New eMac - what should I get?

[Morrigan]

Hi guys I am new and this is my first post!

I'm going to buy a Mac, I'm WAY over Windows XP!
It's mainly for music writing - sound editing, MIDI, etc. Not Garage Band, but serious music apps and sound canvasses.
Also I'll be using it for general Internet, chat (MSN), and general entertainment.

I've basically decided on an eMac at the moment, simply because it's cheaper and this way I can add more 'stuff' to it. I was advised in a Mac store that 512mb RAM is all the extra RAM I'd need, but I was thinking more along the lines of 1gb so that it will also be able to handle things in future as programs become more memory-hungry. What do you think?

I was also warned against the eMac because it's apparently very loud while running. I seriously doubt it would be any louder than my current PC, box of crap... LOL

Thanks for any advice or warnings, I generally keep computers for about 5 years so I like to choose a system that's gonna WORK for a while!

-Morrigan

 

[Emrys]

From my experience, eMacs are not loud. But like you said, even if it made noise, most PC's are much louder. You would be wise to max out your RAM. RAM is really cheap these days and you can get a good deal at newegg.com on pretty much and brand of RAM you are looking at. Also, Macs are great for music recording. I have an M-Audio FireWire 410 hooked up to me iMac with a pair of 5-watt Edirol monitors and use Mark Of The Unicorns Digital Performer 4. This is an excellent combination. It's also fun to jack in your guitar and mess with GarageBand. Mac's make awesome home studios, so you are heading down the right track...

Hope this helps....

Remember, moral of the story, MAX OUT YOUR RAM! It is a small expense to pay for a giant return in speed.

 

[Padawan]

Remember, moral of the story, MAX OUT YOUR RAM! It is a small expense to pay for a giant return in speed.

I'd also like to emphasize for the original poster - don't buy the RAM from Apple. Well, actually, check and compare the prices, since last time I checked, Apple's memory prices were a little better. You will still almost certainly be able to find better prices from one of the online stores that cater to Macs.

Oh, and excellent choice with the eMac. That was my other choice when I was buying my computer, but I decided on an iBook instead. There's always room for more Macs though...

 

[WilliS]

emac's are like any other mac...very quiet... if you are used to the fans of a pc, you wont even hear your emac... (the only mac that i know of that can get loud is the G5 when it rev's up...its pretty loud)

get your emac with whatever amount of ram it comes with, and then buy ram separatly from a 3rd party dealership. ram is fairly easy to put in, and they give you steps on how to take apart your emac and all.

i would go with 1 gig or so... the more the better... for the most part... there comes to a point where the money spent for ram is no longer making that big of an improvement on the system speed... if i were you, i wouldnt go over 2gigs... there really is no point... but from 512 to 1.5gig i would say would do you just fine

 

[Morrigan]

So basically get the eMac with 128mb RAM, and buy a 1GB DIMM from elsewhere? What's so bad about Mac's RAM? And will any other manufacturer work? (Just making sure, I really know what I'm doing with a PC but not Mac... yet)

Thanks for all the positive feedback, I just know I'm going to have a lot of luck with Macs!

 

[trpnmonkey41]

Macs ram is great except for one little detail.....they rape your wallets for it.

You will have to make sure that you get the right speed for the eMac ram

It has a maximum of 1GB in it with two slots so its probably cheaper to get two 512 sticks

it uses PC133 SDRAM which is very common

 

[Morrigan]

Ok thanks for the heads up. It's actually a 21st present from my Dad, and I don't think I should complicate it - I think I should just order it with the 1gb installed.
Well that's what I said I wanted and that's what they quoted him.

Don't get me wrong I'm not spoiled or anything, it's just I'm starting to get serious with all my music stuff and he thinks it's high time I got the means of doing it properly without my stupid PC which doesn't actually work anyway!

 

[witeshark]

Mac is RAM speciific that is you must use Apple equivalent. eMacs max to 2X 512 as there are only 2 slots. But 1 Gig is pretty good. eMacs are very quiet

 

[wmarkowi]

I know you want to get the 1 gig of RAM but it will work less expensivly to get the 256 installed and then go buy a 512 and install it yourself...easy stuff(cuts the base cost of the unit by $100 and leaves one bay open for the 512). This will give you 768Mb to start. Use the cut back in base price to max-out the HD to the 160Gb. Believe me, you will NEED the HD space for serious work. And of course, get the Superdrive.

good luck and have fun

 

[Badger]

Morrigan, Welcome to Mac-Forums!

IMO: Since you don't want to complicate the gift/purchase here's a suggestion, ask for the superdrive model and max out the RAM. The superdrive model comes with an 80g hard drive. Sometime in the future, when that drive is full, move it to an external, firewire box and replace it with a big internal drive. You'll get a fully usable eMac now and when you need to replace the hard drive you'll have the choice of the latest technology.
Badger

 

[chris041067]

The more RAM the better...i would definately do 1 GB. As for HD, get whatever comes standard and then pick up an external firewire drive. They can be just as good as internal ones, and sometimes faster, AND cheaper. Digital recording eats up ALOT of space.

 

[psychotoe]

Macs ram is great except for one little detail.....they rape your wallets for it.

You will have to make sure that you get the right speed for the eMac ram

It has a maximum of 1GB in it with two slots so its probably cheaper to get two 512 sticks

it uses PC133 SDRAM which is very common

trpnmonkey41 Don't the new eMac's come with 256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SDRAM?

 

[Padawan]

Don't the new eMac's come with 256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SDRAM?

Yes, the RAM has been improved on this latest eMac revision.