MAC migration question...

[Wheeltard]

My beautiful future Mrs. will be getting me an iMac for my wedding gift. Diamond bracelet for her. It's a beautiful match... but I digress.

I'm looking at the iMac 20" w/ 2.0 mhz processor. Questions I have are as follows:
1.) Should I bump up to the 500 gig serial drive vs. the standard 250? I have drum samples, but all told less than 15 gig of samples.
2.) Is there any of the software that comes with I should NOT install?
3.) I was planning on bumping up the RAM to the full 2 gig. Two-parter here: With the duo will I notice an improvement by expanding to 2 gig? Second, I've read where you want to upgrade in 512 sets versus a gig and 512. What's the protocol?
4.) I have Waves GTR and 4000 SSL plugs. My understanding is they're fully compatible now. Is that indeed the case?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Wheels

[Wheeltard]

Sorry, just one more question...
How big a benefit is 1.83 vs. 2.0 processor. In other words, will I realize a huge performance improvement by going w/ the 20" vs. the 17". 'Cuz I could less about the larger display. Thanks.
Wheels

[Wheeltard]

Anyone? Any help or answers would be appreciated.

[mindnoise]

HI,

the speed most probably won´t hurt you, but the absent 20" TFT will.

Screens and RAM can´t be big enough!!! esp. the last one is important when using lot´s of samples.
And if do, do it with "paired RAM" modules. This is an absolute MUST with the new Intels.

Instead of buying one big drive you really NEED a 2nd (external) drive to record to.
Doing so with the System drive is not recommended!

Don´t buy the ram from Apple. They charge insane prices. get it from e.g. www.macsales.com

perhaps this helped,

regs

[Wheeltard]

Thanks Mind. No, I have an external drive for my audio folders -- 250 gig Glyph via firewire. I don't see on the iMac where you can have a second internal drive so I think I'm good to go there.

And I hear you on the RAM. But have you ever heard that you need to buy in specific blocks -- if you have 512 and want to bump up to 2, you need to buy the subsequent memory in 512 blocks (or cards)? Just curious. I don't know if I dreamt that or what.

I'm a PT 7 user on PC. And my last crash, was just that -- my last crash. Plus, the more I've read about the performance of these new intel macs the more I've been salivating on making the switch. Just give me stability and I'll be a happy Wheel. Thanks again.
Wheels

[mindnoise]

HI,

And I hear you on the RAM. But have you ever heard that you need to buy in specific blocks -- if you have 512 and want to bump up to 2, you need to buy the subsequent memory in 512 blocks (or cards)? Just curious. I don't know if I dreamt that or what.

from what I learned from the intel iMac specs it has two RAM slots, you you need to buy two 1GB modules to ge the 2GB.

that´s all I can say.

regs

[Wheeltard]

Thanks for the tip, Regs. I so cannot wait to get up and running on the Mac. When my PC ran, it ran great. But all it takes is one blue screen of death to just totally frustrate you. Thanks again.
Wheels