Firewire and USB

Question

In my process of researching to buy a new Intel Macbook I've discovered that there is only one firewire port, two USB 2.0 ports, and no pcmcia port.
Here's my problem. This laptop will replace my old powerbook that I use for recording audio. I need one bus for audio to enter the laptop and one bus to access my external hard drive to write the audio. I currently have a firewire bus card in the pcmcia slot and use the firewire port for the other bus on my powerbook. This optimizes the amount of data that Logic can process. My worries with the new macbook is that USB 2 is typically slower than firewire. So using the firewire and USB 2.0 ports may slow me down. I know the old powerbooks with USB 2.0 had issues with the USB 2.0 bus being really slow compared to PCs. Was this problem ever fixed? Does anyone have any experience with this or any suggestions? I know I could just buy a macbook pro, but I really didn't want to spend that much money.

Answer 1

Actually there's more than just another FW port. It's a FW800 port, ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, faster and better GPU with more VRAM, faster CPU, more RAM, bigger hard drive, and higher resolution screen.
You're buying a business computer. That means you are making an investment. You can write off the investment which reduces taxes. Doesn't it make better sense to be dollar wise rather than penny foolish? Over a three year write-off period you're bartering over $250 per year.
The MacBook has no expansion future whereas the MacBook Pro does.
However, this is ultimately your decision. All I wanted to do was point out the benefits of the MBP over the MB. I should probably stop here lest I sound like I'm making a sales pitch - which I'm not. I own a MacBook and two MBPs. I like them both.
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