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.

[wizeman]

Well, speak of the devil... I have a 160 GB ext FW HD that I have been running a film server on, but it crashed yesterday so I'm going to have to reformat it today (Norton, Drive 10 and DiskWarrior3 all failed to rectify the situation). So there we are :-) Thanks for the prompt reply, this def seems like the way to go. Went by the local music shop today and asked for a comparison between the Roland 24 track stand-alone and this solution; they said that while the Roland sounds better (better A/D converter), the M-Audio will sound *better* than my Korg D8. and that I should be able to have at least 16 audio tracks w effects using the G4/800. So for a reasonably modest amunt of cash (esepcially if I sell the D8 second hand, which might mean it's an even trade!) I would effectively double my recording power :-D Sure, still only 2 inputs but hey, that's what I'm used to, so...

If anyone has any reason why I shouldn't go for the M-Audio FireWire 410, now's the time to speak up ;-)

Thanks again!