A friend is thinking off buying a powerbook pro 15.4 and he says he wants to start doing some music production. Since I know as much about macs as Paris Hilton knows how to act I wonder if you Apple munchers know if this would be a good buy
My personal opinion is it probably is not - but who knows
Yeah, I’d say leave it Man.
With Logic 9 coming out & Snow Leopard, pretty much everything changed overnight in the Mac world. They re-wrote everything. So from that POV… backwards compatibility with the older machines is much over now. L9 is not supposed to officially work with Non Intel - but I think it “sorta” does.
Those Powerbooks - or anything with a G in its name… are IBM chips. A 2nd Hand buyer looking to futureproof themselves a little bit would at least need to be getting something with an Intel Processor. Theres loads up for sale everywhere now 'cos they’re old tech now.
Saying that - Loads of Guys are probably still using them… and will be for years to come, undoubtably cos they’ve got a great workflow & can work well within the set limits. But everyone is upgrading & selling… LOADS of old Music Production & Graphic Design Mac’s up for sale now.
You’ll probably get away with Logic 8 on that Mac… and it’ll probably be running Tiger or even Leopard (the one before Snow Leopard - which is 64bit)… so it would be fine…
But it depends on how serious an issue performance is.
Lets face it, with all the different Synths & FX and Audio that he’s probably going to want going, he might appreciate a bit more power.
I dont really have experience of those Machines… but I’d say they have very small HD’s & RAM too from the ones that I’ve seen for sale recently.
[quote]ICN (27/07/2010)[hr]Yeah, I’d say leave it Man.
With Logic 9 coming out & Snow Leopard, pretty much everything changed overnight in the Mac world. They re-wrote everything. So from that POV… backwards compatibility with the older machines is much over now. L9 is not supposed to officially work with Non Intel - but I think it “sorta” does.
Those Powerbooks - or anything with a G in its name… areIBM chips. A2nd Hand buyer looking to futureproof themselves a little bit would at least need to be getting something with an Intel Processor. Theres loads up for sale everywhere now 'cos they’re old tech now.
Saying that - Loads of Guys are probably still using them… and will be for years to come, undoubtably cos they’ve got agreat workflow & can work well within the set limits. But everyone is upgrading & selling… LOADS of old Music Production & Graphic Design Mac’s up for sale now.
You’ll probably get away with Logic 8 on that Mac… and it’ll probably be running Tiger or even Leopard (the one before Snow Leopard - which is 64bit)… so it would be fine…
But it depends on how serious an issue performance is.
Lets face it, with all the different Synths & FX and Audio that he’s probably going to want going, he might appreciate a bit more power.
I dont really have experience of those Machines… but I’d say they have very small HD’s & RAM too from the ones that I’ve seen for sale recently.[/quote]
i know people running logic 9 and Snow leopard on the old G4 systems with no problems
Agree… But if it was me, I’d futureproof the inevitable by getting an early Intel at the very least.
So basically it would be a bad idea for him to go down that root - I think he does not trust me because of my bias
Cheers guys
Apple is well known for putting older machines on the “Obsolete” list. Apple will no longer support these configurations and no longer make software that support that hardware. I have a feeling that powerbooks are soon to be on this list.
Tell him to save his money and get a new machine.
mac mini supposed to be really good value for money if you want to get on mac platform and don’t need a laptop
[quote]seanl (27/07/2010)[hr]mac mini supposed to be really good value for money if you want to get on mac platform and don’t need a laptop[/quote]
Absolutely!!! That is one amazing machine yo!
Mac Mini is a fantastic machine.
Anyone here got a Mac Mini for sale? 
[quote]ICN (28/07/2010)[hr]Anyone here got a Mac Mini for sale? :D[/quote]
No, but I have a mini cat for the same price
Tell them to get a sick pc some monitors and software and still have some change left over, hey they may even decide they don’t like music production!
I’m waiting for the back lash lol
[quote]Mussi81 (29/07/2010)[hr]Tell them to get a sick pc some monitors and software and still have some change left over, hey they may even decide they don’t like music production!
I’m waiting for the back lash lol[/quote]
Well i told him i could build him a pc with a better spec at 2/3s of the price - but he said but i like macs sighs
I was a solid PC user for a long long time but switched to Macs when I switched jobs and I would never go back to PCs now.
I know you pay more for Mac hardware but I have found it’s been a lot more stable and hassle free than any PC I ever had was. And that includes ones made by mates of mine (who did know what they were doing) all the way up to out of the box, never modded at any time, PCs.
[quote]slender (29/07/2010)[hr][quote]Mussi81 (29/07/2010)[hr]Tell them to get a sick pc some monitors and software and still have some change left over, hey they may even decide they don’t like music production!
I’m waiting for the back lash lol[/quote]
Well i told him i could build him a pc with a better spec at 2/3s of the price - but he said but i like macs sighs[/quote]
IMHO, I would pay that extra third for a mac. To me, its a no brainer.
[quote]jonsloan (29/07/2010)[hr]I was a solid PC user for a long long time but switched to Macs when I switched jobs and I would never go back to PCs now.
I know you pay more for Mac hardware but I have found it’s been a lot more stable and hassle free than any PC I ever had was. And that includes ones made by mates of mine (who did know what they were doing) all the way up to out of the box, never modded at any time, PCs.[/quote]
my old pc used to give me all sorts of problems, but now i have a pretty decent one and i can honestly say it doesnt give me any issues. but then again thats probably because im not downloading loads of crap on to it.
if i had the money and/or they made them with high enough spec i would definetly get one:)
[quote]seanl (27/07/2010)[hr]mac mini supposed to be really good value for money if you want to get on mac platform and don’t need a laptop[/quote]
I had the mac mini but didn’t like it at all. Too much work, you need to buy a screen, keyboard, mouse.
Sold it and got a laptop. Better choice IMO.
I would agree on paying extra for a mac however. Very reliable systems.
[quote]saulable (31/07/2010)[hr][quote]seanl (27/07/2010)[hr]mac mini supposed to be really good value for money if you want to get on mac platform and don’t need a laptop[/quote]
I had the mac mini but didn’t like it at all. Too much work, you need to buy a screen, keyboard, mouse.
Sold it and got a laptop. Better choice IMO.
I would agree on paying extra for a mac however. Very reliable systems.[/quote]
lol I’ve got MBP and still use a monitor, mouse and keyboard 
So I guess it depends what you like or need really.
but I’m too all for Macs
[quote]seanl (01/08/2010)[hr][quote]saulable (31/07/2010)[hr][quote]seanl (27/07/2010)[hr]mac mini supposed to be really good value for money if you want to get on mac platform and don’t need a laptop[/quote]
I had the mac mini but didn’t like it at all. Too much work, you need to buy a screen, keyboard, mouse.
Sold it and got a laptop. Better choice IMO.
I would agree on paying extra for a mac however. Very reliable systems.[/quote]
lol I’ve got MBP and still use a monitor, mouse and keyboard
So I guess it depends what you like or need really.
but I’m too all for Macs
[/quote]
That’s a different matter though mate. I’d happily take a macpro but give me a mac mini and I’ll throw it out the window then proceed to spit on it’s remainder.
Why anyone would need a mac mini is beyond me, sorry. Get the macbook pro, or the iMac. Sweet.
[quote]howiegroove (29/07/2010)[hr][quote]slender (29/07/2010)[hr][quote]Mussi81 (29/07/2010)[hr]Tell them to get a sick pc some monitors and software and still have some change left over, hey they may even decide they don’t like music production!
I’m waiting for the back lash lol[/quote]
Well i told him i could build him a pc with a better spec at 2/3s of the price - but he said but i like macs sighs[/quote]
IMHO, I would pay that extra third for a mac. To me, its a no brainer.[/quote]
why?my last/most recent pc build is essentially a 6 core mac pro that runs win or OS X at a fraction of the price(understatement).