G5 With Ibm Chips Options

[petra]

Hi,

I'm getting ready to buy a new computer for my future studio. After emailing, posting messages in forums, long considerations etc. it looks like I will go in the direction of a PC.

Why? I talked to an employee of Apple, and he told me that if I buy a G4 today, I should be ready to sell it when new processors come out at the end of 2003.

I wanted to ask Mac users, what do you think about this new, what I think they call "G5" and what is it going to mean for you? Will your current software and recording hardware work with the G5?

Also, how is Cubase SX with OSX?

Please elnighten me, I might still change my mind and go Mac if it makes sense.

Petra

[lepetitmartien]

I think that I secretly want to go in the direction of Mac

One of Us One of Us One of Us

BUT the price is an issue, unless I keep the Mac for 5 years. Would I do the same with a PC? I don't know.

Obsolescence is to view this way : what you can do now, you'll can do still in 5 years. With the computers you'll have by then it'll be possible to do much more, but you can still use the old one for the same thing as today. I use for work (graphic design) a computer 5 years old, I want a new one, but I can still work The only trade off is at some time you'll have to give up the updates as they won't fit on your computer. usually, it's more than 5 years for the buying.
Obsolescence on PCs as far as I know is a different thing. People (well the ones who go for it) use to upgrade their pc bits by bits until nothing can be bettered on the motherboard, or the new software (softs or systems) don't run on it anymore. On the mac, save ram, disks, maybe a processors card or a new garphic card, you can't rebuild the computer from the ground up. The advantage : it works as the choices are few and usually well tested. The drawback: finetunig to the limits is limited, but you don't meddle with the inners too much.

1. Mac users. Exactly what kind of Macintosh/sound card/software combination are you using? What are the minimum recommended requirements for the computer to be a stable, reliable music machine?
(I do need Midi, so PT LE by itself is probably not good enough for me. It looks like Logic is. )

A good combo now is a double G4, PCI or Firewire I/O card (PC need Soudcards, on mac only I/O-DSP cards, we have already Sound on the motherboard, we need only more power/quality), lots of ram, (more than 512), SCSI HD (fast ones)
You can do with less… depends your need/budget.
Some USB interfaces are really good, if you need only 1 or 2 inputs at a time, it's great. (more on other threads)

My dream computer? a 4X G4/G5, 6 PCI, 2 AGP, Firewire 2, USB 2.
the low end mac have plenty of power for small setup/budget. You can't run 52457 zillions of plugins/virtual instruments (we want big badder fasters powerPCs NOW but it's not the number of them that makes your music anyway.