Mac G5

Cleverwon

Paradigm P
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 74
I'm bout to get the Mac G5. Does anyone that uses it have anything negative to say about it before I go ahead and get one?
 

vitaminman

IllMuzik Staff
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
Hey,

1. You won't be able to use older PCI cards, or you'll have to update your current ones to match the voltage settings of the G5.

2. It costs a lot of money.

Other than that, I've heard some pretty amazing things about its speed...

Take care,

Nick
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
The operating system is a wild. You have to get used to doing things like being an adminstrator so you can protect your files but the only thing I would worry about is software and hardware compatibility. I use this G5 at work with the cinema screen but I use a G4 Dual 867 at home for the music production. I think for the money a G5 is a bit much and you can get a great deal on G4's that can probably do eveything you need it to do as far as beat making goes. The money you save on getting a G4 frees up more ends for buying sample CDs and VST's.

<img src="http://www.ominousred.com/images/G5.jpg">
 

Ash Holmz

The Bed-Stuy Fly Guy
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 207
yo if i were you i would get the G4 laptop instead... i mean the g5 is an amazing piece of equipment but there nothing out there a well equiped g4 cant handle... i got the low end emac 1ghz g4 and the only reason my shit lags sometimes is cuz i only got 256 ram.. if i get to like a gig im straight..a fully loaded G4 laptob has similiar price is very serious..plus its portable! ... but the g5 izzzz the shit though and if had tha dough best believe id cop me one soooo...... the g5 also works on a diffrent os and it wont work with some of the older audio apps but there making evrything compatible so that should not be a problem
 

Some Guy

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 100
I use them at school all the time and as usual they're all hype. The OS is pretty, thats about it. They're not as fast as everybody thinks they are so if you're lookin to run a lot of plugs you might be dissapointed for that price. You should make sure your sequencer has no problems with OSX Jaguar or Panther which ever one comes with your Mac. I've read a lot of different conflicts with the new OS's.
 

Cleverwon

Paradigm P
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 74
Ok 2 questions... Is there a difference between the laptop and the desktop version of the same machine?? I feel like the desktop would be better performancewise for some reason. #2.. If money is not a factor, what machine would you recommend?
 

MaximeRobin

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
I'd prefer a slower laptop than a faster desktop but I guess it wasn't really your question... If the processor is identical the speed should be too. For music making, a laptop got the advantage that is portable. Think about it, if you find like someone to play bass on your track, you don't have to drag him and is equipment to your studio, you can take your studio to him...
 

vitaminman

IllMuzik Staff
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
Hey,

Laptop G4 does not equal desktop G4. While the chips may be similar or the same, there are other things to take into cosideration, like bus speed, drive speed, ram speed, heat, etc.

Laptops are designed to be portable and their speed is secondary; desktops are designed to be fast, and their size is secondary.

A HUGE disadvantage of a laptop is not being able to use 99% of the soundcards available, you're stuck with the USB and firewire cards which, in my experience, haven't been as reliable as their PCI bretheren.

Sure, you can use the onboard card, but you'll soon cringe as you discover the world of noise and latency!


There is also expandibility: I am typing this on my Dell inspiron 8100 laptop which I've had for 2 years. When I got it, it had the FASTEST laptop processor at the time (1.2ghz PIII), 256MB RAM, 30GB 5400 RPM hard drive, cd-r, DVD rom, etc. It cost a cool $2000.

Nowadays, you can get latops which destroy mine in speed and size for a fraction of the cost, and the only thing I can do to make mine any better is to buy a bigger hard drive, max out the RAM to 512MB, and maybe get a new battery.

It's true that in the computer world things become obsolete very quickly, with the laptop they become VERY obsolete even more quickly, and there's not a lot you can do to prevent it.

Dollar for dollar, the only advantage you have with a laptop is that it is easy to move around with you.

Take care,

Nick
 

MaximeRobin

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Now, there are goods firewire audio interface (of course you got to have firewire plug on your laptop, what a lot of pc lack and mac always have).

I don't know why I didn't tought of "bus speed, drive speed, ram speed, heat". Your definitly right.

Desktop=faster, cheaper

Laptop=slower,portable,much$$$ (if you count the expensive firewire stuf that you have to buy)
 
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