BIG question newb warning

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Hi their i'm J1mba Fr0sty a Rap/R&B/Pop producer/beatmaker and im looking into mac. The question is I dont know what i wanna get

b4 i say anything all i wanna run is reason 4 and logic 7 with maybe some extra vsts thats basicly all thats going on the mac besides samples (.wav)

ill be making music mostly on reason and i know its a light program and good on cpu BUT when i wanna remix i need somthing else like either logic 7 pro tools or cubase and ill be using both programs at the same time from time to time as well.

NOW im either getting a g4 power mac or a g5 imac


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About the G4/G5 mac pro
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i did some research on the g4 power macs and i guess its best to get a dual or 1.?? instead of a 800Mhz BUT im not finding a lot of "duals or 1.??Mhz" g4s. Will the 800Mhz or higher g4 power macs be good for what i wanna do? also i can go dual screen on the tower right?

ALSO lol i saw on ebay a g5 mac pro i though that was a power mac? cos it looks JUSt like a power mac but said mac pro g5 is that true? dose it exist? or just a typo on their part? cos it was cheep and i might snatch it

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About the imac G5
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NOW i also looked at the g5 i macs BUT the thing is can I upgrade hardware on it? add more ram? etc? i guess for hard drive i need to go external on it which suckes cos then ill have to get a usb hub. Can i Go dual screen?


ALL this computer's gonna be is a Music studio computer or a DAW (digital audio workstation) Not a lot of crazy stuff is gonna be going on.

I thank you guys in advance for not only reading all of this lol but ansering my question and i did do research as much as i could so thanks in advance. if theirs any more information u need from me ask and i will replay.

Good day.(^__^)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacMini 14.3, 8.1 & 4.1, OS 13.5, 10.14, & 10.11 & 10.6; Macbook Pro 8.2, OS 10.12.
One of your best resources is Mactracker, a free application, that gives you all the specs and upgrade options for every Mac ever made.

Yes, you can upgrade the G5 iMac in a number of ways. For sheer power, the Mac Pro, in which you can have dual, even multiple, drives, large amounts of RAM etc. Both iMac and Mac Pro are quick.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
How many wav samples/loops are you planing on having and using on the Mac? If it's in the 100-200 GB+ range. Which is pretty easy to have even for an amateur for me, you'll need a lot of storage. Cause you have to add in all the space required for your works in progress as well.

So if you go for the power mac you can get a lot of internal HD space. But then you'll lack having intel. Which is nice for being able to use windows easily on the mac.

But if you get an imac (intel one) you'll need an external hard drive for all of the above stuff. As the imac's internal just isn't enough for a serious music user. Anyways with an external 1 TB drive (which are relatively cheap these days) you'd have enough space left over to use as a scratch disc if you wanted to.

But if new intel prices are a little too steep for you, there is always the Apple Refurbished store. There are at times a few good deals in there.

And I don't know about PPC machines. But on my 2Ghz imac apps like Logic and garageband work flawlessly and that's with a heap of other apps in the background as well.

Here's the link to download mactracker:
http://mactracker.dreamhosters.com/

And lastly you'll need to have at least 2 GB of ram in your mac. Get it from a 3rd party shop and install it yourself. Apple's ram prices are insanly high.

And also just make sure with the new mac you get ilife 08. Why? Cause it'll have the latest version of Garageband in it. And it's not the most feature filled music editor/creator out there. But very nice when coupled with other solutons such as logic (which I love). And the latest logic have all of the garageband jam packs in it as well. Well all bar the voices one. And I'm not so sure if you'd get much use out of voices. But the rest (ie extra loops/software instruments) stuff I'm sure you already know about would really make your life a lot easier as a mixer.

So my suggestion?

I'd say look for an intel imac, (refurbished is you can't afford new) and a portable hard drive for all the loops, backups and scratch disks.

The Mac Pro is great also. But sever overkill I think in the power and cost department, so not really a good option.

But if you're insistent on a PPC (ie G4 or G5) just look around for other's experiences on using apps like logic on those machines. Cause you don't want to buy one anr realised only after the fact that it's to slow for your liking. They might work for you, it's all up to how hardcore you want to be with your music.

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And to answer your questions directly:

About the G4/G5 mac pro:

Yes you can go dual screen. And the 800mhz might just not be enough. Because according to Apple the requirements for logic 8 are 1.25 Ghz and OS 10.4.9 But they recommend a G5 or intel for it. And yes G5 is still a power mac. The Mac Pro is intel. So I would ask the seller there which one it is before you think about buying it.

About the imac G5:

You can upgrade the ram in it easily to a max of 2.0-2.5 GB depending on which G5 imac you are looking at. And the hard drive is upgradeable. But not really easy to do. Quite the difficult. And is 3 USB + firewire ports not enough for you? If that's the case you'll have to go a hub for external HD space. And lastly yes I'm pretty sure you can dual screen with them.
 
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intel core duo macbook pro 2 ghz, 2gb ram, 80gb hd | Quicksilver 1ghz DP, 1.25 gb ram, 200gb hd
I can understand why you would consider the G4 you might be able to find the one you are looking for for about $100.. but go with the G5 at least or go newer.. The G4 won't last you using those programs (when they upgrade and you want a newer version). Have you looked at the intel Mac Mini? Might be able to find an intel mini refurbished if you already have peripherals. Although they really don't look like fun to take apart for upgrading, I've never had one. With the iMac or Mini and go external storage unless you feel confident about opening her up and upgrading yourself.. Apple will do it for you but that will cost even more $$$. Dang! This was supposed to be about saving money.. So don't spend too much either. Look around for a while.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM MacBook, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
The best music software (in my opinion) comes with your Mac. It's called GarageBand, part of iLife.
 

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