One hard drive or two?

[CRM-114]

I'm looking into buying a G4 to use with my Digi 001 (I'm currently using a dying PC). I need some honest opinions about an issue: Do I really need dual hard drives on a G4 if I'm using it only for recording?

The difference to me is $400, which is a lot considering it would be hard enough for me to afford a Mac at all.

How many of you use only one hard drive? How does that work for you?

[CRM-114]

Also, will these specs work OK?

Dual 1.25GHz w/ 2MB L3 Cache per processor
512MB DDR333 SDRAM (PC2700) -1 DIMM
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro dual-display w/64MB DDR

[Pako]

My question to you is Two Harddrives or Ten?

For minimal functional use (which is a subjective term), you need a second drive. 400 Dollars though? You can get a second internal hard drive for much less... I would research some cheaper harddrive solutions before you rule out a second drive.

~Cheers

[CRM-114]

The problem is that, at least through the Apple store, you have very few options as far as drives are concerned. For example, the default drive option is a single 80GB drive, which as far as I'm concerned is plenty of storage space for my PT work. The only two-drive option offered is to upgrade to a 2x160GB drive (that's two 160GB drives, right?), which bumps your cost up $400. I don't need nearly that much drive space, but what are my other options? I want to buy a G4 and have it come with everything I need to run PT. I'm not a computer genius and don't want to be doing upgrades myself to get it up to speed.

[johnnyreno]

Do I really need dual hard drives on a G4 if I'm using it only for recording?

Are you confusing two drives (or dual hard drives as you wrote) with a dual processor G4? The answer either way is that the specs you quoted will work just fine. Keep in mind though that you will see increased performance with a dual processor machine. The other answer you got regarding cheaper drives is correct too, you can find cheaper drives than the ones Apple sells. Peace.

[Pako]

I picked up a western digital 120gb installed for an additional $159 from http://www.smalldog.com/.

[CRM-114]

I'm not confusing dual processor with dual hard drive. I would definitely get a dual-processor machine. The question is whether I really need a second drive if I'm only using the computer for recording.

For those of you who do have two hard drives, do you use one drive for only OS and software, and the other for file storage?

[Pako]

That is how I run it. I install all my system and applications on my 'system' drive, while all data is stored on my 'audio' drive.

[Tito Ricci Arballo]

For those of you who do have two hard drives, do you use one drive for only OS and software, and the other for file storage?

Yup. It's great. 160bg firewire drive. Be sure to unplug it w/ you upgrade to panther(so I hear) because there have been problems...as if mid-november would ever come. I'm still gonna wait a few months to see what happens, though. home page

[CRM-114]

That's what I figured. I shouldn't need larger than a 40GB drive for the system drive, don't you think?

But I'm still hoping to hear from some people who only have one hard drive. I'd like to know if that's worked out OK for them.

I know that if I keep all my audio on a second drive, it'll be safe if the system drive crashes. But besides that, what are the advantages of keeping software and audio on separate drives? If I'm going to pay for two, I want to know why I should.