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

[JonRaven]

Hello there,

first time visiter, first time poster here...

I am currently using a powerbook 1.25 and I want to move into the ability to use some robust virtual instruments like toon track's "ezdrummer" and spek's "atmosphere", along with interested in the new east west quantum leap app called "gypsy" and the like.

My powerbook just wont cut it of course so I am thinking about getting a desktop mac.

Can anyone tell me from real world knowledge whether I could do everything I want with a used dual g5 or whether I really need to bite the bullet and get the new quad 2.66 intel?

I know ram is a big thing so I will upgrade either machine wiith atleast 4 gig ram.

I will be looking to do realistic backing tracks for my songs with virtual instruments and then adding say 16 tracks of audio tracks as well to the track.

Any ideas? Of course the music stores and the mac store are just out to sell the newest greatest of everything so you can't really get any honest opinions based on personal experience so I came here.

Can anyone discuss this with me?

Thanks and glad to be part of the group.

[JonRaven]

Yes I understand that there was amac g5 quad and a newer mac intel g5. I have looked at them both as options but as you said I have found a few g5 quads with coolent damage already so I am staying far away from them for sure. As for the intel quad I have heard good and bad things. As for older dual g5 machines I have only heard great things about them.

thanks for your help

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…

[Jim Hoyland]

We have 8 dual G5s and 7 MacPros running in various studios with 2 G5 quads running FCP / Photoshop in a separate area.

The dual G5s have been awesomely reliable with the exception of one early model (with PCI-X) which is sluggish. By adding RAM we've been able to keep up with increasing demands of software and users, so we have no real plans to update any time soon. The only real annoyance with these machines is the restriction to 2 internal drive bays and the comparative lack of ports when compared with newer models. This has meant that we've had to look at external storage for sample libraries etc.

The MacPros were a nightmare to begin with, as we use ProTools in all studios and the initial Intel releases from Digidesign were horribly buggy. The more recent versions (and CS updates for version 7.1) have addressed this and we now appear to have some smooth machines with an endless supply of power. The four drive bays enable us to keep everything local and they run so quietly that we have no qualms about leaving them in the studio.

One issue you have to consider tho' is the cost of RAM for the MacPro. We bought ours loaded with 4Gb each, which added hundreds to the initial cost, whereas additional RAM for the G5s is easy to come by, at very reasonable prices.

The G5 quads are absolutely hopeless with large audio projects (fine for simple editing within Soundtrack Pro tho'), but killer for video editing and encoding. We've also installed Logic Nodes on these machines as they're often idle.

One other quick thought, our 3 newest MPs have 1.5TB of non-System Hard Disk space which we formatted as a RAID array so we didn't confuse some of our simpler students. Whilst this works fine in general operation, I've found that the system takes much longer to wake from sleep than our other set-ups.

So I guess I'd probably recommend getting a 2nd hand dual G5 with as much RAM as you can afford and a decent amount of external storage. I've heard really good things about using eSATA drives with a PCIe adaptor for the Mac but haven't tried this... and the FireWire option works fine anyway.

Best of luck!

[lepetitmartien]

Thanks Jim, more mac pro input than I've heard in months thumbs up!

[JonRaven]

Yes this is a grreat posting reply Jim. Thanks so very much for your first person actual work experience witht not only the new quad intel mac pros but also with the buggy quad g5 and also the seems to be very stable dual g5. Wow this is definitely what I was looking for when i posted to find out everyone's thoughts.

Thanks so very much.

Anyone else have similar or different experience?

This is all very very helpful.

Thanks Jim, more mac pro input than I've heard in months thumbs up!

[Mac Daddy]

Jim Hoyland,

I knew there was a reason I liked you! You really "Do know your stuff" 8 G5's!!!

You be's da Mac Daddy in dis house... I'm going to change my name. Seriously.

I would like to hear the music you are involved with. Sounds like a lot of music is happening in your realm. Wow! Whew! Whoa! Whoop! Wam! Damn!

I'm sitting in front of one machine mixin' and fixin', learnin' and burnin' so I can only imagine what your world must be like musically. Heaven. That's if the music is good, if it's not, then it could be a nightmare. Smile.

I agree with you 100% regarding the G5. I've actually have had die hard PC users say: "My PC could never do all this". Good Sound Cards are a must! I can't remember the last time I had a crash?

Dual G5's are great. If any Member has an opportunity to purchase one do so. The people that are selling G5's are not musicians and don't have any idea of their value and are selling them "Cheap" to upgrade. I saw a G5 for sale in Hamburg for 1,000 Euros!!! I wanted to buy it but don't need it. 1,000 Euros!!!! A "Maxed Out" Dual G5, 1,000 Euros!

Sound On Sound calls the G5 the best music production computer and they are not paid to say so... Mac doesn't even advertise in Sound On Sound. Companies that sell Macs do advertise however.

[JonRaven]

ok so now that I know i want a dual g5 2.5 machine with 4 gigs of ram. How do i know if one is the slower pcix machine or if it is the faster pci machine? and either way... is this pcix being slower common in them all or just in the one talked about here? Does the one spoke of here have dual 2.0 or 2.5 processors? If the 2.5 dual doesn't have this problem then I am all set to purchase the first one that makes sense financially... if it is common in the 2,5 I need more research.

This post has been edited by JonRaven: Sun 23 Sep 2007, 20:06

[lepetitmartien]

errhhhhhh

Maybe some reading over the G5 family would help

[Mac Daddy]

lepetitmartien.... "errhhhhhh. Maybe some reading over the G5 family would help"

lepetitmartien, you're so smart, funny too... Oh alright, knowledgeable, talented, musical and errhhhhhh, French...

[JonRaven]

in that case... merci

[lepetitmartien]

I point the solution to cover the basics and more, is that an issue?

Jon, now I have 2 guys with Mac Pro making music in my environnement, I'll investigate and tell you more (the first who was so-so as I said and no seems happy since yesterday, and the second awaits his beast from Apple. I should saw him during the week as it's the Apple Expo Paris from tomorrow on here and he'll pass by our booth). So more news to come. Both are Logic users.