 Dp Vs Ibook

Posted by: mariuo Mon 24 Jul 2006, 05:48

hi there. im thinking about changing my ibook for a powermac g4 1ghz dp. i'll be multi-rec now so im thinking that my ibook wont be able to handle it. thing is though i dunno if this powermac im looking at will can you guys help me out? should i stay with my ibook or should i switch to a powermac g4 dp? thanks. ill be using a tapco blend 16 and an mbox1 as well. my ibooks specs are: 1.33ghz 60gb HD and 1.5gbRAM, the powermac im looking at is pretty much the same except for the processor speed which is 1ghz but dual. thanks you guys, sorry if this may seem a no brainer to some of you guys kind of a newb

Posted by: deaconblue Tue 25 Jul 2006, 12:59

mariuo,

The PowerMac 1Ghz DP will work for you as a bit of a step up over the iBook. The iBook is portable, but the PowerMac, even though it is of a much older lineage at this point, has a faster system bus, faster hard drives (unless you have upgraded your stock one), more expandability and is capable of holding a larger amount of RAM.

If it were me, I'd go for the swap. Just from expandability perspective (i.e., adding a new larger hard drive for nothing but my audio output).

peace.

Posted by: minskybabs Tue 25 Jul 2006, 17:09

THe powermacs are very upgradeable and you can have multiple hardrives and lots of connections, eg firewire 400 (sometimes Firewire 800?) and USB and sometimes USB 2 depends on the model. Check your connections, check your hardrive (at least 7200 Rpm this is the speed) most people want a seperate fast hard drive for audio, Powermacs can have this. You need loads (as much as possible) of RAM and a big hard drive and probably a firewire interface to have loads of channels. Powermacs can also have PCI sound interfaces so as long as the powermac does what you need, it should be good.

Obviously the ibook is more portable!! if you don't need to move around that is not a factor though! Check the video connector is compatible with the monitor you want. Otherwise they sound fairly similar.
Minskybabs.

Posted by: mariuo Thu 27 Jul 2006, 10:15

thanks alot guys i've decided to switch to the powermac. well now i have another dilemna. i now have the choice of either a powermac g4 1ghz quicksilver dp, and a powermac g4 mirrored door drive 1.25ghz. i'd like the mirrored door drive but the 1hgz is way cheaper. is their a big difference between the 1.25MDD to the 1ghz quicksilver? specs are pretty much the same. help

Posted by: deaconblue Fri 28 Jul 2006, 14:28

Hey Maurio,

For a full list of features on the Mac line, check out http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10816. This is a freeware utility that gives you the specs on all current Mac models and may help make your descisions easier. The MDD has an extra optical drive (or slot depending on original config). But not that many more differences between the two platforms. The MDD is 512MB of extra RAM capable for a total of 2GB. With MacTracker you can do side by side comparisons.

I hope that helps out.

peace

Posted by: Jim Hoyland Sun 30 Jul 2006, 22:11

You should be aware that the MDD models are EXTREMELY noisy. I've got a couple that have been fine for video editing but we've decided to swap them to studio use. There was a free PSU exchange program from Apple in 2003, but other than that we're looking to buy the Verax cooling kit:

http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://www.verax.de/verax.php?SID=2498944cd1fa09c995&template=catalog_group&groupid=21

which is about £180 per computer. Without this (or something similar - like a sealed / cooled rack) the machines are pretty much unusable for serious music production IMHO.

Posted by: rickenbacker Mon 31 Jul 2006, 09:33

Tell me about it. I had a MDD PowerMac and eventually built a wooden box to house it, lined with soundproof material, and with a SilentPC fan on the back to extract the heat. Great computer, though. Just not in the same room as your mics.

FWIW, my wooden box idea cost a lot less than £180 for a fan upgrade that honestly won't make as much difference. I also had the Apple fan replacement kit, which didn't do a lot.