I might convert....

To mac-ism!! I've been in the Windows world since I was born (almost 20 years!), and I want to try something new. I've been hearing Mac is perfect for the "creative" audiences (music, photography, film editing) and it sounds like it would suit me perfectly.

I'm a percussionist/drummer/noob didgeridooist looking to record and create music. I previously bought a Firepod with intentions to record through my Compaq. I've been experience some lagging every time I record my drums but not with vocals or guitar. I'm probably going to ask a couple of people experienced in recording to see if it's my laptop that's causing the problem. In case ya'll want to know, I have a:

I have a 2005ish Compaq Presario V2000

According to the computer, I have a AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology ML-30
with 797 MHz, 896 MB of RAM

If my it's my laptop, I will most likely get a mac. I think the imac will be perfect for me because it's a portable desktop, has 7200 rpm hard drive, and a big screen. The imac will be used mostly by my girlfriend and me. Some of the things we'll defiantly use it for is: web browsing, watching youtube, listening to music, music recording, photo storage/editing, etc. I doubt we'll ever play any games (probably just flash games). I think the 20" will be plenty big for me, but the problem is the difference between the two 20" models.

There's the:
1.) 2.0 Ghz ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory
2.) 2.4 Ghz ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

I know I will have to upgrade the RAM to at least 2gigs (not from mac) and I will probably get a 320 or 500 gig hard drive.

Thanks!!!

save the money on the difference between the vid cards and use that for the ram. you'll only really need that extra video memory if you're going to be gaming on it (with relatively intense games).

welcome to the mac-forums!

First it is not "not from mac", but 'not from Apple'. Apple Inc is the company. Also, it would be Mac, not mac, or MAC.

Your drumming issue maybe that you current setup is having trouble handling multiple inputs. I'm assuming multiple mic inputs. If you have some software to tell you how hard the processor is working and the drive writing, then run that at the same time to analyze the problem. Multiple real time sampling is challenging. That's all I'll say since we're not a Windows site. I'd recommend you find a site for the software you are using.

As for a new Mac, the 20% speed boast of the higher model could help with recording, but likely the bottleneck would be writing to the drives. Personally I'd recommend an external drive. So, the lower end is likely a fine machine for you needs, excepting that you'll want at least 2GB of RAM if not the full 4GB since music software can be very demanding of memory. RAM is much cheaper from someone like otherworldcomputing.com.