Buying Guide Options

[Schack]

Hey all!

I currently own a 12" PB G4 1.5 gHz and a Dual 1 gHz MDD G4. I use the laptop for sketches and small looping based recordings on the go and the PowerMac for larger ProTools/Logic songs/projects at home.

However, my PowerMac keeps going into standby mode, and there's nothing I can do about it. I've flashed the PRAM, changed battery on the PMU, reinstalled the OS and nothing seems to help... I can work on it, but there's no telling when it falls asleep, and it really stifles the creative flow:-)

Therefore, I'm tempted to go out and buy a new mac. I'm thinking the new iMac looks sweet, but I have a couple of questions that I hope you might be able to help me with.

I won't be working on very big arrangements at home, I'll go to a studio for that. But I want to able to work with medium-sized projects and a fair amount of plugs/insts. Is this possible with the iMac, you'd have to run the song from a FWHD, right?

Also, if I want to run ProTools, it'd have to be through Rosetta and how does this perform? Would I be able to run medium-sized projects even though it's slower than the native version?

I'm trying to find out whether it's better to stick with the MDD for now and wait for the native version of PT or if should just buy the damn thing and run PT emulated. 'Tis hard to decide

Any help is greatly appreciated,
Schack

[lepetitmartien]

The intel macs have already had some minor tweaks to care of some issues (Apple repairs the "old" un-tweaked ones) but if you can wait a little, there may be either better prices or better CPUs in them (pin to pin compatible so only the CPU will change).

As you work with it and you have issues with the MDD, I'd say wait on the macintel till it is cleared, try to grab a second hand G5 instead maybe (not the dual core ones, nor the single 1.8 mkII) or an iMac G5. Personally, I'd wait till PT road is cleared and jump this fall on intel.

On the standby issue, is your firmware up to date?