How Much Processer Do I Need? Options

[pigtails]

i am looking to buy a g4 powermac to run protools on. for the time being i will be using protools free, with a view to purchasing a m box later in the year. my tutor at college told me it's best to get a g4 with 1gig processor. however i have come across someone selling a g4 powermac and it's got 800mhz processor, 512ram 40gighard drive and is running os9 and os10.2. i am under the impression that i need os9 to run certain plug ins- if u know what i mean. i dont really understand about os. the bloke says it boots up in either os9 or os10. will this make a difference as to how it will run?
i'm really confused.......please help me.

[Synthetic]

'always buy the fastest computer you can afford'?? that seems like kind of a sweeping statement to me. just because it's what i always do doesn't mean it's right for everyone! =)

in fact, i think there are plenty of cases when somebody can say 'this G4 is good enough and i'll keep some money left over for that _______(soundcard or other piece of gear)!'

i think synthetics comment about that 350mhz G3 is misleading. don't expect to get 60 tracks of audio and 16 plugins on your G4 800 just because it's twice as fast as his old beige or whatever. if you anticipate using soft synths and plugin effects, just bare in mind that they are very processor intensive. still, a machine like the one you're considering could do fine running a half dozen or so of the less beastly vst instruments with some room left over for effects and plenty of audio tracks. this sort of thing is a ballancing act, and you pay for more headroom so you can produce freely and worry about it less.

ok... ummm when I say buy that fastest CPU you can... "afford" I didn't say forget any other gear purchases and spend it all on the CPU. The idea is buy only what you absolutely need and spend as much of your budget on your CPU as possible. So if you budget is $1500 and you need an audio interface too... then figure out what is best audio interface that will work for your needs and spend rest on CPU. Obviously, its not goinna the best idea to spend whole $1500 on CPU and then let it sit while you save money for audio interface use your head... buy only what you need and spend as much as possible for fastest CPU. You will appreciate that later as you upgrade your OS (each OS upgrade requires more muscle from the CPU) or when you upgrade any of your music software. There is some new stuff that is like Moog Modular plug that barely runs a G4 400mhz machine by itself. So if you don't have any interest in the new apps or systems that come out... then ignore the "buy fastest CPU" theory as its not important. But I don't know many people that think like this myself. I have an older system and let me say that's no fun wishing you could run some of the new stuff including OSX but I now sit wishing to upgrade.

What i mentioed about the my G3 system is only misleading if you assume. Never assume anything. One of life's biggest mistakes. I only mentioned it as an example of what is possible. Obviously, you are still limited by A) hardware (drives and CPU) B) software (PTLE is limited to 32 tracks now).

I agree with you mostly as most of what you said is a recap of my post... I only didn't mention saving money for other gear because this seemed obvious

Used Macs are like Harley's, Honda's, or Toyota's really... they are more in demand (and componets last longer) than used PC's and thus they hold their value better. Shop around and if you are not in a hurry... you can find some good deals on used computers as people replace them with newer ones

Ce message a été modifié par Synthetic - mer. 24 sept. 2003, 23:11.