What Mac To Buy?, I am wondering if a quad intel is necessary or whether a dual g5 can c Options

[JonRaven]

Hello there,

first time visiter, first time poster here...

I am currently using a powerbook 1.25 and I want to move into the ability to use some robust virtual instruments like toon track's "ezdrummer" and spek's "atmosphere", along with interested in the new east west quantum leap app called "gypsy" and the like.

My powerbook just wont cut it of course so I am thinking about getting a desktop mac.

Can anyone tell me from real world knowledge whether I could do everything I want with a used dual g5 or whether I really need to bite the bullet and get the new quad 2.66 intel?

I know ram is a big thing so I will upgrade either machine wiith atleast 4 gig ram.

I will be looking to do realistic backing tracks for my songs with virtual instruments and then adding say 16 tracks of audio tracks as well to the track.

Any ideas? Of course the music stores and the mac store are just out to sell the newest greatest of everything so you can't really get any honest opinions based on personal experience so I came here.

Can anyone discuss this with me?

Thanks and glad to be part of the group.

[lepetitmartien]

I think the most important point is to decide if you want to move the software update road or not… Check what you are using that you have already in UB or not.

If you lack in the UB department, maybe a G5 or 2 would be better. If not… Now, I personally lack of much feedback from Mac Pro users, the only one I know has more issues than with the G5 he had before. The question is, is it a special case or common situation? I don't know. I've found my brand new refurbished macbook to be prone to more little hiccups than my first gen G5 on day to day non music use, and I'm a monster at maintenance and stability. So I'm in doubt for the time being.

[JonRaven]

Yes that is a very valid point my friend. As for the software road... I don't really have much alreayd so I would have to purchase the virtual instruments I want to use anyways. I currently own protools 6.7x and logic pro 7 so I will have to see if they are UB but either way,... I am looking to christmas gifts for the software I need either way. right now I am just trying to see what machine would do what I need it to more smoothly.

Now on an updated note to my story and research.

My company that I do web design for during the day while not doing music... uggg day job... anyways... sorry for the side track of sorrow haha. Just purchased a quad intel 2.66 and actually splurged and added 10 gigs...yes you heard me...10 gigs of ram to it. They have a pretty impressive 30" apple screen too.

Anyways... so today upon my suprise we had one... I went into the "video suite" room where it found it's new home. I took the ezdrummer installer disk I recently purchased for my new system and I sat down at the impressive screen. I popped the disc in and beyond my belief... I waited 10 minutes for it to install without it completing. Now I thought...oh wait it might not be binary... but I checked and yes it is... so why wouldn't it install after oooh so long? I waited a while longer and then eventually gave up. It just worried me... cause yeah they say this machine should be lightning fast and here it is loaded with way more ram then I could ever put in mine if I bought one... and it still was sort of not noticeably lightning?

Any thoughts? i am looking for a quad intel owner out ther to tell me their actual real world sequencing and recording experience with their machine... and then also... older g5 dual 2 and above owners with their thoughts.. so that we can all decide whether the price of the quad intel makes any sense for now... or for another year for that matter.

Thanks so much.

I think the most important point is to decide if you want to move the software update road or not… Check what you are using that you have already in UB or not.

If you lack in the UB department, maybe a G5 or 2 would be better. If not… Now, I personally lack of much feedback from Mac Pro users, the only one I know has more issues than with the G5 he had before. The question is, is it a special case or common situation? I don't know. I've found my brand new refurbished macbook to be prone to more little hiccups than my first gen G5 on day to day non music use, and I'm a monster at maintenance and stability. So I'm in doubt for the time being.