Pc To Mac - Music Production, What do I need? Options

[fateshand]

I'm a P.C. user and have been all of my life. I am switching to make as I trying to start a company that will create music for its clients commercials, movies, etc.

Like I said, "I dont know MAC." If I were to get a Powerbook 15.2 in. with a 1.25G processor, 512RAM which I would plan to upgrade to 1G, and a 60Gig harddrive, would this be able to handle my music production needs.

Also, it appears that the M-audio Firewire 410 is not the first choice of audio interface, so what would be an alternative for a notebook.

Thanks a lot,

Gavin

[nate d]

Yes, he means a completely separate drive besides the one that comes internally with the powerbook (also, the one that comes with it is not firewire...firewire is an external port, kinda like USB). As for recommendations, it's cheaper to buy an External Firewire enclosure, which is basically an empty box with a firewire port on it. You can buy a regular 3.5" hard drive, (7200RPM recommended, that's how fast it spins) and put it inside the enclosure. I recommend Western Digital or Maxtor hard drives. Put the hard drive in the enclosure, plug the enclosure into your powerbook, and voila! Instant firewire hard drive!

The enclosure can cost as low as $40 and hard drive prices vary with size. I try to shop around at Pricewatch.

As to buy the more expensive and more powerful Powerbook: If you're working on a tight budget like I am ($30k/year for school), I would recommend the 1Ghz machine. It's what I have, and it's pretty amazing at how much it can handle. You'll want to pump up the amount of RAM in it as much as you can (I have 768MB in mine and it runs well, although the more you add the more you can do!). Along with the external firewire drive, you'll have a nice little machine!

Good luck!