Powerbook G4 1Ghz?

orge · Post by **orge** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 3:34 am

Hi,

I'm trying to run ableton (5.2) on the following system:
15" Powerbook G4 1Ghz 512MB (TiBook)
M-Audio Firewire 410
Music is (mostly) stored on a Firewire Enclosure with the original 2.5" drive, which isn't very fast.

It's really struggling with anything other than a couple of clips playing (and sometimes with just that). I'm prepared to accept that this system just isn't up to it, but I would like to know if anyone out there is having positive experiences with a similar setup?

I'm considering upgrading the RAM (1GB) and moving some of the music from my external drive, but I don't want to waste my time/money if it's not going to make a difference.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

James

mechcon · Post by **mechcon** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 5:33 am

first things first, max the ram out as much as possible, and make sure you have os 10.4 (tiger) w/ latest updates.

other than that it should be fine.

Atomikat · Post by **Atomikat** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 5:56 am

Well, I used to run ableton in an iBook,G4,1Ghz,512Mb, with a Firewire 410 and external Firewire LaCie (160Gb) and never had problems...I could run more than a couple clips,effects,rewire,etc.

thelike5 · Post by **thelike5** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:16 am

Yes, for the one millonth time, the more ram you have the better your machine will run plug in effects, vstis, and photoshop...

Oh yeah, it also helps to eat three square meals a day, to brush your teeth a few times as well, open doors for old ladies, don't forget to empty your cats litter, lock your doors, show up for work on time, call your folks every once in awhile, look both ways wbefore crossing the street... ... ...

orge · Post by **orge** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 3:19 pm

Ok. It seems like there's a consensus that this laptop should be able to cope, but that it would definitely benefit from more RAM.

To be fair, it's probably not running as snappily as it used to a year or two back. So I'm thinking a clean install and tidy up may breath a bit more life back into it as well.

Cheers for the replies guys.

J

[EDIT]
Just had a go with playing clips solely from the internal hd and it was MUCH smoother - 6 clips were only registering about 25% on the CPU... It seems the firewire bus was getting jammed up with reading from the hd and writing out to the 410. I think some reorganisation and RAM should definitely do the trick.

Thanks again,

J
[/EDIT]

ultrasource · Post by **ultrasource** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:22 pm

that's my exact system and the same symptoms. using built in disk rather than fw and everything seems to be okay - relatively. I only work in session view on mine though because the whole arrange view is painfully slow on my powerbook. i'm extremely jealous watching Live work on macintels.

orge · Post by **orge** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 8:26 pm

ultrasource wrote:that's my exact system and the same symptoms. using built in disk rather than fw and everything seems to be okay - relatively. I only work in session view on mine though because the whole arrange view is painfully slow on my powerbook. i'm extremely jealous watching Live work on macintels.

I feel your pain!

It's a shame, as I don't really have any other reasons to upgrade - it's not the quickest machine, but it's still pretty ok for most things. I was hoping that the additiion of a decent desktop (imac/powermac) would be enough to cope with the occasions when the powerbook ran out of juice (photoshop/digital photos etc). However, I'm sure I'm going to want a faster portable for those occasions when I want to play out with Ableton...

J

Meditonal · Post by **Meditonal** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:36 am

If you've never re-formatted you might gain considerable performance back by re-installing your OS. Just be sure when you re-install that you customize the install and leave out all the localized files and languages and printer drivers and other stuff you don't need.

orge · Post by **orge** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:38 pm

I've done the customised install in the past, so my OS is streamlined. However, I'm under no illusions that 3-4 years of bit torrent has probably bollocksed the fragmentation of my hd!!

(Even though OS X is supposed to handle that itself)

J

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:39 pm

RAM. Especially with 10.4.

My little 1.33GHz iBook choked with 512MB, and is a completely different machine with 1GB.

sonsofthehounds · Post by **sonsofthehounds** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:42 pm

sorry to say this, but to improve performance you might have to get a new soundcard....the os x drivers are shite for the 410....I got rid of mine...got a 2nd hand motu 828 for bout £200....way better, doesn't crush the system outputting to a soundcard.

I have a gig ram also....it makes a huge difference also but I'm pretty sure the 410 is the root of those bad performance issues.