I just bought a Macbook. The 2.4 with 2G of Ram and I love it. I'm running Logic Express. I think I'll upgrade to 4G eventually but this works for now. If the hard drive is the only thing holding you back, why not get an external firewire drive?

iamfrobs wrote: A Q6600 based PC, running cubase or logic, using XP or osx86, which is most likely of dubious status with many of the people on this forum
or
A macbook with maxed out RAM, running logic. The only problem I have with this is the hard drive only being 5400 RPM, unless I need to be corrected.

Any cracked software is going to be a problem. Especially if it's the OS. If you're going to buy a PC use Windows XP. ProTools LE, which you will likely be using, runs on both platforms so just leave it at that.

If you buy a Mac Laptop, buy a MacBook Pro. The difference in price between the MacBook and MB pro is not just price and screen size. The hardware is better quality. Then again, and this is only my opinion, you could probably get a dual 2gHz Power Mac for a grand. Sure it's older tech but if you want a Mac, it's plenty powerful enough to do what you want it to. Regarding the hard drive speed on the MacBook, you would need to get an external drive anyway since, as many will point out here, it's not a good idea to record to your system drive.

thanks for the responses guys.

There are a lot of people running logic on custom intel quad-core builds that have posted benchmarks at or exceeding the base mac pro in many cases. I am not worried about the os, I am very tech-oriented, and with a few kext edits, many people have had flawless performance. I just don't have the 3,000 dollars to drop on a pro. I do feel the macs are superior for recording, but at a definite expense, and I guess that is something I am struggling with myself.

If you already have your mind set, why ask? I'm not complaining. I'm just sayin'...

Well, i don't have my mind set on either per se, its just that I feel like I am spending too much for hadware on the one hand, and I don't think I will get the whole mac experience on the other without the hardware. I guess it's because I don't think I would fit in with the mac crowd, because it bugs me to spend that much money on hardware.

On the other hand, some of the people I do know that have macs have had them for almost four years and they still do a decent job at tracking and some VST stuff.

I guess it's mostly just a personal question, did anyone ever regret buying their mac?

you can buy a PC laptop that works as good or better than the Mac for far less.

FYI there is nothing wrong with Cubase and XP.
anyone who tells you there is is ignorant.

PT is NOT the must have and neither is a MAC.

FYI i sell both... they both work and both can be great or both can crash... they are simply tools
not gods to be worshiped.

scott
ADK

ADK audio wrote:
anyone who tells you there is is ignorant.

Anyone who tells you there is, is ignorant.

Fixed that for you, now you're not so ignorant.

ahhh yess
always one anal guy in the pack...

while your at it would you care to go speel check my websit

lol. Fight!

well would anyone have an idea as to how many studios use macs vs. pcs?

I am looking to a post-pro job after I graduate if I can hack it in the industry.

Would it be beneficial to get a mac now just to be used to it?
Or is the learning curve not that bad?

I'll stick my neck out and say that most high end studios use macs because they can afford them. That's not to say that there aren't high end studio's using pc. I don't think it's unreasonable to have both. As far as regretting getting rid of a mac. I regret selling my 10 year old G3 w/Digi 001 and PTLE 6.9. It was a bit of a dog but it worked like a charm. Well, with Digi it's a love hate thing.

Edit: oh yeah. If you're tech savvy, the learning curve ain't so bad.

I agree, I was a PC guy for a very long time. Took me a few days to figure out the Mac, but it isn't that bad. You sound smart; you'll manage.

The XP/Cubase setup works as well though. The only problem I kept having was the computer breaking down. Usually I could fix it but it just became too much of a headache. Hopefully this white thing works for a couple years...

(Greener you make me nervous about posting anything with incorrect grammar. Did I do ok?)

Thanks for all the input guys. I think I am going to end up going with the pc for the first time, then sell it and go with the intel mac if the need arises.

One last question....how would you guys recommend a multi-hard drive set up?

I am thinking one for the OS, one for saved projects, and one for samples and such. Also, maybe another if I want to play around with the osx86 builds. Does that sound like something that makes sense?

FOUR HDs? And you don't wanna shell out for hardware...

If you wanna mess about with builds, get a slightly bigger OS drive and partition it so you can keep your osx builds separate but without chewing up cash on drives.
Separate drives for projects and samples is good.

Can I just point out though: I had pretty good results rendering a fairly big video onto my flash drive. Didn't seem to be bottlenecking much - and meant I could stick with only reading from hard drives.
How do other people feel about mixing down files onto a flash drive?

hahaha.

I guess the whole four HDD thing might sound bad, but I have a stash of 120GB barracudas I got from my uncles company when they found they weren't performing as well as theyd hoped. I have had nothing but good things with them however.

Just remember you can only put 4 IDEs on one motherboard. SATA is limited by the number on SATA ports: most I've seen is 4.

There may be hacks and ways to get more but who knows.

Codemonkey wrote: Just remember you can only put 4 IDEs on one motherboard. SATA is limited by the number on SATA ports: most I've seen is 4.

There may be hacks and ways to get more but who knows.

You can always buy an SATA controller card but the more drives, the more power you'll need. I don't think a 750-1000 watt powersupply is unreasonable for some applications.

1000W?

Jesus H. !

I know it seems ridiculous. They exist.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=25655&vpn=TPQ%2D1000&manufacture=ANTEC

iamfrobs wrote: I was just accepted into a pretty decent Sound Recording Tech program in the Western New York area.

I would take a few minutes and ask those people at the pretty decent sound recording tech program what they use and what they might recommend.

If I were me.

900W PSUs are now becoming common in gaming rigs. You know, those ones with a SSD, 2 SATAs, etc, then a Quad core processor and DUAL graphics cards. I mean, wat!

Pretty soon, PSU's are going to be *1.21 Gigawatts*!