Mac experts only plz: Best pt mac under 2k

[superdood]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice from experienced pt/mac users. My application would be home studio, probably no more than 48 tracks tdm, and heavy editing. I'm very new to this and need some thrifty, expert advice on a solid setup for my home project studio. Please be specific on the parts to get and where to get em if you can. I greatly appreciate your time. I'm not looking for a bunch of overkill; just a solid set-up that can handle my application. I have read some of the other threads, but many are outdated and would like current info.
Thanks a lot,
Steve

ps. if it matters, I will most likely be using one core, plus 2 farm cards and sample cell.

[The Chinese]

G4/667 By Far the Best Mac I ever Owned worth about 1200 on the used market. I have had G3/3 G4's and A cpuple of older models. I really wish I still had that computer. currently own a dual 867, not nearly as bulletproof so far...
-Todd A.

[schnauser]

wow todd, that's interesting about your dual 867, there are a bunch loaded with extra RAM available on ebay for roughly unloaded retail. My impression was the L3 cache was THE performance difference. I would like to hear more about this machine, as I was considering upgrading from my 9600 while there seems to be a glut of machines out there

[The Chinese]

The 667 had 1meg of L3 Cache-same as the Dual 867. The Diff is the stability of the system- The 667 rarely crashed, I have had some crashes with the 867. I would consider myself fairly good w/ macs & ProTools, so I don't think there's anything in extension etc. that I am doing wrong. Believe it or not, I was pn system 9.1 on the 667, which is supposedly a less stable system compared to system 9.2.2 wwe'll have to see. I will say this-the 867 is a great machine, you wont go wrong, I just really loved that 667.
-Todd A.

[Mark Curry]

I am currently using a 2 year old single processor G4 867 w/1G memory, 9.2 OS, superdrive, standard L2 and L3 cache, on Pro tools HD2 system. Its blazingly fast and doesn't crash. Unless you really want a duel G4, I highly recommend this model.

[superdood]

Thanks for the feedback. Mark, your set up makes sense to me. I cant really see the benefits of the dual cpu when the cards are doing the processing. If it's workin for you, it'll work for me. (haha I hope) I'll take the xtra money and put it towards one of those vintech x81's I've heard so many good things abooot.
thx,
steve

[schnauser]

I understand that running PT 5.x the dual processor is all but useless, but PT 6.0 is coming and it will use the dual processor and OS X, which, as I understand it, is a rock solid mofo unix os. FWIW