Mac, or PC for 002R?

[Miodrag]

Just bought a new 002R, but my Mac is sooo old it's useless and I must get a new computer, but I wonder which one. Are there some advantages of one platform over the other (I'm also considering Lap Top use), when using 002R?

Thanks, MO

P.S. Sorry for cross posting in bot Mac and PC forums, but I'd like to hear suggestions from both camps.

[yavuzj]

If money is an issue, get Mac Mini.
I have the 1.42Ghz, and I can do 24 tracks at the famous DaveC test.
If you use Logic 7 (I have Logic 6) get a G5 MAC.
I money is not an issue get the most powerful Dual Mac you can afford.

If you want a laptop for your only PT LE computer, I would also think about getting an external drive. I have a TiBook G4 1Ghz and It works good for portable recording solution.
However, when you connect your external drives and other things it may no be so portable.
Think about how often you will need to move it.
Mac Mini is pretty portable too if you have an LCD screen.

BTW, seriously look into PCs.
They are really powerful for the money.
With the new 64 bit Athlons, you can build a powerful, quiet computer for less than 800 dollars.
Athlons run a lot cooler than Pentium 4s and G5s.
And.. they ARE powerful.
They also have excellent laptops that work with PT LE on the PC side.
PT LE is almost identical on both platforms.

I have a rather old Dell PC that I do not use much anymore.
I just like Mac OS and I use it for a lot more things than only PT LE.
I also use UNIX shell script a lot.
It will not make much difference for you if you are not a power OS user though.
Both platforms are very close now.
They were very different when Windows was running Windows 98 and Mac was running OS 9.

I use MAC because I like Logic (MAC only) and I like the UNIX features of OS X.

[jonnyc]

Save yourself a few phone calls and a lot of headaches and get a mac. I was going to go with pc but if you don't get something approved by digi you'll be in the same situation with your really old mac, it just won't work. Most Macs are approved, I think all the g5's are and honestly the g5's run much smoother in the long run than a pc will. I did the pc daw thing and it was a headache all the time, with a mac plug the 002r into the firewire port and you're ready to go no new soundcards no asio drivers no headaches.

[AudioOIART]

Honestly I have seen / and used both sides of the mac / pc game pretty well.

Bought a mac only cause i wanted just a tiny bit less headache, still shaking my head at the prices though...

Anyways the pcs can get crazy powerfull, and are way way more cost efficient.

My personal recomendations are as follows:
-If buying for a fixed installation of a PC - go with AMD (better bang 4 buck)
-WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL ONLY no home garbage
-IN the case of ALL PC's using 002R/ buy a $35 dedicated firewire card (it'll save a ton of headaches)
-if u have the choice between a laptop and a desktop and are really torn.... get the laptop.
i'm wishin i would have at this point.
Make sure the IDE buss is SATA for higher trackcounts and thruput.
-Always a dedicated audio drive seperate (no partitions)

Either machine is great, enjoy whatever you decide.

[Fretsurfer]

Ok you can start a very long fight with questions like that... , but as many people said Get a MAC don't waste your time, i know that many of the pc users will say the oposite but probably that's because they'd never had Mac in the last years (or in their life), i'd have tryed em both and i Think that the only thing that's wrong with pc is Windows and it can take severall years to get fixed, Yes its truth that you can get a dell with 345.5000mhz of cpu's clock speed and 8755g ram with a 100" touchscreen and a 300 miles wireless keaboard for the price of a 17" Imac with 256 of ram but there's one thing you can be sure IT WILL WORK if you get the extra ram and another drive (even if you don't get the extra drive...). So save yourself hours of system tweak and check the mini or the ibook

Lucky for me this is the mac section of the the forum...

[gracejames]

I was leaning on going more PC in the future but
because of video and other apps, i am much
more mac-based now. Would you all consider a Mac-Mini
as a viable option for portable recording and portable
performance use?

=j