HD 3 and New G5 buying advice?

[bridear]

Hello. My studio been using my HD3 system with a G4 933 Quicksilver for a year now. The (only 2 yr old) box has always been troublesome (bad ram, blown up drives, burned out iLok, burned out usb and firewire ports, etc). Rather than have it repaired yet again, I was thinking of buying a new G5. The new 1.8 Ghz dual processor G5 is in my price range. And, with the HD3, I'm not too sure the rest of the G5 fleet is really necessary for a dedicated tracking/mixing machine. But the new 1.8 dual Ghz model is not yet supported by Digi.

Any sales guy I ask says "Of course it'll work! Give me your money and we'll see what happens!"

I was wondering if anyone has this box and is using it (regularly) in a pro studio environment with HD. I'm really afraid my box (which has been churning like Mt Saint Helens for about a week now) will munch one of my Accel cards...bad. I've been looking for refurbed G4s but they are scarce to be found (and many are above $1000 anyway).

So does anyone have the new 1.8 dual and have it running Accel crash free? Or does anyone find the G4s much more stable than the new G5s at present? In my case, my tracking CPU is literally my livliehood. So I need something that works. (Heck, I'd use my old trusty G4 400 if I could). Any thoughts are appreciated.

Brian
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[Electrox]

You can have a lot of options here. My favorite is wait for the NEXT round of Macs to come out (do I hear January?), and buy at that time. I always shoot for the center of the 3 computers offered. You can get the lead in on what will be a valid computer for about 2 years. Of course, you can also buy the PREVIOUS models for a lot less once the new ones come out. I think you will want the power of the new line if you do anything "native". I hardly ever wait for Digi and their qualifying team. But if your current machine has smoke pouring out...

[Logichead]

Why not get one of the qualifying machines (dual 2.0 or 2.5) instead of risking it on the 1.8? FWIW, I just got a dual 2.5 and an hd2 and so far so good. The G5's are very quiet, and after looking closely at the bang for the buck, I concluded that the middle of the line (dual 2.0) is the one that is slightly overpriced (unless you special order the graphics card upgrade - $50). Also, anything announced in January will be months away if the past is any indication.

(BTW, I also had a G4/400 which was very reliable, lasted me for 4 years, still in service at a friend's studio. I had initially replaced it with a G4 dual 1.25 which is a fine machine, but very loud! I have kept it to finish some OS9 projects; new stuff is started on the new rig.)

Best...H

[Vaphoron]

I just bought a new Dual 2.5 and its awesome. The new Dual 2.5 has only been shipping for 2 months now so whatever high end machine Apple comes out with next will likely be at least 6 months away.

[bridear]

Thanks guys. Smoke isn't exactly pouring out. But the machine is iffy. Its been acting crazy lately. And I've done all the Troubleshooting and diagnostics I can (and of course everything is supposed to be just fine according to those tools/methods...which is really scary). And so many devices that have been attached have been fried over time, I'm worried about my Accel cards. I'm just trying to think proactive, I guess. It crashes at least once a session (last night I couldnt stop playback bc the USB stuff froze out...no rhyme, no reason). It wouldn't restart properly either. Ugh.

Keep the feedback coming. Its much appreciated.

brian