12" Ibook G4 W 1.25 Gb Ram, A workable setup for soft samplers? Options

[jofferman]

Hi everyone,

I'm considering to buy a 12" iBook G4 with maximum ram (1.25 GB) and Logic Express as a replacement for my current setup (an aging PC with 512 MB ram and Logic Silver 4.8).

My main worry is whether or not I will get any decent performance out of my software samplers (most importantly Garritan Personal Orchestra) on such a configuration. I don't mind having to freeze a bunch of tracks if I'm working on a big project (which, in my world, means 20+ tracks), but I do need to be able to run at least a handful of tracks in real-time.

Anyone have any experience with iBooks and soft samplers? I searched the forum a bit, but mostly got "PowerBooks are better than iBooks" - which I'm sure is true. Unfortunately, my budget doesn't really allow for a PB at the mo...

(I could get the 12" PB, but then I'd have to cut on the amount of RAM to stay within budget... more RAM is prolly a better idea )

thx,
Jim.

[jofferman]

I've delved through the Garritan forums quite extensively... the long and short of it is that iBook users on average seem to be able to play only 2-3 GPO instruments at a time, which simply isn't enough. A properly tuned 15" PowerBook can do 10+ instruments. At the moment, that would just do it for me... but I wonder for how long.

Plus a 15" PB loaded with RAM is mucho expensivo compared to a low end Power Mac loaded with even more RAM... like I said, mobility is important to me (I want/need to have access to my samples when I'm on stage), but so is the ability to play high quality samples without a fuzz. So, basically, I'll have to choose between having portable but fairly limited CPU power vs. carrying a G5 around to each and every gig...

Aaaargh! Where are those G5 PowerBooks when you need them?

[Btw. can someone please perform CPR on my finance guy... I think he just had a heart attack ]