What Mac To Buy?, I am wondering if a quad intel is necessary or whether a dual g5 can c Options

[JonRaven]

Yes that is a very valid point my friend. As for the software road... I don't really have much alreayd so I would have to purchase the virtual instruments I want to use anyways. I currently own protools 6.7x and logic pro 7 so I will have to see if they are UB but either way,... I am looking to christmas gifts for the software I need either way. right now I am just trying to see what machine would do what I need it to more smoothly.

Now on an updated note to my story and research.

My company that I do web design for during the day while not doing music... uggg day job... anyways... sorry for the side track of sorrow haha. Just purchased a quad intel 2.66 and actually splurged and added 10 gigs...yes you heard me...10 gigs of ram to it. They have a pretty impressive 30" apple screen too.

Anyways... so today upon my suprise we had one... I went into the "video suite" room where it found it's new home. I took the ezdrummer installer disk I recently purchased for my new system and I sat down at the impressive screen. I popped the disc in and beyond my belief... I waited 10 minutes for it to install without it completing. Now I thought...oh wait it might not be binary... but I checked and yes it is... so why wouldn't it install after oooh so long? I waited a while longer and then eventually gave up. It just worried me... cause yeah they say this machine should be lightning fast and here it is loaded with way more ram then I could ever put in mine if I bought one... and it still was sort of not noticeably lightning?

Any thoughts? i am looking for a quad intel owner out ther to tell me their actual real world sequencing and recording experience with their machine... and then also... older g5 dual 2 and above owners with their thoughts.. so that we can all decide whether the price of the quad intel makes any sense for now... or for another year for that matter.

Thanks so much.

I think the most important point is to decide if you want to move the software update road or not… Check what you are using that you have already in UB or not.

If you lack in the UB department, maybe a G5 or 2 would be better. If not… Now, I personally lack of much feedback from Mac Pro users, the only one I know has more issues than with the G5 he had before. The question is, is it a special case or common situation? I don't know. I've found my brand new refurbished macbook to be prone to more little hiccups than my first gen G5 on day to day non music use, and I'm a monster at maintenance and stability. So I'm in doubt for the time being.

[Mac Daddy]

JonRaven...

Sorry for any confusion. When hahaworld first purchased the Quad, I'm not sure of how long ago it was, whenever the Quad was first introduced, year and a half ago, can't remember, however, I do have a copy of the SOS (Sound On Sound) Review.

Most "New" machines have bugs to work out... The SOS Review I mentioned, was when the Quad was first introduced...

I followed hahaworld's Posts and he had heaps of problems, Macintosh has obviously lifted their game and fixed "things". I don't understand, or have time to learn the Technical ins and outs, I'm a musician and still trying to understand music, I really don't care about specs as long as the gear works.

I have a G5 Dual 2GHz and it has functioned flawlessly for several years, I did have to replace the CD/DVD Player.

[JonRaven]

After my little test on the company quad intel with it's maxed ram... and after all this research... i think i would be better off staying away from the new intels altogether and find myself a dual g5 2.5 and max the ram in it. I know it wont be the newest and greatest but I have tonnes of reports of people doing tonnes of work on that type of machine and having way less issues then with the people I have talked to who spent similar money but got a intel quad.

Thanks to all for your help. I will keep you posted.

JonRaven...

Sorry for any confusion. When hahaworld first purchased the Quad, I'm not sure of how long ago it was, whenever the Quad was first introduced, year and a half ago, can't remember, however, I do have a copy of the SOS (Sound On Sound) Review.

Most "New" machines have bugs to work out... The SOS Review I mentioned, was when the Quad was first introduced...

I followed hahaworld's Posts and he had heaps of problems, Macintosh has obviously lifted their game and fixed "things". I don't understand, or have time to learn the Technical ins and outs, I'm a musician and still trying to understand music, I really don't care about specs as long as the gear works.

I have a G5 Dual 2GHz and it has functioned flawlessly for several years, I did have to replace the CD/DVD Player.

[lepetitmartien]

Yup G5 are now rock solid, the only problem remaining is the liquid system on the Quads which can leak after some time. All other issues have been cleared AFAIK.

On the Mac Pro, there's some hiccups. I'd then stick to a second generation but it's still first gen…

And their RAM is awfully expensive…

On the EZdrummer issue, was it latest version?

[JonRaven]

For now I have talked to a few friends and they say I could do everything I would want with even a dual 2.5 g5 as long as I have the 4 gigs of ram I have been planning to get anyway. So I may even stay away from the quad g5 even though the extra processor cores make me want it haha.

I guess in a few months or at least after November when it is rumored that apple will update the quad core line that these machines will start be work better but I don't know if I can wait that long to start working on my productions again.

As for the ezdrummer I installed using my installer disc... I will have to check to see what version is on the disc... I guess I would have to install updates for it but it wouldn't even finish the install procedure.

Weirdness.

Yup G5 are now rock solid, the only problem remaining is the liquid system on the Quads which can leak after some time. All other issues have been cleared AFAIK.

On the Mac Pro, there's some hiccups. I'd then stick to a second generation but it's still first gen…

And their RAM is awfully expensive…

On the EZdrummer issue, was it latest version?

[lepetitmartien]

Talk about coincidence… A member on the French side just told us today about his watercooled Quad that leaks…

It's not an issue for most of them, but I'd stay away of Quads at least until Apple recognize the problem.

[emgcarra]

Well. here goes my two cents...participation wise, as we were asked for.
I was using a G4 800 dual/1.25 GB Ram for a lot of time with LP 7 during the last year and a half.
was more than happy...a little slow sometimes, but bearable.
Now I´ve got this new shining Mac Pro 2.66/3GB Ram and I am just waiting for my also new Logic Studio,
What can I say ?. I am as happy as I was before, but faster.....! I hope that new ideas keep coming too...
in order to pay for these toys...!!

Regards

emgcarra

[DANO10]

Hi Guys,

Is this what you mean by a quad?

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

If so, I've been running this computer with out any problems for about two months now. I am interested in keeping up with software updates, but I've kept my G5 just in case.......

[JonRaven]

I will await your reports on the quad pro with 3 gig ram and logic pro 8. I still think i will find an older used machine but I am interested in what your findings are on your new quad and using it for audio. Like track counts are one thing... quality plugin counts are another... but virtual instruments running while you are tracking is another.

Let us know as soon as you have fully tested and can give the rest of us some idea as to performance.

Thanks.

Well. here goes my two cents...participation wise, as we were asked for.
I was using a G4 800 dual/1.25 GB Ram for a lot of time with LP 7 during the last year and a half.
was more than happy...a little slow sometimes, but bearable.
Now I´ve got this new shining Mac Pro 2.66/3GB Ram and I am just waiting for my also new Logic Studio,
What can I say ?. I am as happy as I was before, but faster.....! I hope that new ideas keep coming too...
in order to pay for these toys...!!

Regards

emgcarra

[lepetitmartien]

Quads are the last G5, 4 cores, liquid cooling.

G5 Quad (PPC) are not Mac Pro (Intel Xeon). BTW, Apple should revamp the mac pro one of these days…