Getting Crazy, Help me decide Options

[sampoo]

Ok guys,

Be prepared for a long story

Lately i posted a lot of questions on several forums and i still don't know what to do.
Let me explain,
The PC in my studio needs replacement and at first i was considering buying a mac g4.
The main reason why i thought about switching from pc to the mac was that i had/have a lot of problems, my current pc is very instable and i'm tired of reinstalling the system to find out it fails again. I made up my mind and decided to buy a mac but when i checked if al needed software was available i found out that Aksys (for the Akai samplers) and the software for my Mackie UAD-1 isn't written for OSX. Since i would like to use Logic Platinum and Spark XL 2.8 i realy need to run OSX and no earlyer version like OS 9.x. ...... Bomber! After a bit of research i found out that updates will be available soon and i can use everything i want on the mac.

I posted many questions on this and several other forums about MAC vs. PC. (yes, i started a real MAC vs. PC war) I had many reply's of people who say that PC is better, ..MAC is better or both are fine. When i cal some local music shops most of them advise me a PC because they perform better they say, ... and they also say that when running Windows XP al problems are solved and it will run stable. Since i have an older PC running Win98 in my studio i don't know if they are right about this. I'm a sysadmin myself and i do know that i have a lot of work taking care of problems on W2k/XP running Microsoft applications ( i actualy think xp is not so great in a office/work enviromant). I realy don't know if this is any diffrent in a music enviroment so i only can take there word for it.

At the end of the story, ....... i still don't know what to do!
Should i choose a mac or pc? will xp run stable on a new PC or do i have the same problems after i spend a lot of money on new hardware? wil OSX run smooth? will OSX be supported in the future bij audio hardware and software manufactures? As far as i can see now everybody is taking a long time to write new software/drivers for OSX! Will OSX opens a new world and will mac become more populair for the music bussines? If i choose to buy a mac will the G4 be good or will it be better with the new CPU's apple is working on?

As you can see i have many questions witch makes it very difficult to choose between platforms.
If i new for shure that WinXP would never chrash i would choose PC but i just don't have that much faith in it. However other people do and thau confuse me.

Any advise to help me make up my mind is welcome

Thanks in advance

Alex

[stergz]

Hi there

As a MCSE Sysadmin contractor, I have wide experience running applications and I have had many years experience running applications on Windows boxes. Windows XP can be quite stable on the right hardware and if you decide to run a music PC you should really get one designed for music. Quite hard drives and power supply. Pay as much as you would for a Mac or you will be dissapointed. With any system, Install only what you need and it will remain stable. If you need to play, have another cheap PC to do this. My Mac seems to be more stable though when it comes to installing stuff. No dll hell.

If you end up going for Mac OS X, be prepared to stick with it to learn the interface paradigm. i found that after a while of using OS X that my work flows increased and thinks seem to work that much more seamlessly. I have tried running Pro Tools with an MBox on Windows XP and i found that it was difficult to get it working as it was highly dependant on the USB chipset. I use a 12" 800MHz iBook to record up to about 16 tracks of audio + plugings and it works fine. Hard disk I/O is probably the most important thing for audio recording. Mixing and editing tend to use the CPU more. 7200RPM is a must.