MAC newbie - 001 question

[Broken Wings]

i have recently been offered a MAC G3 450mgz machine, will digi 001/protools LE 5.3.1 run ok on this machine with OSX?

im currently a PC/001 user but am willing to try MAC since i hear they are better for recording.

thanks for any help.

[qgrm]

how much is the machine? shouldn't be a buck over $500. and for that money you can have the rockingest brand spanking new AMD machine...im a longtime mac user, but i think digidesign has pretty well caught up with windows. if you know windows, save yourself the grief of learning a new OS, so you can concentrate on music, and not kernel panics:)

my 2 cents. B.

[AverageJoe]

i have recently been offered a MAC G3 450mgz machine, will digi 001/protools LE 5.3.1 run ok on this machine with OSX?

im currently a PC/001 user but am willing to try MAC since i hear they are better for recording.

thanks for any help.

Well, first, PTLE 5.3.1 is not for OS X it's only for OS 9. With a machine that slow you will not exactly be getting top performance.

Second, our PeeCee Windoze friend is giving you a WAY HIGH ceiling for that machine... try more like $300-350 at the most.

In short, you can nurse along an older Mac for much longer than your average Pee Cee and use it with great results with PT (I have a G4 450 and do 24/7 commercial projects on it with no problems), but that machine is pretty past its life for Pro Tools use. i'd keep it only for office/internet stuff.

[stingjaco]

I really grow tired of the mac vs. PC thing. Please everybody take a chill pill.
Yes, that is a good deal... Gor for it!!! That is a good price. To be fair you can fetch that system for up to $500. So jump on it for that price. I had a friend that sold a 350mhz G3 for $375.

I previously used a G3 400 with a digi001 card and I had no problems for what I wanted it to do.

[qgrm]

In short, you can nurse along an older Mac for much longer than your average Pee Cee

I have to say I really disagree with that.

B.

[Broken Wings]

to be honest, i work for a computer recycling company, so im getting the G3 450mgz,256 mb, 9g hd for $75 (no monitor, but thats ok)

i need PTLE 6 for OSx?
so should i downgrade to OS9?

i am a complete PC nerd but no nothing other than hardware about macs, so any software assistance is apprecitaed

[DJ Insomaniac]

I have to say I really disagree with that.

B.

I'll disagree on that point. I've got a Mac IIvx, a Performa 640, and a Performa 6400/200. They all work. The IIvx ran a MIDI system rather well. The 640 has very little RAM, but it handle's word, as well as some older games.

I had a Macintosh SE, and that thing still worked when we sold it in '94. A G3 will run, no problem. Take it from someone who still has 2 Motorola 68ks running in their house.

I've used older PCs (Dells and no-name beige boxes) that could barely handle solitare. No offence, but unless you're talking a Mac LC (the first one), it shold still be pretty well off. I'm sure that PCs that have been maintained are still running, but i rarely see them.

[newdawg]

Don't forget about ram. You'll need to load up to run X. I use a 400mz G4 with over a gig of ram and PT 6 chokes on the demo file, spotty for multi-tracks with processing. I'm just using it for radio production and basic composition-the Mac runs great for that. I'd need to up the processor to get decent power.

$75 ain't bad, how about the OS, another $100+ there. You'll probably be real good with PT 5 but the G3's a stretch for any real multi-tracking with X/PT6.

I'd probably go with the low $ machine, run PT5 and see how you like that mac, and then try to buy a decent G4 that already has OSX and memory. I can appreciate the cheap machine though, I've got 4 macs around the house. By the time I've used them up, they're not worth much, as you know.


Good luck.

[AverageJoe]

to be honest, i work for a computer recycling company, so im getting the G3 450mgz,256 mb, 9g hd for $75 (no monitor, but thats ok)

i need PTLE 6 for OSx?
so should i downgrade to OS9?

i am a complete PC nerd but no nothing other than hardware about macs, so any software assistance is apprecitaed

I would definitely go for OS 9 on that machine... I used a G3/333 for my first 001 computer... it didn't exactly kick butt but it worked... lots of Audiosuite-ing plugins though.
You can keep it as a dual boot machine and see which works best. I'm betting you'll have better performance with OS 9 though. Use the 32 track beta version, it works great. If it's running OS X ok though, you might like it.

DEFINITELY get more RAM- no questions there. Especially if you want OS X but even in 9. And you will want a second drive- go internal with it if you can. You'll get better performance.

Good luck... great deal on your machine.