greetings, I would go for the dual G-4 over the 733 processor. I currently run several 9500s' reason being is the amount of mem slots, am looking at the dual ziff card up grade. PC's have some advantages but not many. OS X is awesome( went to Windy city last month to learn it), One of the items I dont care for with the macs is the power issue, so I always purchase external stuff( cdrws, etc.etc.), as a netwrok engineer friend told me a long time ago, install a Orange PC card if you want to run PC apps, memory and ease of use, with a good monitor. Just be certain that you have lots of space for memory( dirt cheap now). Another thing to learn, is a mac is just like a wintel box inside, everything( almost is adaptable, meaning: do your home work and you can purchase PC equipment, download mac drivers, bada bing bada boom. I run both types of OS's I am preferaential towards the mac for several reasons. THEY DONT CRASH LIKE A PC, I prefer spending time playing recording, then trying to figure out conflicts, in reagrds to your old stuff hang on to it, network the machines together. 7600 has a good processor in it. go to mac guru get a printout of the boards, go to motorola web site, look at whats new. I will always be pro mac, cause I hate fixing puter problems. takes away from slinging strings, playing, getting laid and other phun stuff. also the newer G-4's have cd burners and OS X as a standard. be cool play hard

MAC OS X (Official Statement)

Steinberg are currently preparing MacOS X versions of Cubase and Nuendo. The Nuendo project is already carbonized. This means that the complete project, while currently available for MacOS 9, could be recompiled and released as a true native MacOS X application. Cubase is undergoing the carbonization process right now.

As for now our current versions unfortunately can not be run in the so-called classic mode, since it is merely an OS X application.

Just at the moment there are no drivers for audio and MIDI hardware from the hardware manufacturers themselves, so actually to release an OS X application, that cannot be used, is not very useful to our users. We have decided to target resources to advance the development of Steinberg's MacOS 9 applications while maintaining our readiness to release true MacOS X applications as soon as it beneficial to our customers. Again, there are no dates or other details. Cubase will run on MacOS X when the next major revision becomes available. Native OS X drivers will soon be available for our hardware devices as well.

I copied this from the Steinberg site! I wouldnt go with OS X as of yet..I would stay away from it until the audio world catches up to it and there's another release update for OS X...
Why would you not want to go with the G4 733? Besides..Apple isnt making Dual Processor machines anymore for a reason! too many issues at hand I gather! OS X is nice indeed, but not for audio my friend..now, PC's crash only because the user doesnt know what is going on..the user installed or did something they shouldnt have..just like macs..they crash as well! Dont tell me they dont because I know they do!! as a tech support for Sweetwater I came across it more than enough times in comparison to a PC!
It all depends if you know what you are doing..a PC "can" be more powerful than mac..I've done head to head tests and seen a PC blow a Mac out of the water! I'm sure you didnt want to hear that and I'll hear a rebuttle against it too I'm sure of that!! LOL!!
I'd like to know why an Orange PC card is needed to run PC apps in a PC? or did I misundertsand that? Mac's have there fair share of problems too...you are limited to the hardware you can use in regards to extension conflicts and so forth and so forth
Just my $.02 worth
Opus

Opus,
I was beginning to think the Left Coast had performed some kind of magic (that left coast magic's got its spell on me) when I realized you were quoting an Apple release.

I bought this iMac for several reasons:
I had heard they were more musician friendly.
It was cute.
I wanted to have a machine that my son would not attempt to modify, thereby reducing its technological life and my tranquility
I had just attended my best friend's memorial service for both his parents, who died about twenty-four hours apart.
The afore-hinted-to Dell PC probably had outlived its aforementioned techlife. In the future, will all that stuff in our closets some to life like Hal in 2001 and we will be haunted by the Night of the Living Hard Drive?
I had just started using Windows NT (short for nightmare) at my day job. On a wireless laptop with apparantly insufficient servers at the mainframe.
Anyway, I have several reasons to really like the Mac system, and a few I don't.
I love that it cold boots in about a minute and shuts down in six or seven seconds.
I miss the "insert" key on the keyboard.
Ask any EMT and they'll tell you a crash is not always a crash, and that some that appear horrible can be harmless and vice versa.
Many of the PC crashes I endured required some kind of rescue disk or reloading of Windows to get it up and running. The Mac always reboots and gets on its merry way.
But the Mac has software and hardware expandibility and availability limitations.
I agree that OSX and dual processors are as Al Gore might say, somewhat risky schemes in the early stages of their development. I've enough of a learning curve now.
Chevy and Ford
Gibson and Fender
Yamaha and Roland

It's not always better or worse, but different.

Henry