[ebuddy]

I'm currently using a dual, 2GHz PPC G5 w/ 2GB of RAM. I'm not a gamer, but I currently mix/master/produce music in home recording studio using Digital Performer 4.1.2. Problem is, DP 4.1.2 does not work with Tiger or Leopard and I'm running into problems w/ Safari on 10.3.9. It seems Apple no longer offers updates for it. (YouTube, TurboTax, etc...) I'm also simply ready for an OS upgrade in general. Since I'd like a new OS, I'll need a new sequencer and I figured what the heck-get a new machine. I'd like to start working more with video in newer DP 5.+ and using a lot more soft-synths and onboard production tools. What do you think between these choices?

- 24" iMac; 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme, 2GB RAM/500GB Harddrive = $2294.00
- Mac Pro Quad-Core 2.8GHz Intel Xeon, 2GB RAM/320GB Harddrive = $2198.00
- Mac Pro 4-Core (*original Mac Pro line) 2, dual-core 2.0GHz Intel Xeon, 2GB RAM/250GB Harddrive = $2344.00

I'm running into "core confusion" and price-point anxiety.

- How do the above choices rate against my current PPC config?
- Would 2, dual core 2.0GHz processors generally perform better than a single quad-core 2.8GHz processor?
- When you see 1600 Mhz independent front-side busses on a single quad-core, is that better than 1.3GHz independent front-side busses on the 2, dual-core? (i.e. is this per chip?). Likely silly questions, but I've not seen a thread that relates specifically to my situation and much of it was... "wait 'til Keynote". The keynote has come and gone and my choices are not easier.

*As an aside, all Harddrive choices above more than suffice for my storage needs.

[Tesselator]

ebuddy Wrote:
I'm currently using a dual, 2GHz PPC G5 w/ 2GB of RAM. I'm not a gamer, but I currently mix/master/produce music in home recording studio using Digital Performer 4.1.2. Problem is, DP 4.1.2 does not work with Tiger or Leopard and I'm running into problems w/ Safari on 10.3.9. It seems Apple no longer offers updates for it. (YouTube, TurboTax, etc...) I'm also simply ready for an OS upgrade in general. Since I'd like a new OS, I'll need a new sequencer and I figured what the heck-get a new machine. I'd like to start working more with video in newer DP 5.+ and using a lot more soft-synths and onboard production tools. What do you think between these choices?

I guess I don't understand. Leopard doesn't work on a G5? Really? It that's true Apple sucks
worse than Microsoft. And since that's impossible I guess Leopard works on G5 just fine. And
DP5 works on G5 Leopard just fine as well.. MOTU.com - Unleash a Leopard in your MOTU studio
I can run many many synths on my 8-core 2.66 all at the same time and it never goes over 20%
CPU usage. Music just isn't very demanding unless you're trying to HDD record and edit 64 tracks
at 24/32 bits or something. I can run the same number of synths on my wimpy laptop too and it
never goes over about 60%. But OK, you "want" a new box - here's the scoop on the details you're
asking about:

1. - 24" iMac; 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme, 2GB RAM/500GB Harddrive = $2294.00
2. - Mac Pro Quad-Core 2.8GHz Intel Xeon, 2GB RAM/320GB Harddrive = $2198.00
3. - Mac Pro 4-Core (*original Mac Pro line) 2, dual-core 2.0GHz Intel Xeon, 2GB RAM/250GB Harddrive = $2344.00

#2 of course is the fastest, best, most upgradable, etc. etc.




I'm running into "core confusion" and price-point anxiety.

- How do the above choices rate against my current PPC config?

For music work? Honestly? almost no difference.


- Would 2, dual core 2.0GHz processors generally perform better than a single quad-core 2.8GHz processor?

No. It scales linearly either way.
2.8>2.0
(2.8x4)>(2.0x4)


- When you see 1600 Mhz independent front-side busses on a single quad-core, is that better than 1.3GHz independent front-side busses on the 2, dual-core?
Yes.


Likely silly questions, but I've not seen a thread that relates specifically to my situation and much of it was... "wait 'til Keynote". The keynote has come and gone and my choices are not easier.
Hehhee, but I guess not so silly. I can see where the confusion would come in.


*As an aside, all Harddrive choices above more than suffice for my storage needs.


Really? Then for sure if it were me I would stay with the G5. You're really not gong to notice all
that much difference IMO. I mean unless the G5's are slower than I think (I have never owned a
G5!). But even then... Hey, I do lots and lots of synth tinkering, live instrument fx and recording,
vocoding, sequence editing and composing and I find that there is just about no performance
differences between my 1.86Ghz Pentium M 2GB RAM Laptop and my 8-core 5355 MacPro where
disk I/O is not an issue. There's a noticeable difference for MP3 encoding of filtering very large
(>100MB) samples tho. <Shrug>

[ebuddy]

Tesselator; I appreciate the reply and the info. Aside from a couple of disconnects (thinking I said Leopard wouldn't run on a G5, missing that I'd like to begin doing a lot more video scoring in DP5, and DP5 not working with Leopard...) the advise is very good.

With Safari open and DP 4.12 running 42 tracks of audio playing @ 44.1kHz/24-bit, each track with it's own onboard EQ and compression, some other tracks also running everb, preamps, etc.; I got as high as 68% CPU usage. Occasionally, audio playback overloads the processor and I have to restart DP4. Prior to my G5, I did a lot of this on a 500Mhz TiBook so I'm familiar with optimizing buffer sizes etc.

Holding on to the G5 is most definitely an option that I didn't make clear enough. I bought this sucker new what... 5 years ago and have been extremely happy with it. The past two years however, I've been having an increasing number of wake from sleep issues and occasional monitor black- outs and system freezes that could be any one of a hundred things I've been fighting as they pop up- the initial love has worn somewhat thin. I may just load Leopard onto this bad boy and see if some of those ills get cured. You've also affirmed my thoughts on the second option if I bail this G5.

Thanks again.

[Tesselator]

Ah, it's all good then. And yeah there prolly was a disconnect on my end. I wrote
that after doing Tequila shooters all night - so pretty drunk. I'm still pretty blazed
but the haze is starting to lift a little bit.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by ebuddy 

I'm currently using a dual, 2GHz PPC G5 w/ 2GB of RAM... ...I'd like to start working more with video...

I am ignorant as to the hardware needs of music work. However if you move in the direction of working with images, meaning video or batches of stills (such as DSLR capture), you pretty much go right to the top of the charts in terms of hardware needs. For images avoid the iMac like the plague because the screen adds contrast and saturation (which admittedly many non-image-pros like) to images and iMacs are limited to 4 GB RAM.

For video/images work CPU/GPU/RAM are all important as is hard drive throughput and overall capacity. If you start working with video substantially the 2008 MP is clearly your best choice.

Originally Posted by ebuddy 

...The past two years however, I've been having an increasing number of wake from sleep issues and occasional monitor black- outs and system freezes that could be any one of a hundred things I've been fighting as they pop up- the initial love has worn somewhat thin....

I am in exactly the same situation only with a DP G4 tower. The G4 is lame enough that 90% of my work is now on my Macbook Pro, a bit of a PITA with lots of external storage. The latest is the G4 stopped seeing 6 FW drives, sigh. Hopefully a MP next month.

It sounds like folks think the G5 should work for your music needs so maybe you should try that first. I would wait (am waiting) for 10.5.2 before switching to Leopard. You could wipe the hard drive on the G5 and do a clean 10.5.2 installation, add latest versions of your apps and see what happens. If everything worked really well add 2 GB RAM to the G5 and keep using it until video/images demands overpower it.

Or you could find a new home for the G5 and go right to MacIntel with a new MP...

Originally Posted by ebuddy 

...I'm running into problems w/ Safari on 10.3.9....

By all means switch to Firefox. Excellent browser, strongly recommended. I only rarely use Safari now. You will not miss Safari.

-Allen Wicks