Hi folks,
In regard to machine speed, is buying THE fastest Tibook going to give me a noticeable performance improvement?
I think that there is about a $400 difference between the fastest machine out there and the second fastest, and I was wanting to know if the extra money is well spent.

Am I going to want to get a Gig of RAM or is less than this quite OK?
I know RAM is quite cheap now, but I am wanting to more know if a lot of RAM is a big help or not.

Thanks,
charlie

No, RAM is not the most important thing (unless when working with soft sound modules such as Kontakt which uses RAM... but which should get upgraded in a few months so that it will use streaming as most sound modules actually do). Processor speed and HD access is more important.
I'm personnaly working with 512M without any troubles (PT,DP, Reason, lots of plugs, Kontakt, Plugsounds,...).
RAM is basically used to make your applications+OS run... To get my point, just take a look in any Mac's "About this Computer" menu (open different app. before checking).
The OS generally takes between 60 to 100RAM depending on what applications are opened and what OS is being used, audio apps generally take around 50 to 80(already a lot) RAM and their engine (PT's DAE for example) takes about the same.
Now, if you need to have lots of apps opened at the same time 1GHz could be helpful.
Hope that helped

I'm running an 800 mhz powerbook with 1 gig ram. What I like about the gig is that I can leave open mail, chimera, icq etc. without having to worry about performance loss -at all-. Of course, could be the same with 512, but I got the extra 512 for free

Thanks guys.
So 512MG of RAM would be sufficient but 1 gig would not at all hurt.
And, since neither one of you mentioned it, machine speed, say between 800 Mgz and 1GHz should also not make any noticeable difference?

Thanks to everyone on this list that has been so helpful to me over the last several weeks.

I wish you all the best in the coming year.

And I hope that you give the world some beautiful music.

Regards,
charlie

in my case that's the sore point of someone who got the top of the line model of the previous generation (800 mhz) and sees the cool new stuff the new ones have. I don't want to read reviews and speed comparisons with the 1 ghz model, since I won't buy another Powerbook until they hit the second G5 model or something.

Hi filarion,
Are you saying that you think the difference between 800 MHz and 1 GHz makes a difference in what you are doing? If so, I would love to know more about this.

If you are not planning on buying again until machines run at 5GHs, are you figuring that this will take more than two or three years at the most?

not 5 ghz, the G5 processor that will replace the current G4 processors in most macs. That should happen in about one to one and a half years for the powerbook I assume. I usually try to use my hardware to it's fullest for 2.5-3 years.

I haven't hit performance walls with my powerbook yet - and for that matter, a friend using a 400 mhz Powerbook only rarely has either.

The new 1 ghz Powerbook looks to be a lot nicer than the 800 mhz model, because you can burn DVDs on it and it has more video memory. however, I'm -very- happy with my 800 mhz pb, that's just geeky enthusiasm for new tech speaking

Of course processor speed makes a difference...
Let me quote myself (kinda weird...) :
"Processor speed and HD access is more important".
A fast processor (and fast HD: IDE 7200 rpm minimum, SCSI 7200/10000 rpm) will increase your plugs count and improve general processing of your mac (editing, display, play/Rec/Stop, ...).
More RAM won't...

well - stuff like prebuffering huge files, editing huge files, software samplers etc. will all benefit from more ram, duh. thing is that without the fast hd that doesn't do you any good either.