What speed computer to buy?

[Lotus54]

I am still using my old MDD dual 867 with a Digi 002R. Needless to say, when I load it up when any plug-ins, it won't work. Especially the reverbs (I'm using Altiverb).
Since the machine is pretty old, it is time to start looking for a new one. How much difference will I notice between the 2.0 and 2.66 dual core machines? The 3.0 is half again as much money, is it really worht it?

Mark

[OddsAre]

I'm very very very very very very happy with the power of the 2.66 Mac Pro. Save your money for RAM not the 3.0Ghz model.

Like I have said before, i often have songs with 40-45 track counts with 70-80 plugins with my buffer setting on 128. Handles it no problem. Not shabby at all.

[GORILLA]

I am still using my old MDD dual 867 with a Digi 002R. Needless to say, when I load it up when any plug-ins, it won't work. Especially the reverbs (I'm using Altiverb).
Since the machine is pretty old, it is time to start looking for a new one. How much difference will I notice between the 2.0 and 2.66 dual core machines? The 3.0 is half again as much money, is it really worht it?

Mark

I use a G5 PPC 2.0Ghz dualie 2.5 gigs of ram. The last session I did had 32 audio tracks | 10 Auxes. | 1 Master fader/ 30 plug-ins 2 Altiverbs-1 Dverb | mass SSL channel strips | and mass Duy DaD Tape (guitar tracks-kick-snare-tom-overheads, Auxes and drum submix aux-vocals).... Didn't hiccup once. That 2.0 dualcore and as much ram as you can get will run great!! Remember P.T.L.E. 7.3 uses over 700mb of ram just for the program!


Good luck
GORILLA

[lwilliam]

I don't know that the 3Ghz is worth the extra money. Similar to Gorilla above, I run 24-32 tracks with 2 Altiverbs, a chorus and/or delay and RVerb on almost every session. Then I have 2-4 VI's (plus 2 Guitar Rig2s and an Amplitube LE) running as well as Melodyne, EQ, Comp on just about every track. Admittedly, when I'm mixing a session like above, I'll have the buffers cranked to 1024, but it still works well.

ANY of the MacPros will blow my machine away since they're all essentially "quad" core machines (2 CPUs - dual core).

I'll echo everyone else: put the extra $$$ into 2-3GB of RAM, get a 2nd hard drive (internal is less trouble) and a nice big monitor or 2. You'll be set for a while.

[Lotus54]

Thanks for the input. Just what I needed to know.


Mark