The new Macbook Pro 2.44 Ghz as DAW! Limitations

Perhaps all of you people may not be experts for Mac, but I am not one myself. I've always been using desktop PCs up to now with Sonar until I decided to take up a MAC Book to help me in some recording and  musical work I do outside home....But I am now commited to buy one model that may not be convenient for the task.....Could you help me evaluate this model? I am going to take the Macbook Pro 2.44Gh 13 inch model:
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB 250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm None None SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html

http://www.macworld.com/r...24ghz_spring_2010.html

I've just found out after commiting to buy it that it has a hard drive of 5400 RPM which may not be quite convenient for audio recording and music DAWS like Cubase or Logic Studio......

Can I get some advice from you people...Do i cancel the order? (A bit difficult at this point with downpayment already done!) Can this Macbook become a good DAW or not? Thanks in advance for the help!

I am not taking a Windows laptop because I have a firewire soundcard (Profire 610)...And I know these cards work better with a MAC...I hear so many people having issues with Firewire soundcard connected with Windows laptops.....On the other hand most users say Mac offer more stable system for audio recording.....I'd like to try one to see how it goes....

I'm in the same boat and was about to post a similar question!

My mobile rig (Lenovo SL500) is wonderful, except for the damn firewire port. No matter what I try (and I have even disabled the DVD by now) , I can not get my two Yamaha i88X units to behave 100% properly. There's always the risk of dropouts, whether tracking 1 or 48 tracks. I just spent an entire week struggling with that on a film set.

So I'm looking at a MacBook as well. As far as I know, one should preferably record to an external drive anyways (even on Mac), and it should be 7200rpm or faster, from my experience in PC. Internal should be for OS only, in which case 5400 should be fine.

I know it now Scott, but I didn't when I bought the thing! :O) What can you recommend Scott? I don't need much processing, just good data flow for up to 32 tracks 24/48k.

I bought an off the shelf Dell 1720. It has a 7200 rpm drive and my firewire works perfectly with it. Brand new...at the time (3 yrs past) it was $1200 +/-.... it works fine and I use it every day.... when I record.

I'm building a DAW... for desk top use.... another story....

If you buy a MAC... you still have to partition it and pop in a Windows OS...and all the problems that Windows has will be right there with you in the Mac....assuming you want to run Sonar.

hat

google "pro audio laptops" or http://www.cakewalk.com/P...e/Buy.aspx?Type=Laptop and it aint the HP....

jcschild


google "pro audio laptops"

or http://www.cakewalk.com/PCResource/Buy.aspx?Type=Laptop

and it aint the HP....

The Lenovo laptop that Cakewalk lists is not even as powerful as mine - but I see they point out that one needs an add-on firewire card. I can not for the life om me get even Lenovo in South Africa to sell me a TI firewire card. They go HUH? and that's the end of the conversation. Would mine (SL500) have the same architecture as the Ideapad listed? And where to find the correct card then..

LJB


I'm in the same boat and was about to post a similar question!

My mobile rig (Lenovo SL500) is wonderful, except for the damn firewire port. No matter what I try (and I have even disabled the DVD by now) , I can not get my two Yamaha i88X units to behave 100% properly. There's always the risk of dropouts, whether tracking 1 or 48 tracks. I just spent an entire week struggling with that on a film set.

So I'm looking at a MacBook as well. As far as I know, one should preferably record to an external drive anyways (even on Mac), and it should be 7200rpm or faster, from my experience in PC. Internal should be for OS only, in which case 5400 should be fine.

Just out of curiosity,  have you tried disabling Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery?  It did wonders for my laptop.Dropped my dpc latency from under 1000,  to around 300 with just that one tweak.    However,  I avoid firewire like the plague (too many hoops to jump through for it),  so it may be irrelevant to your situation.  And yeah, a  macbook is a good way to go.  You get the very nice and well designed apple hardware,  can run all your windows software  natively under boot camp,  and all of the mac stuff.  Best of all worlds IMVHO.  Im often tempted myself  but I dont really need it at all. 

to the op :
don't stress on the hdd , nowdayz 5400 rpm hdd are fast as old 7200 !!

you can also upgrade when you have time and money to an sdd , huge upgrade then .... oh yeah and less noise and consumption (even the 5400 vs 7200  : less noise and consumption)