Motu 828 Mk Ii Switching To Mac Options

[Fitz]

Hello everyone - I've only just joined the site.

I presently use VST/32 on the PC (1.9Ghz P4 / 512Mb) with a Terratec EWS88MT/D and am slowly starting to use virtual instruments more and more (looking at HALiON etc) and latency is becoming an issue. I need to upgrade my hardware, and seeing as if I also upgrade VST to SX2.0 I get the OS X version too, I'm going to switch my studio setup to Mac.

I have a Powerbook 1Ghz G4 which I'm impressed with, but am looking to buy a dual 2Ghz G5 to form the core of my studio. From reading around the net including this site, I gather the Motu 828MkII is the device to buy at the moment.

A few questions though - does anyone know what the latency would be like with an 828MkII and a G5 while using around 20 tracks of virtual instruments? Im probably going to be using HALiON String Edition with large string sample sets and "Battery" for percussion. I'm also looking at Reason which I hear is better on Mac than PC due to it making use of the Altivec functions of the G4 chip.

Presently on my PC to avoid clicks and pops I'm having to adjust the latency of my EWS88MT/D to the point where its just over 20ms which is starting to become unplayable.

Now I'm assuming that with a dual G5 I will get better latency, but can anyone tell me about their own experiences and roughly how much of an improvement I can expect to see?

Also is there anything I should look out for in particular? I know the 828 is firewire, but dont Motu make a PCI-X card that can be used to connect their gear to the G5?

Thanks for any help in advance.