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Looper's Delight
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> >P4 with 850 (not 845) chipset > >800 mHz RAMBUS (not 133 SDRAM) > As I mentioned, most of the offerings are running 133 sdram - this was the only "unbundled' one I could find that didn't. This generally a cost cutting effort to put P4 on the label, though the speed benefits are doubtful and a 133 sdram motherboard will be un-upgradeable and stuck in the dark ages in less than 6 months. >2 new Seagate hard drives in QuietPC enclosures, 5 year warranty > >dual-monitor video card >Carillon AC-1 kick-ass drop-dead gorgeous rack-mount chassis, built like the proverbial brick sh*t house. The chassis alone would sell for >$500, or $199 less than the Marathon rack-mount Mac chassis, which is no where near as nice, cool, or sexy. And our chassis is so quiet you >won't even know it's turned on unless you look at the screen. Yes, this is very nice. I can appreciate a machine built from the ground up. >5000 (!) professionally recorded (through a Neve) samples convertted to 24 bit digital though Apogee AD8000 converters, and the application >(Loop Station) to audition them, choose the ones you like, and drop them right into your application for immediate use. This feature alone is >worth over $500. Or you could pick up the Decker 10,000 samples for 30 bucks - definitely worth the price, if you are into samples. Without know who did the sampling, and what they sample , it's hard to know what this is worth, and especially if it the bulk are musically relevant to the end user. The site says : "sound content is subjective, so check out a selection on this website" ut I couldn't find the samples >anywhere< on the site. >Emagic Zap file compression utility >Cakewalk Pyro CD/MP3 burning software Bundleware doesn't turn me on much. Zap compression lost it's appeal since it's not that much better than winrar with the multimedia extension turned on, there are better freeware lossless compression technology available now. Besides, I've never seen anyone use it. Do people use it? As far as Cakewalk's "Pyrocy" software - there are a ton of other offering available. Cheap, or free. >Carillon Help, application-specific, as HTML code right on the hard rive for instant access (no need for Adobe Acrobat) >Carillon How software, as above >Carillon Fix Virtual On-Site software allowing for remote troubleshooting and repair over the internet or phone line. Nortin charges $99 for their >equivalent, known as PC Anywhere. But you can use norton anywhere you want, not just to have a technician go through your files. (BTW the free win2k terminal server is much easier to use than Norton's as long as you are networked and running win2k server) >3 year warranty. Apple charges $249 for this. > >Tech Support provided by actual musicians familiar with your application - priceless. > I don't know. Sales support provided by actual musicians at guitar center leaves a lot to be desired :> I think I'm becoming very skeptical regarding support options on my old age, but I'm sure it would be of use to the average user. >Let's add it up... >Dell P4 in plain-vanilla chassis - $899 >Carillon rack chassis - $500 >Loop Station - $500 >Emagic Zap, Cakewalk Pyro - $79 >Virtual OnSite service app - $99 >3 year warranty - $249 > >total - $2326 > >comparable rack-mounted 2 gHz G4 PowerMac - $3699!!!!!!!! > Maybe you should compare oranges to oranges and not apples :> Macs are totally overpriced. So are Dells, for that matter - I wouldn't buy one myself, though I'm sitting here surrounded by them, waiting for them to finsih processing as we speak :> Dells also come with full tech support. You can't order them without it, even if you don't want it. I agree. This is a primo machine, and probably worth the extra $1000 for how it's put together. But it does cost more than the competition (not Dell, and Apple though) I could put one together for considerably less but most people probably couldn't, and would appreciate the tech support. It looks like a great product. If don't have cash and time to spare though, there are other options. bIz