Is It Worth Switching To Mac?, Will a 1GHz iBook G4 handle it? Options

[Skylit]

Hello everyone,

I've been using Emagic Logic on PC for years, and now am absolutely used to it. However, as it is now owned by Apple and future support has been limited to Mac only, I find myself at a really stupid situation (and I guess many Windows Logic users are)...

I need to get myself a laptop (moving abroad for a while), but can't decide which way should I go. I'm on a really limited budget, and I have only two options available:

1. Get a 14" iBook G4 1 GHz (or 1.2 GHz at most) with 256 MB RAM, and continue working with Logic.
2. Get a Portable 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP 2400+ with 512 MB RAM and switch to a different sequencer (Cubase SX perhaps).

I can't decide on this, and this dilemma has been killing me for the last couple of months. I've thought of many variants. These two choices are all I can afford at the moment. I would like to save for a better Mac, but I simply can't.

Keep in mind that I mostly use soft-synths and plug-ins. Only vocals are audio tracks. I don't mind "freezing" tracks time to time, but I wonder if a 1 GHz G4 iBook would be a wise choice in my case?

I want to stay with Logic, I need power, and I need it to be portable. And I'm on a budget.

What would you suggest?
I thank you all in advance!

[torsion]

Skylit - I've never used Logic on a 1ghz Mac, so I can't really tell you what to expect. All I can tell you is that on my G4/400mhz I can easily use the number of tracks and effects you mention - that's IF I make use of the Freeze function.

Without Freeze, it will sometimes max out even if I only use half that number of tracks/effects. The point at which the system stops playing varies according to the complexity of the effects and instruments I'm using.

But using Freeze is no big deal, just a minor inconvenience. It makes the difference between me being able to use Logic and not being able to use it, so I'm not complaining.

(Of course, on my G5 at work, it runs like a dream! )

Perhaps someone with a 1ghz iBook or similar can enlighten us as to how this performs with Logic 6?