Mac Mini Upgrade With Pro Tools 7 And Reason 4? Options

[j_grim14]

Hey there folks,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with a little problem I'm having. Here's my setup:

Mac Mini 1.42 GHz with 1 GB of RAM (running Tiger 10.4.9)
Pro Tools LE 7.3.1 with an Mbox 2
Reason 4

I had a feeling this setup was going to be a bit weak, but I got the Mac at a good deal from a friend who switched to an iMac. Needless to say, it can't handle more than one or two Pro Tools plug-ins, and it struggles when Reason is slaved through rewire.

My question is will the newer 2.0 GHz Intel Mac Mini (upgraded to 2 GB RAM) be able to handle up to 24 tracks with plug-ins and run rewire without crashing? I'm living in Korea for about a year to a year and a half, so I don't want to sink any money into an iMac that's gonna cost a fortune to ship back to Canada. A new Mac Mini would be the most practical option for me, if it can handle these tasks reasonably well.

Does anyone have any experience with the Intel Mac Minis?

[mishmashmole]

Is it fair to say "one" could think about using the version of software that came out the same time as the computer, (not when you bought it)...

e.g. I have a powerbook which I bought almost 5 years ago. I tried Ableton 7 and the cpu was at 90% without it even doing anything. I went back to Ableton 4 which opens in like 2 seconds and I can play 16 channels with plug-ins fine.

So, does "one" really need all the latest features? Or should you get something that fits the machine you have rather than playing catch-up.