Is it worth buying a Mac right now??

[Philly Stress]

Is it worth buying a Mac right now?? I think of getting a G5 ,but with the Intel Macs out should I wait? Can the Intel Macs handle the Logic or Protools yet??

Originally Posted by Philly Stress

Is it worth buying a Mac right now?? I think of getting a G5 ,but with the Intel Macs out should I wait? Can the Intel Macs handle the Logic or Protools yet??

Dog, I'm having the same dillema, I'm on a G4 and I'm guessing I'll have to get a dual 2Ghz G5 so I can keep PCI slots for my HD cards

I'd say wait a bit longer then get a used G5 instead of going intel

[Psyko/Acoustics]

Logic 7.2 Pro "Universal" is apparently optimized for the Intel Macs, and I read Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) saying it's super fast on his website.



Not sure about plug-ins, tho.

[nukmusic]

Originally Posted by Philly Stress

Is it worth buying a Mac right now?? I think of getting a G5 ,but with the Intel Macs out should I wait? Can the Intel Macs handle the Logic or Protools yet??

not when you can buy a "REAL" PC

'ol snap I love this, couldn't let that one slide PS.

Man every one I talk to says hold off a bit. til they really got it going, you know work out the kinks. I was looking to buy one of those new Mactel labtops too

[Dor]

Originally Posted by Philly Stress

Is it worth buying a Mac right now?? I think of getting a G5 ,but with the Intel Macs out should I wait? Can the Intel Macs handle the Logic or Protools yet??

Just cop a quad G5 and call it a day. The time you waste debating whether or not to get a "pc" you could be using it getting shit done. Not sure about the others but I believe motu is up to speed with the intel macs.

My dual 2.5 G5 is looking rusty.

Originally Posted by Dor

Just cop a quad G5 and call it a day. The time you waste debating whether or not to get a "pc" you could be using it getting shit done. Not sure about the others but I believe motu is up to speed with the intel macs.

My dual 2.5 G5 is looking rusty.

This er rusty dual wouldnt happen to have PCI slots would it? (I cant remember if they left PCI on the 2.0 or the 2.5's )

IF it has PCI's we could definately see about having someone (ME) buy that ole rusty thing off your hands.

[atticus]

If you are looking for a PCI equipped Mac I would try the apple Refurbished store. A buddy of mind just bought a pretty tricked out Dual 2.7 G5 for $2149. While the Intel Macs may be faster there is no doubt that the dual 2.7 is extremely powerful. If you are on Logic 7 you could always use the G5 as a node machine down the road when the Intel Macs come out. Good luck!

[themaestro]

Originally Posted by no ssl yet

This er rusty dual wouldnt happen to have PCI slots would it? (I cant remember if they left PCI on the 2.0 or the 2.5's )

IF it has PCI's we could definately see about having someone (ME) buy that ole rusty thing off your hands.

lol, i feel u brotha! but yeah, if u need it now, buy it now, there will always be something bigger, better, faster, stronger coming out. i just bought a dual 2.5 with the pcie's, i did the math, it would be more expensive to get a quad with pcix's and upgrade my hd cards, and i would lose money waiting on the intel joint....buy now, buy later, you are ahead of the game even having a computer! you would be surprised how many producers and engineers have no computer at all, or are on old old old g3's and g4's

[dave-G]

Originally Posted by themaestro

you would be surprised how many producers and engineers have no computer at all, or are on old old old g3's and g4's

Single processor G4/933 here.. Fast, schmast. It's got 4 PCI slots. I have 4 PCI cards.. Love ensues.

And, I just bought a "refreshed" 12" Powerbook G4/1.5 for $1100 .. if it's "slow", I can't tell.

What's the hurry? I say that if you really think you need to give your computer another half a million instructions per second, you're just being a control freak.

-dave

Originally Posted by dave-G

Single processor G4/933 here.. Fast, schmast. It's got 4 PCI slots. I have 4 PCI cards.. Love ensues.

And, I just bought a "refreshed" 12" Powerbook G4/1.5 for $1100 .. if it's "slow", I can't tell.

What's the hurry? I say that if you really think you need to give your computer another half a million instructions per second, you're just being a control freak.

-dave

I have a G4 (466) expanded to 1.5Ghz

[r0ck1r0ck2]

g4 1.25 upgrade here..no troubles..

stay away from 1st gen anything...too expensive...+ plenty of bugs..

i think this bastard wil hold out long enough for the mac onna pc to get stable then i'll build one...

[DivineMusic]

i've never been a mac guy.
i might get one to mess with logic 7 but i don't know b/c with nuendo 3 i don't need to much more.
the studio i use to work at has a dual 2.5G5.. but my X2 4200 is faster and can handler more plugins than the mac could..
i gonna be upgrading to a dual dual-core opteron 280 very soon with that.. why even think about a mac :D

[nickp]

I just recently switched from Mac to PC. I was on an iBook G3 800mhz 384mb ram and 40gig hd. I know, slow. I bought it five months before they switched to G4s.

Well, the Logic board broke four times. Now a fifth. I bought it June 03. On top of that, I sent it in Dec 22 05, they tried to charge me $380 after telling me it'd be free. It comes back, I don't pay. They send it back with only the 128mb of ram it came with. Fiasco happens involving me calling THREE times about their mistake and finally getting the ram sent back. It doesn't work, they gave me a bunk board. Send it back again mid-January. It finally comes back, and now the screen flickers, and it's not a wiring problem- it's the logic board going out, AGAIN. This'll make the sixth time. They're sending a box again. I've estimated that for th2 2 1/2 years I've had it it's been in the sop for over four of that. And on top of that from jan 02-feb 10th I couldn't use it because 128mb 800mhz G3 cannot run two programs at once.

So I said **** it and bought a Dell XPS 1.86ghz, 80 gig HD, 512mb RAM machine for cheaper than I bought the Apple for.

Needless to say, I am happy with my product. Got the warranty, so if anything happens, throw it in a box and get a new one.

I switched. I may buy an Apple when they realize that they have to make their hardware not a complete pile of shit. Now, some of their hardware is good, but for every gem (G5 tower, G4 Powerbook) there's a shitstorm (iPod batteries, G4 iMac, G5 iMac (lighting on fire) G3 iBook, etc).

Their OS is the best IMO, though, so I am sad to leave that. Butg I really hate my shit being broken down.

That's my story.
-Nick

[Vasypher]

check out your local Guitar Centers for cheap display model G5's that they're trying to shove out the door, I just bought a dual 2.0 for $1600.00 so that I could put in my HD3 cards in it....nice!

[Igotsoul4u]

I would wait. Mac is notorius for rushing out products too early. I would wait for the second revision. I have religiosly avoided first generation computers and have never had a bad mac yet. The last non-intel G5 quad is probably pretty stable but i would worry about being left behind at some point. It will definetly happen. I remember when they started pretending like OS9 didn't exist anymore. I think it was only a year after osx came out.

[Dor]

Originally Posted by Igotsoul4u

I would wait. Mac is notorius for rushing out products too early. I would wait for the second revision. I have religiosly avoided first generation computers and have never had a bad mac yet. The last non-intel G5 quad is probably pretty stable but i would worry about being left behind at some point. It will definetly happen. I remember when they started pretending like OS9 didn't exist anymore. I think it was only a year after osx came out.

OS X on quad G5 is going to be a productive system for quite some time. I'm running a refurb'd dual 2.5 G5 and dont' see myself upgrading any time soon.

[Eager2Know]

Originally Posted by Philly Stress

Is it worth buying a Mac right now?? I think of getting a G5 ,but with the Intel Macs out should I wait? Can the Intel Macs handle the Logic or Protools yet??

AFAIK, there won't be any other chips used in MACs in the future? Am I wrong here?


They switched because the old motorola/ibm chips had no more "power" in them, that's why they went Dual-PC in the first place.

And that's also the reason they changed to Intel, should have been AMD in the beginning, but I guess they didn't get along with each other (maybe pricing, stuff like that).

What's so wrong with Intel anyway? It's a good piece of hardware.....?

I'm running several web servers with Intel xeons on Linux, works just fine.

[Eager2Know]

Originally Posted by Igotsoul4u

I would wait. Mac is notorius for rushing out products too early. I would wait for the second revision. I have religiosly avoided first generation computers and have never had a bad mac yet. The last non-intel G5 quad is probably pretty stable but i would worry about being left behind at some point. It will definetly happen. I remember when they started pretending like OS9 didn't exist anymore. I think it was only a year after osx came out.

Ah I get it, you're more concerned about the OS Stuff, now I get it!


Otta here

[Mind-Over-Midi]

Originally Posted by Dor

Just cop a quad G5 and call it a day. The time you waste debating whether or not to get a "pc" you could be using it getting shit done.

My dual 2.5 G5 is looking rusty.

I plan on adding a G5 quad and then kicking back for a couple of years to let the Mac-Intel dust settle down. I'll wait for all of the plug's to be ported and stable. Then when I'm forced to, I'll make the move. Stability is the only game worth playing. I have a dual 2.5 G5 right now and it's a beast. The top of the line Quad is twice as fast and is reported to be stable. The bummer is that I'll have to add an PCI to PCIe expansion chassis for my PTHD and UAD cards and that is no small fee to say the least. On the plus side when I need to make the switch to a Mac-Intel machine I can use the same expansion chassis for a hopefully seamless transition. Also having all of my cards in a expansion chassis with two desk top machines and one laptop will give me plenty of back-up if for some reason one of my Mac's should go down and need to be sent out for service. Just connect the chassis to the next machine in line and keep the session going. Just have to keep all of the authorizations up to date on both machines.

Bill.

[nickp]

Also look on your local *************** . I've seen single G5s as low as 900 (non-scam ones) on there, for people who have to move, and especially now with everyone dicking themselves over the new intel based powerbooks and iMacs. The "gotta have it now ones" are dropping their towers and powerbooks pretty fast and for cheap. Also check out other cities, I know the Seattle one has tons of shit, and most people on there are fairly legit, because people are rampant flaggers of scams.

Craigslist rocks hard for everything from gear to vehicles to computers. And people also get blowjobs on there, but it isn't my game. It's really an everything-type of place.
-Nick

[WideawakE]

just got an email about the new dual corre Mac Mini's which has me stoked

I'm running a 1.42 mini now and I believe they have dual 1.66 minis for 800

[jhamburg]

Definitely wait...

A geeky friend of mine managed to get OSX runnning on a 2.8 ghz Xeon dell (apparently all the nerds are doing it). I checked it out and it SMOKES the 2.5 single processor G5 that we have in our studio. Let me stress that doing this is NOT a viable option for work as it's a major hack. It is abundantly clear to me that when the dust settles the macintels are going to be FAST.

I've currently got my trusty 733mhz g4 with a mix3 chugging along. I'll probably just get a processor upgrade for the time being. I plan on upgrading to HD this fall or whenever things look to be stable.

In the mean time I feed ol' quicksilver old memory chips after every succesful session, soon she'll be put out to pasture.

joel

[Ol' Betsey]

Originally Posted by nickp

Craigslist rocks hard for everything from gear to vehicles to computers. And people also get blowjobs on there, but it isn't my game...

Yeah sure, uh huh, you just thought you'd mention it...

R.

[nickp]

Originally Posted by Ol' Betsey

Yeah sure, uh huh, you just thought you'd mention it...

R.

I mentioned it before someone beat me to the punch.

...donkeypunch.
-Nick

[Philly Stress]

Originally Posted by atticus

If you are looking for a PCI equipped Mac I would try the apple Refurbished store. A buddy of mind just bought a pretty tricked out Dual 2.7 G5 for $2149. While the Intel Macs may be faster there is no doubt that the dual 2.7 is extremely powerful. If you are on Logic 7 you could always use the G5 as a node machine down the road when the Intel Macs come out. Good luck!

Do you have a link??

[AdamJay]

Originally Posted by Philly Stress

Do you have a link??

apple.com
click on store
scroll down till you see the red "save" tag on the right/bottom.
click on the tag. its updated every day.

[illynoise]

No.

BaseJase

[Philly Stress]

Originally Posted by illynoise

No.

BaseJase

???

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by nickp

I may buy an Apple when they realize that they have to make their hardware not a complete pile of shit. Now, some of their hardware is good, but for every gem (G5 tower, G4 Powerbook) there's a shitstorm (iPod batteries, G4 iMac, G5 iMac (lighting on fire) G3 iBook, etc).

I understand you had a bad experience, but Apple is basically a hardware company. They have always had stringent hardware standards. Are you saying that third-world Pnohm Penh PC hardware standards are better than Apple's? They're practically non-existant. In a lifetime of being a Mac user, I've never had a single hardware issue. I've bought AppleCare with every Mac system I've owned and I've never had to use it.

iPod batteries and iMac power supplies are not exactly devastating shortcomings, and Microsoft has had similar problems with their products more recently than Apple has.

On topic, it's always best to wait until new technology has been proven. Early adopters always pay the price, with any product, from any manufacturer. Besides, the PowerPC line isn't going to vanish anytime soon.

[nickp]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

I understand you had a bad experience, but Apple is basically a hardware company. They have always had stringent hardware standards. Are you saying that third-world Pnohm Penh PC hardware standards are better than Apple's? They're practically non-existant. In a lifetime of being a Mac user, I've never had a single hardware issue. I've bought AppleCare with every Mac system I've owned and I've never had to use it.

iPod batteries and iMac power supplies are not exactly devastating shortcomings, and Microsoft has had similar problems with their products more recently than Apple has.

On topic, it's always best to wait until new technology has been proven. Early adopters always pay the price, with any product, from any manufacturer. Besides, the PowerPC line isn't going to vanish anytime soon.

"I understand you had a bad experience"

I really only listed my current complaint. I have more than enough complaints with my way old Powermac 7200, OS 8 and 9 (software issues, so I'll leave these completely out, but come on, OS 9 was garbage- on par with Windows ME), iPod mini, iPod shuffle, my previously mentioned iBook, five logic boards, faulty ram, the original iMacs, and an Apple mouse.

I treat my items well, too. While some of these are general complaints (I can't change the cd drive, wtf?), many go deeper.

"Are you saying that third-world Pnohm Penh PC hardware standards are better than Apple's?"

I was comparing them to top-level competitors. I don't think many people are juggling the nerve-racking decision between a G5 iMac 17" and an eMachines from Sears. That's ridiculous. Let's compare Hyundai Accents and Jaguars while we're at it.

[i]"iPod batteries and iMac power supplies are not exactly devastating shortcomings, and Microsoft has had similar problems with their products more recently than Apple has."[/i}

Well, the iPod is the most-selling MP3 player, so yes this could be a problem that effects millions. And we're not talking about iMac power supplies simply stopping- they are burning out. And Microsoft, to my knowledge, sticks to consumer software, not hardware. And I made it clear that this was a hardware issue I had.

Let's see- the most all-time selling MP3 player. Oh yeah, the batteries of the older versions die on you. And the nano scratches the **** up. And they break left and right (though could be a volume issue- more units more cases). But there's a lot of internet chatter about iPods blowing out and dying. Especially the 4th gens, and the 40 gigers.

We're not talking about a powercord shitting out (there's been issue of that, too), we're talking about the main f'in hardware dying repeatidly, lighting on fire, failing. The OS is so good, too good for this.