new powerbook 867 g4 and Metro daw

[stringplucka]

Hello All .

in another post Jerm mentioned the limitations of the 4200 rpm hard drive in laptops . I am interested in the new powerbook g4 867 .
My question is how much does not having a 7200 rpm drive affect perfomance . would it possible to give an estimation of the track count that might be possible with this machine ? surely some count if small would be possible
I would be using maximum ram , a motu 828 firewire audio device and an external firewire hard drive (or two) with this machine . any forseeable problems caused by the through put here in the firewire cable or is this whole type of setup going against the grain of optimum daw.

there is I believe an ibm 5400 or 5200 rpm hard drive available for laptops . i wonder if the expense of the drive would justify the increase in performance it may achieve .

thanks David

[Scoot]

In OS9 (which I'm using...can't comment on OSX) the big problem is if you're recording onto the system disk everything gets bogged down. Since you're recording to external drives, your overall performance is greatly increased. Sounds like a good system with all your addons. Remember the PB12" doesn't have firewire 800 and has lower maximum ram.

[stringplucka]

yes I was aware of this issue which applies to desktops as well . it was just that Jerms reply on another post made it sound like the 867 was hobbled for daw
I will just have to try metro on my existing powerbook and see . powerbook firewire g3

I'd be grateful if you could post you machine/setup and any track count with plugins that you are achieving . especially if you are using g4 titanium which is kind of comparable to 867

regards David

[Scoot]

G4 450 original tower with a scsi card installed. Never maxed it out. Had about 12 stereo tracks easily.....(think they were stereo) and some basic reverb. Though with time on your side plugins can be recorded into the tracks to free up Mhz.

You have twice the Mhz with the PB12 so it should easily blow my system away. I think bus speed is around 100 like mine. no?

[Jerm]

G4 450 original tower with a scsi card installed. Never maxed it out. Had about 12 stereo tracks easily.....(think they were stereo) and some basic reverb. Though with time on your side plugins can be recorded into the tracks to free up Mhz.

You have twice the Mhz with the PB12 so it should easily blow my system away. I think bus speed is around 100 like mine. no?

This analysis in not quite correct. The main point is that 4200 RPM hard drives do not cut mustard. With an external 7200 RPM hard drive, the new powerbook systems should rock. I am presuming that Scooterman is running OS 9. OS X is even more demanding on your hard drive since it is a virtual memory system.

[Scoot]

>This analysis in not quite correct.

Which bit is wrong?

We are both running on non system disks.
Does OSX suffer from using virtual even on non sys disks?

Surely a 4200rpm system disk isn't going to matter if the audio is put somewhere else.

[Jerm]

Which bit is wrong?

We are both running on non system disks.
Does OSX suffer from using virtual even on non sys disks?

Surely a 4200rpm system disk isn't going to matter if the audio is put somewhere else.

True, the audio performance is dependent on the audio drive. However the VM system in the OS does page swaps (depending on free memory) and this can have a negative affect on a system with a slow disk.

[fastlanephil]

You better make sure your external HD is OSX bootable if your going to want that option. The Lacie d2 HDs will as i'm doing that as I write. My Lacie is fanless and very quiet. Also I believe the term is 'cut the muster', refering to military inspections that are called musters. Cut the mustard is more like cutting the cheese, refering to some of the tunes i've written.

[Jerm]

Also the I believe the term is 'cut the muster' ...

Also the I believe!