older powerbooks better, bandwidth spec critical for audio Options

[brownboy]

this page documents tests done on the 400/500mhz g4 powerbooks vs the newer 550/667mhz g4 powerbooks that find that logic runs FAR BETTER on the older powerbooks because apparently, the bandwidth spec is better and allows for a greater number of realtime activities or something like that. i don't know much about computers. but this seems important! check this page:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/PowerBo...ake3.html#logic

someone out there please confirm or comment on this as i believe it concerns a great many of us.

tanks.

[prutulz]

seems strange....

anyone could confirm this?

[testaroza]

After reading that article a few months ago, I did testings of my own on a 667 vs. 500 PB under logic...and i'm sorry to report the 667 came in ahead with more platinumverbs than the 500, using identical settings on the same track and song for both.



I should be getting a new model 667 in a few days, with the 1mb L3 cache, I will perform new tests to see if the increased cache does increase plug-ins/ number of tracks. I'll keep u posted...

[brownboy]

hey thanks so much, testaroza. that really helps me out. been tripping on this for a month!!! and i am looking forward to your new tests about the L3 cache, whatever that means. how did you get your hands on both powerbooks? you seem to know about computers. can you see any reason why information like this would be so 'professionally' published if its not true??? educate me if you will on this bandwidth stuff, if you don't mind. and make sure to keep me updated on your experiments. i need a triple confirmation on this one. thanks again.

(i breathe a sigh of relief)
brownboy

[testaroza]

well i had to turn in my 667 not long ago to Applecare because of dead pixels, and they borrowed me a 500 because it was going to take several weeks to fix the screen. Since all my music tracks, samples, and logic files are on an external firewire hard drive, I was able to proceed with these 'experimentations'.

Anyways, the basic argument of that article is that the 400/500 series was better suited for plugins than the 550/667 series, because the old series titaniums used 1mb of L2 cache vs. 256ko of L2 cache for the 550/667 series.

Although the 400/500 series had more L2 cache than the later models....the fact is the 667 was still superior to the 500mhz in my testings... probably due to the extra 167mhz.

The results that they got in that article could differ for a number of reasons, i have got no final answer to give you other than my personal experience with both.

Now in case you didn't know, the brand new 667/800 series is using a new type of motorola processor (the 7455 ) as well as having an extra 1mb of L3 cache. Therefore it will be interesting to see, comparing an old 667 to a new one, what the extra cache will do...more info later...

[brownboy]

ok! this is getting interesting. great to have all this info. thanks again testaroza. (nice car). i thought all this testing shit was based on the bandwidth spec not the cache size. but whatever! you're using a firewire hard drive? which one? i've heard about this oxford 911 chipset that makes firewire drives work better for audio and video. is this true? what makes should i consider? i'm planning this 24/96 setup with the hammerfall multiface cardbus, the powerbook, and maybe motu microexpress for midi and SMPTE, i do filmwork. i'll also need a harddrive. and maybe an external cd writer, cause i'm not sure if the one included on the powerbook will cut it. does this seem reasonalble and professional enough to you? do you use USB for midi? is USB reliable for midi timing and syncing? also, u think i need a external cd writer for backups?

ok sorry i'm burdening you with too many questions! all your help is greatly appreciated. keep me posted!

[lepetitmartien]

Mr brownboy, it'll help everyone in this community to try to stay as much as possible on one topic, as the question you ask are quite interesting for other people not reading this particular thread… Express yourself

BEGIN OTHERS!

I'm too lazy tonight to do so (rather good restaurant, need time to recover

So one topic on Firewire, one on USB specifics and one on the CD writer…

GO!

Mr Brownboy, you know your mission if you accept it

[lepetitmartien]

For the firewire experiment, someone else began the thread here :

http://www.macmusic.org/forums/topic.cgi?f...rum=1&topic=635

[brownboy]

ok sure, mr. lepetitmartien.