hi Max, i run carrara on a beige G3 (266Mhz, 384MB ram) it's not blazin' fast, but it gets the job done. as far as optomizing the computer for carrara... buy as much ram as you can afford. a 256MB chip for your powerbook should only cost about $75. it's well worth it. then set virtual memory to be 1MB above the actual amount of physical ram you have. this is the spec that apple recommends, but you might want to experiment with what yields the fastest speed on your particular machine. next turn off all the fluffy graphics stuff in carrara's preferences. things like UI animtions, window shadows, show logo, desktop pattern and gradient, and dim desktop for dialog. all these things take ram, and only add eye candy to the interface. if you really want to speed things up, make a set of extensions in your "Extensions Manager" control panel that only turns on the minimum number of extensions necessary to use carrara and say, photoshop. by doing this, when you restart, you only load a portion of the system into memory, freeing up that precious physical ram for carrara. i would drop some dough for a cheap video card and a second monitor (even if it is small) for your desktop when you upgrade. it makes a big difference to put the sequencer on another monitor, freeing up enough room to see your work window and the properties window open at the same time. -scott