setting up my computer for better performance

[richsorr]

ok, first off i am COMPLETELY dumb when it comes to harddrives and space and all that junk. i have a 2ghz g5 with stock ram. i would like to put all my protools and reason files on a seperate harddrive from the rest of teh programs and files on my computer. how can i do this. should i buy a external harddrive? also is the stock ram on a g5 sufficiant amount or should i buy some more? thanks

[sdemott]

Get a 2nd internal drive & another 512MB of RAM. For RAM I have had nothing but good results from Data Memory Systems at www.datamem.com and have been buying their RAM for years. For the drive, try www.newegg.com - but be careful the G5s internal buss is SATA not ATA. Go for something with: 7200 RPM drive/spin speed, and access time of less than 10ms (typically ~9ms). I like the Seagate Barracuda line - they're very quiet.

HTH

[lexicon5]

You can get a 160 Gig SATA HD for around $150 if you look. The exact same model that Apple ships.
Or....you can get a PCI card from SIIG that will allow you to use an internal standard IDE HD.
SATA is faster than IDE or FireWire though....
I'd go with an Internal SATA if you don't need the portability.
If you go with FireWire, get a case with FW400, FW800 and USB 2, format the drive as FAT32 and you can use it on WinDOHS PCs and the Macs.
FW800 will not provide any benefits over FW400 unless you chain 2 or more drives together and RAID them. THEN you'd see some serious $h!t.
If you can afford another 1.5 Gig for the G5...go for that to start...