Re: computer stuff, Firewire etc. (was multiple threads)

[Mark Sottilaro <zerocrossing@gmail.com>]

> So I'm still not sure which computer to get...well, perhaps I just
> return to my eight-year old Toshiba. Works fine and has built-in TI
> IEEE1394 (no USB2.0, though...)

I hear you.  Now I know why people (including myself) go to Macs.
Simplicity.  Yeah, you sacrifice choice and a high level of
customization, but from what I can tell every Mac I ever bought was
more or less a plug it in, plug in your peripherals, install your
software and start working.  I've never had a Mac fail on me in any
way.  The worst mac experience I ever had was on an old G4 something
went kerfluy when upgrading from 10.1 to 10.2 and the machine became
very unstable. I total strip down to zeros and reinstall and all was
well.  That's the only time I've ever had to do a full reinstall on a
Mac.

I've been doing research the last week and it's making me dizzy.  From
what I can tell the HPs use the coveted TI chipset for firewire.  How
would a lower end model fare for doing my looping shtick?  Who knows?
Seems uncharted territory.  Half the people I speak to say "build your
own."  The other half say "don't build your own unless you enjoy
pain."  Type in any major brand of prebuilt PC and you'll get a a
dozen reviews saying "It's pretty good." and dozens of pissed off
people saying they suck.

Going with a company that makes pre-built audio PCs is as expensive as
buying a Mac (sometimes more so), so the idea of cheaper hardware to
run Windows goes out the window.

Anyway, my move away from the Mac was for one reason: Mobius.  Now
that there's a Mac version part of me thinks I should abandon this
quest and turn to my 8 core G5 as my main looping system. I'll set
that up this weekend and see how it goes...