In search of the right Laptop, I need to know the best! Options

[ch4methane]

Can anyone please tell me what is the best powerbook for audio production; G412'' or the 15''?

[ch4methane]

im thinking of getting an Mbox with protools LE!

[swilder]

figure out how much money you have and buy the most powerful computer you can afford. get alot of ram too. If you're gonna do alot of simultaneous tracks, an external firewire or usb2 hard drive will be on your list of nice things to have as well.

I would recommend against the mbox simply for the fact that it has no midi connections. Even though pro tools le is pretty cool, you're limited to 32 tracks. Although to be fair, a friend of mine swears by it because of the outstanding plug ins available for pro tools.

there are lots of 2 in / 2 out audio interfaces out there that include midi interfaces and that can be used with a much of the commercial software that's available for recording. M-audio, Tascam and Edirol spring to mind.

Scott

[ch4methane]

im set on mbox because i don't need midi connection for my fantom-s (its digital). i need to know if the 12'' powerbook is good enough. my budget is $5000.00. I also want to know is 250mb ram good enough? I do hip-hop/R&B so i mainly need vocal tracks.

[swilder]

I would recommend at least 512 Megs of Ram. The 12 inch is probably powerful enough. But there's no way I would be happy doing my production work on such a small screen. I use a 15" pbook and I still get frustrated by all the window toggling I have to do.

Scott

[Synthetic]

yeah the only difference between a 12" adn 15" is.... the size of screen... you can do everything on a 12" just the same as 15" and screen size is just a preference. The 17" IMHO is just way too big to haul around because of its size but 15" is more reasonable and 12" is super for portability. If the laptop was going to sit on one spot most of its life I would opt for the 17" though

[Jeff Pelletier]

Consider what YOU like!!!!!

However, I would go for the 15" or bigger. Yes, the bigger notebook is kind of a pain to tote around, but; Have you ever juggled edit, mix, and plug-in windows on 1 small monitor? IT SUCKS! (Having a dual display set-up myself). So yeah.....15"-17" is easier to work with.

Cheers!
-Jeff

[Nels]

Defintely the 15" or 17". Or if you're going to be toting your laptop around, you might consider hooking up an external monitor for when you work at home.

It doesn't have to be an Apple dislpay either. You can get a really nice 17" flat screen monitor now days for under $400. Just purchased a really nice 17" Qrium at MicroCenter for $329, which does the job very nicely. There's also Sony and Daewoo displays for just a bit more. And if you're wondering about connecting a non Apple display w/ a Mac, ...no problem! .... They now have adapters for that. Of course, with a $5,000 budget, you might just wanna go with the Apple, .....but why spend the extra $800, I say.

Good luck!

[deathless]

i believe the 12 powerbook has a max of 512 of ram, get the 15 inch. or check out the 14inch iBook G4, i love mine. holds 640 of DDR Ram

[bevlev]

The 12" PowerBook G4 has max of 1.25GBD RAM, not 512MB...it's portable, has the built-in SuperDrive (CD-DVD recorder) and run ProTools (mBox) w/no problems. However, I would recommend a minimum 512MB RAM for ProTools

It's a great machine - I have one and love it...