Upgrading from a G4 400MHZ to ?????

[mjl660]

I'm finally needing to upgrade my old circ. 2000 era G4 400MHZ single processor w/ 1.3GHZ RAM and I'm not sure which way to go. Anyone aware of compatibilty issues with DP (I'm still running 4.12 but willing to upgrade) and the new Microsoft Xeon processors in the MAC Pro's? I'm also using MACH Five (ver 1.1 what else), Motu 828mkII MIDI interface and a old Roland XP30 as a MIDI controller. I'm also thinkng of purchasing EZ-Drummer eventually. The Mac Mini's are nice and alot cheaper, but I'm concerned with the limited number of USB and Firewire ports and ability to expand memory, Any thoughts? HELP!!!

[jgest]

Why not consider an imac or a macbook if your not needing to go macbook pro or mac pro. Like you I have been a g4 hold out for ever until last week.
I considered mac mini's but could not get over the lack of expandability options. In any case whatever decision you make you'll likely have a machine 5 times faster than your previous one.

[emulatorloo]

Anyone aware of compatibilty issues with DP (I'm still running 4.12 but willing to upgrade) and the new Microsoft Xeon processors in the MAC Pro's?

Plenty of people are running DP 5.11 on Mac Pros here.

You will need 5.11 to run on an intel mac.

I agree that an imac core 2 duo would be a huge upgrade for you and might be enough depending on your needs. I am on a dual g4 1.33 and got to borrow a mac book pro 2ish GHZ core duo and was thrilled with the performance of DP on it.

OTOH if you think you need all the expansion options of a mac pro, then that is what you will need. Here is a great article on price performance ration of the diff models:

The Mac Pro Value Equation: Where's the Sweet Spot?
http://www.lowendmac.com/musings/06/0810.html

Speed

There's a $300 difference between the 2.0 GHz and 2.66 GHz models. That's less than 10% of the retail price for a 33% improvement in CPU speed. Unless your budget is especially tight, that's worth the relatively small difference in price.

Going to 3.0 GHz adds $800 to the price. That's almost a 30% increase in price for a 12% boost in speed - just about the opposite of the move from 2.0 to 2.66 GHz. The only way to justify the cost of the 3.0 GHz model is if shaving 10-12% off the time of video work (or anything equally intensive) will significantly increase your billables.

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[Timeline]

I recently tried to upgrade a yikes g4 for my son beyond 500mhz and found problems with the mother board accepting the 800mhz Sonnet upgrade.

I ended up buying a g3 machiine off the internet for him that had the 800mhz already installed and that worked out good. I tried loading DP 5.11 and it worked fine.

Unfortunately the FW 400 bus seems much slower than my laptop possibly because the throughput is so limited.

He will only be playing garageband anyway so I'm good.

If I had it to do over I would have bought a used Mac Mini for him.