Imac Or Powermac?, do i need the power? Options

[kjartan]

Hi there!

I'll be starting an electronica group with a friend in the near future, and plan on getting a Mac with Apple's Logic Pro. We'll be programing drums, synths, virtual instruments and using the guitar modeling and synths in real time. This sounds like a huge load to process all at once, and was wondering if an iMac would give Logic enough juice. The portability and lower price is making me lean towards the iMac, but if we REALLY REALLY need the power of the dual 2GHz G5s, then so be it.

Any input you guys could give would be most appreciated.

Thanks!
--kjartan

[lepetitmartien]

Think that you need at least the iMac, RAM, and an external hard drive in firewire for audio beside the obvious. So plan your buy accordingly.

G5s rock but you'll need a screen and another SATA internal drive on top of RAM too.
If you plan to be totally virtual, it can be a better choice, but it depends a lot on what you do with it.

For RAM try to be in the 1GB+ range (the more the better, especially with virtual instruments they eat RAM at breakfast)

Think too that you can find second hand powermacs at interesting prices, it's worth it. Stay clear of the mono 1,8 rev B, it's a nightmare computer till Apple gets its act together and modify the firmware but you should find dual 2 GHz around.

[chmara]

I have been running on an iMac G5 with 2G ram, the 250 G internal and three 7200 RPM 8 meg cache drives (One Sound Libraries, One Loops and 1 allegedly back up.Logic and other sound (exclusivelly) devices on internal)

It was the Back-up drive that wiped out everything revently and it took about three weeks to get everything back together.

Cost-wise the iMac is a good machine -- but I miss the opportunithy to increase to 6 or 8 gig of ram. Even with DFD and larger cache on the externals, I feel the bang for the buck is the faster processing and covering ram hungry Piano libraries.....with enough layers to turn you into a miner. Add that with any Logic processing and some Wave post.....you need RAM.

Yes there is extra monitor cost -- and ram at the current market comes to an extra $1500 (total eight gig assuming you would get 2 minimum anyway) -- but you can fit a much faster Superdrive than in the iMac.

My rig on Software is Logic 7.1.1, Kontakt 1 & 2. Kompakt, Garritan Personal Orchestra, EWSO Gold, Morphology, Albino 2, SWARPlug, EhtnoWorld 3, Diva, AkoustiK Piano and a a slew of EXS 24 extras -- and not enough time to learn all that EXS 24 and all the other native pieces of Logic synths and machjines can do.....

The extra bucks in might be hard -- but will give better results, IMHO.

This post has been edited by chmara: Wed 12 Oct 2005, 06:19

[kjartan]

I'll be honest here, and say I've been a PC user all my life. I'm just not sure how Intel's and AMD's GHz translate into the whole G5/PowerPC thing. Like I don't know how to begin to compare a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 to a dual 2 HGz PPC G5.

My assumption of what we'd be using in any given situation:

a) 1-2 drum tracks (Ultrabeat)
b) 3-4 Synth Tracks (Sculpture and others)
c) 1-2 Synth tracks *in real time* (playing along with pre-composed music live on stage)
d) 1 Guitar Amp Pro modeler *in real time* (again, playing along with pre-composed music live on stage)
e) Probably a few misc pre-recorded audio tracks (percussion, basses, keyboards, guitars, etc.)

That just seems like A LOT of "stuff" for a computer to handle all at once. Whichever system I get, I'll have *at least* two gigs of RAM. I know virtual instruments gobble it up like crazy, I'm just not too sure how much *processing* power I'll need.

--kjartan

[beyaRecords]

kjartan,
Steinberg has recently produced a document which may help shed some light on how much processing power you may require:

http://www.steinberg.de/Steinberg/messe_ae...yc_2005-eu.html

click the link at the bottom of the page: Download Multiprocessor Tech Info (PDF)

and look at page 3 of this document which has a chart depicting perfomance levels of various single/dual/dual core processors in regards to using Nuendo with many differnt plugins as you have mentioned. Suffice to say that the G5 2.5GHz machines are not cut out to handle the kind of processing required to enhance the 'creative experience'.

I have a G5 2.5GHz, used with Nuendo 3.1, machine and am now crossing over to an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ based machine because they are far better able to deal with the kind of way I work, which is to have numerous plugins spread over a number of tracks.

If you intend to work in an audio only capacity with a few aux channels setup with a number of effects spread across them, then get an apple G5 series. If like myself you are one of those that like an EQ on every channel with some sound module, just for openers, then get yourself an AMD Athlon Dual Core X2 (4400, 4600, 4800) + based machine.

Cost is another major factor, and the cost of the coponents required to build one of these far more powerful machines is about £1,500 less than I paid for my G5 6 months ago!!

beya

P.S. Anyone interested in buying a G5 2.5GHz 2 Gig ram for around the £1,100 mark? Quick sale wanted hence the price!!

[dwwave]

what I have always heard and read

is multiply the processor speed in a Mac times two and you will

have a close approximation of the CPU speed of a PC

but there are alot of other positives with a Mac as well

[lepetitmartien]

The guess is a 1,5 to 2 multiplier, it depends a lot of the use of the computer. But it's a rule very narrow viewed as other things are at work (bus, drives, ram, OS etc.)

[dwwave]

totally agree many other facets than just cpu speed!

[kjartan]

I've decided to go with the PowerMac--probably the dual 2GHz with 2 gigs of RAM. No sense in cutting myself short and not being happy with something sub-par. Thanks for all your input guys!

--kjartan

[dwwave]

Excellant Choice!!