Well, this fall I will be heading to Ball State University of Muncie, Indiana, and I have been accepted into the school of music and I am majoring in Music Technology. I really want a Mac since that is their computer of choice down there and seems to be used in many studios. I am really struggling on what I want though. The Dual 1.8Ghz or the 2.0Ghz. I plan on running Digital Performer 4.5 and either Finale 2005 or Sibelius, I have an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card, and I plan on upgrading to atleast 1GB of ram. Here's what I have come up with... the Dual 1.8Ghz will allow me to save some money since it is $343 cheaper, with everything I want (1GB ram, 160GB SATA, APP, 9600XT.) But the Dual 2.0Ghz will give me 400 more Mhz, 200 more Mhz FSB, more available upgrades including the RAM and the PCI-X. I will save money which I will be able to spend on software, but do you think I will like the Dual 2.0Ghz in the long run? I just need some repsonse.

Take the most powerful you can afford and keep in the long run with the options you can have now. Save if you use games, the graphic card is not that important. The RAM certainly is (512 MB to be safe, 1 GB at least for music use, more is even better but can come later) as the hard drive for audio (Toshiba/IBM or even better Seagate preferably). On RAM, as Apple prices are crazy, but the minimum config and add apple certified RAM elsewhere at a lower price.

Note that right now RAM is at a low price…

Check the compatibility of the audiophile card! (make a search here in case)

Wait for new PowerMacs if you don't need one right away. They should be out within the next few months. The current models will also drop in price a bit.

New PowerMacs coming out?! I plan on buying one in like August.

One more question, it comes with 2 x 256MB chips of ram, can I buy 2 x 512MB chips and allow it to work that way, so that i have 1.5GB, or does it ALL have to be the same size in each ram slot?

Go for the most powerful one.
If you're planning to use it with UAD-1 card, dual 1.8 GHz. is your choice.

You add the DIMMS in pairs so you can keep the two 256MB DIMMS and add two more 512MB DIMMS in the other available slots.

I beg to differ somewhat - of course it's always nice with really fast computers.
Crays and what not..

However the difference in speed between dual 2x1.8 and a 2x2.0 G5 is minmal
at beast. ( about ten percent in theory - I doubt if you'll notice in practice)

Take the money you're saving if you go for the dual 2x1.8 and buy extra ram
instead. There is no such thing as TOO much ram.
( up to hardware limits of course - or more likely wallet-limits )

Just my two cents.

Cheers; Dixiechicken

BTW, if you plan to buy this summer, there may be hardware surprises till then , we know there's some dualcore stuff in the roadmap, and some evolution of the G5 is not to be overlooked.

Note that it'll make high end G5 in stock then cheaper… Note that I bought mine (mono 1,8 GHz) 2nd hand and i'm very happy with it, when faster bigger will come in, the "old ones" will be cheaper and it'll be most interesting if you're a little tight in the $$$ department. Like Dixie, said, saved $$$ means RAM etc.