Macs...

[KeithRT99]

i'm looking into buying a mac in the next month or two, and i'm trying to decide what i should get. I'm debating a macbook vs. an imac. my budget is about 1600, and i get about 100 in student discounts.

what im curious is, can either of these have 2 internal HDs? how many ram slots does the imac have? im under the impression its 2.

i'd like the portability of a laptop for the ability to track bands at outside locations, but i worry about durabillity, and a sacrifice when it comes to performance. i'd also like to have 2 internal hard drives so i can have a dedicated OS hard drive.

i'm leaning towards the imac, because it's portable enough if i really wanted to take it out, it seems like it can be out uprgraded over the macbook, and the screen is really nice.

which should i go for?

 

[JeffTD]

I don't think either can, but an external FW harddrive will work just fine for audio.

I'd swing a MacBook Pro if at all possible - the bigger screen and FW800 ports will come in quite handy later down the road.

As long as you get a processor above 2.0ghz or so, and have your RAM at 2GB (3GB is the limit), you shouldn't notice too much as far as sacrificed quality goes. I went with a 1.83ghz CoreDuo MacBook, and I do have some problems running a full mix with all the plugs I want, but a faster Core2Duo would be able to handle it just fine.

 

[MdiMonk]

Look into a refurbed MacBook Pro(Apple Store online supplies vary) if going mobile.It has more expansion capability even compared to the Imac.I just scored a new 15.4" MBP 2.4 GHZ and its amazing piece of hardware.Logic Pro just screams on this laptop.

 

[greyskull]

macbook pro, or hell even a macbook. but the extra firewire port, and ability to use expansion cards is a real plus

 

[unsilpauly]

ill just chime in here and let you know that on my 1.9ghz g5 imac with one internal 250gig hd and 2.5 gigs of ram. i regularly record 16-20 tracks at a time with no problems at all. and at mixdown, i have done mixes with 45-50 tracks and 50-60 plugs running in real time(including 5 drumagogs, waves ssl, reverbs, delays, etc.). i can only imagine the new imacs are about twice as powerful.

that being said, if your mixes are going to be that big or bigger regularly, go with a macpro and be set for years. i think you would grow out of the macbook pro or an imac much faster and with a macpro you will have the most expandability/future options for sure. the macpros/powermacs are a different league than the other stuff apple makes as far as horsepower/efficiency to do audio work.

if i had to choose between the imac and the macbookpro i think i would get a 24inch imac maxed out with ram and a 500gig hd. good luck, hard decision.