Which Of These Macs Would Make The Best Daw? Options

[rlwilliams]

Hi,

I'm a little behind the curve in keeping up with the latest and greatest computer. I have three potential computers to be my main DAW. I was wondering if anyone who knows DAW computers would give me your opinion about which of these three computers would be the best.

1) G5 iMac with 1.8 Ghz processor/20 in screen - 1 GB RAM

2) G5 Tower with 1.6 Ghz processor - 1 GB RAM

3) G4 Tower with Dual 1 Ghz - 2 MB L3 cache per processor - 1.5 GB RAM


If I added more memory to any of these, would that make a difference in the deciding factor. I know some can be upgraded.

Thanks for your time and input.

Sincerely,

Ronnie

[minskybabs]

The G5 tower, I reckon, but that is just my opinion!

It will be more upgradeable and closest to the latest models. As I understand it the imacs are harder to do upgrades with. The tower will let you put in more hard drives and memory and probably have more usb and firewire ports, hopefully Firewire 800. Of course you will then need a monitor which you wouldn't with the imac, but being able to choose or upgrade your monitor could be useful?

If budget is tight don't forget you also need to factor in a sound interface (compined with or plus a midi interface?) and almost certainly an external hardrive (though if this is your only mac you could get an extra internal hard drive?).

As much RAM (min 1Gb) and as big (and fast I believe at least 72200RPM) Hard Drive will make a lot of difference to what you can do.

For a hobbyist, this stuff is fantastic, as long as you can get your head round it and give it enough time. If time is precious don't stress too much about latest and greatest computer, just make the most of what you have, you can spend a lot of time chasing upgrades and tinkering which could be better spent making music!

Cheers minskybabs.