i'm thinking about getting a new desktop system soon and i'm wondering if anyone has any ideas which would be better. the G4 dual 1.25 GHz and the G5 single 1.6Ghz systems are pretty comparable in price right now, and are both right around my price range. software i'll be using: OS X, Logic Platinum, Reaktor 4, Max/MSP. any suggestions?

i feel bad for you running reaktor under osx.

it's kind of a lose lose situation i think- the sp G5s are not the big leap folks are touting in the apple community (the dual 2ghz is the best value unfortunately).

that said, neither computer is too shabby. i'd lean toward the G5 just to have the more modern hw down the road when it's time to upgrade.

what are you running now? if you can, it might be better to get a 3rd party G4 upgrade for your current mac and hang on until the G5s are all dualies.

alternately, buy either one and when the lower end G5 towers get dual processors sell your current tower on ebay and step up that way. ebay folks are just stupid for mac hw.

hmm, hadn't thought about getting rid of it over ebay later. my current system is a 600MHz G3 desktop (so who knows how fast it actually clocks) and yes, running reaktor got _significantly_ slower when i upgraded to os x. so i'm sure with either system i'd get a pretty big performance increase. thanks for your advice.

Something else u may want to consider. An assistant manager at Gutiar Center had a discussion the other day with me on the G4/G5 issue. He informed me that very few companies had developed compatiable software for the G5 as of yet. They all have tentive dates for new software releases for the G5. So for now, if u got it, there may be very little of what u want that runs well on it.