Which Mac for poor beginners, help me find best bang for the bucks Options

[lepetitmartien]

>As Paulhelp asked for :

i am thinking of gettin a mac...but i use the family comp to do my music on..but seing as you are so helpfull, do you know of a good set up? i.e souncards...programs etc....but not too exspensive.maybe i could find a seconh hand comp or a g3 or somthing..i want to get a resonable set up so i can build on it n the futre....not so it all goes out of date!as keeping up with he times is v hard on a limeted budget.i look forword to your response...and thank you again.....

paul

>Macmax

Its very dependant on where you are Paul.
Advice on Gear and prices in the uk , wont be of any use if youre in the states.
Beige G3 Macs are cheap enough, and the Processors are easily upgraded , the only real limitations then are the Buss speeds and Slot numbers.
In the uk one can pick up a 233/266 G3 for about £200 as a basic box (no monitor etc)
Add a Sonnet processor Upgrade for another £200
Ram £60
Scsi Card £50
FAST Scsi III drive or similar, £60
Decent Audio PCI Card £200 (I recently saw a lexicion Core 2 go for £175)
17' Apple Monitor £99.
Total
£870
which i guess is about $1200 ?
For which you can have a 400 Mhz G4 processor sitting in  beige G3 box, with 512 Mb ram and a 9Gb fast scsi drive for audio as well as about a 4Gb system drive., a 17 inch apple branded monitor.
With luck (and careful shopping) you may find decent Audio apps already on the system disk.
FAiling that you'll have to buy Cubase or Logic  or Digital Performer 3 if you want decent facilities for audio and midi.
Careful shopping and astute haggling should save a little on these guide prices, allowing you to put that towards Software.
Hope this gives you some ideas, and also more replies on the subject.
There are so many choices and options in terms of starting points and upgrade paths that i simply couldnt cover all the bases in as short a time as i have free tonite.
best regards
max

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Some other input, now that it is in the right forum ?

[karambos]

I got a G3 233MHz about three years ago to 'mess about on' and as my hobby grew, I wanted better quality sound and greater speed and more audio tracks. This means I will have to buy a bigger computer sometime in the future or buy a DSP card.

My advice would be - get a G4 at least 400 MHz

-k-

[Presto]

A G3 imac is nice and quiet (not the first ones released) and if you put alot of RAM in I don't see why it wouldn't be enough for ages. What are sound cards for? PCs?
Do you want to work with midi or audio?
Has anyone tried using a 24bit Griffin imic audio/usb adaptor (70$) and free protools? You'd need a 9V battery version of a good mic (rather than 48V phantom power) if you want up to 20KHz.

[Presto]

I chose protools LE (with an Mbox) as even though I hope to do wonders with it, I may like to get my beauties tidied up by a pro - and as they often use protools themselves, it would be easy and so not too expensive.