Cpu Or Hard Drive Speed?, Trouble w/ Logic Options

[whickus]

I love using Logic, but I'm having trouble with it lately. When doing projects in 24bit/96KHz with about 3 audio tracks and 5 instrument tracks my Audio meter (on the Logic system performance gauge) goes into the red, but the CPU meter is at less than half. About half the time it'll actually overload and stop. Here's my setup:

Dual 867 G4, OS 10.3.5, 768MB ram, Logic Big Box 5.5, seperate 7200 rpm 40GB ATA/100 hard drive for audio files.

I know Logic Big Box (same as Logic Express) does not take advantage of dual processors, but it seems like a single 867 G4 should be able to handle more than 3 audio tracks and a couple instruments.

My question is: Is my problem the hard drive or CPU or something else? Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks for any help.

[whickus]

Hey, thanks alot lepetitmartien!

As soon as I opened Disk Utility last night, I saw the Journaling options. My Projects HD already had Journaling Disabled, but after Repairing Permissions, I noticed the load was a little lighter. Still, the fact that I have a DP machine and not be able to use them both for the apps that count is a little discouraging.

I just have one more question then I'll be off you're back:

I'm going back to school and knowing I'm really only using a single 867 G4 (with Logic at least), I'm seriously considering selling my PMac and buying an iBook 1GHz G4. The new iBook specs seem to be really similar to my PowerMac. I've weighed the pros and cons and here's what I came up with:

Pros of iBook
-1 GHz G4
-portability
-wireless 802.11G
-internal Bluetooth
-USB 2.0
-maxes out to more RAM than I currently have

Cons of iBook
-no level 3 cache
-slow hard drive speed

Bus speeds are the same on both machines and I'd also upgrade the hard drive to 60GB. So my question is: What kind of performance can I expect out of Logic Express on an iBook with these stats?

Thanks again for your help