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Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jun 27 2008, 09:29 PM

Hi ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to clean out my closet and leave my home to study at a music school in another town! Unfortunately I don't have a computer myself, so I am going to buy one, but I want it to be ideal for making, working with and listening to music. Do you have any tips and opinions? I don't want to use more than about 10'000 Norwegian kroner, that means about 1800 U.S dollars. It should be mobile.

Thanks in advance, Peter

Posted by: Hisham Al-Sanea Jun 27 2008, 09:49 PM

you need a fast CPU/big hard disk/1000-2000 Rams/creative sound card /DVD writer/G force VGA

Posted by: BodomESP Jun 27 2008, 10:16 PM

$1800 can get you a very nice computer these days at least in NA.

Hisham's right you want a nice fast CPU. Basically the biggest decision you have to make with the CPU is wether to go dual-core or quad-core. Quad-core definitely has the speed advantage but only in multi-threaded applications. Right now there's not many apps. out that support multi-threading, but they are becoming more and more popular, and in the near future I see all apps. being multi threaded. Also go with an Intel CPU not AMD. Intel is making the better faster CPU's at the moment.

Since it doesnt look like you'll be using the PC for gaming or any graphic work you can probably go with a cheaper graphics card and be just fine. But if you still want a decent graphics card that can run all the games out there now fairly well take a look at the GeForce 9600 GT, great card for the price.

Get at least 2 GB's of RAM too, that'a pretty much the minimum for PC's these days. Corsair makes really good RAM

Also if your going to go with a Intel CPU get a motherboard with the P35 chipset. Trust me on this.

And yeah since you'll be using this for music editing and stuff make sure you get a good sound card and a nice big hard-drive to store all those songs you'll be coming up with

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jun 27 2008, 10:33 PM

If you wanna be mobile you need a laptop.

It must be a minimum:

Intel P35 chipset
Intel Core 2 Duo 2,4Ghz or equivalent. 6600 is a good model to consider at the moment
minimum 2 GB of RAM
minimum 250GB hard drive 500GB if you wanna play games, watch lot of movies and do video editing
GT9600 is a best buy at the moment if you care about graphics but you don't need a great one for latest games.
widescreen monitor at 20" is welcome, although 19" can also do the job.

as for the sound part

- buy separately a quality external USB of Firewire sound card. Recommend USB interface Toneport UX1
- buy good quality external speakers and / or headphones

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Jun 27 2008, 10:35 PM

When you say mobile you mean like a laptop ?? Or you will be buying a desktop ? Anyway , look out for a big hdd , lots of RAM (2gb+) and if its laptop to have different usb and firewire connections..You would want to add a some kind of recording interface to the story too

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jun 28 2008, 03:41 AM

[quote name='BodomESP' date='Jun 27 2008, 11:16 PM' post='218705']
$1800 can get you a very nice computer these days at least in NA.

Does NA mean North America? Might be smart to buy a computer there as that's where I'm going on vacation
And yes, I'm going to buy a laptop
By the way I do also think I'm going to buy some kind of Midi-program or whatever it's called to make backing tracks. I've watched mostly ProTools-programs and such, but please come with tips here too.

But OK... Here are the specifications you think the computer should have so far:

Intel DualCore processor 2,4 GHz
GeForce 9600 GT graphics card
Corsair 2GB RAM
Intel P35 Chipset
Minimum 250GB Harddrive (Wow... Are we evolving that fast? I think the one I'm using now has about 160 )
19" Monitor
Firewire External USB sound card
Toneport UX1 USB interface
External speakers (I have some from Logitech, but they're not very great. Any tips here?)

I don't know what half of this is but I'll figure it out (I think)
Is there anything now that we've forgotten?
And by the way, what trademark should I choose? Do you know of any computers with these specifications?
What stores are the best pricewise?

This does really start to look like one of my schoolbooks with all these questions

Thanks again
Peter

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jun 28 2008, 03:00 PM

That's good enough man. But you don't need firewire interface because Toneport is USB interface. You don't need 2 interfaces to work with audio, on is enough

Posted by: kjutte Jun 28 2008, 05:05 PM

Buy an external Emu creative card. I'm very satisfied with mine, cost only 1300NOK.
PC, don't have to spend alot. all pc's come with 2.5ghz and 2gb ram nowdays!

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jun 29 2008, 05:18 PM

What is an Emu Creative card? Is it for graphics or is it a soundcard? I feel so stupid right now...

Posted by: kjutte Jun 29 2008, 05:23 PM

'Creative E-MU Tracker' pro is the one I have.

http://www.emu.com/

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jun 29 2008, 06:54 PM

EMU tracker is truly a great device. But after that you need some money for a software guitar modeller, and Toneport comes bundled with a very good one as opposed to Amplitube LE that has little features.

But I must say that sound quality with EMU is better.

Posted by: kjutte Jun 29 2008, 09:31 PM

I have a Marshall TSL for preamp.

If he doesn't have a preamp I bet you're right on with Toneport.
Amplitube sucks! + you need appleware to make it go realtime.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jun 30 2008, 03:29 AM

If you're talking about Line 6 Toneport I do already have a Podxt

Posted by: Juan M. Valero Jun 30 2008, 05:50 AM

If you want to work with VSTs and to play a MIDI keyboard go for a high RAM, minimum 2 GB

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jun 30 2008, 10:20 AM

If you already have PODxt I think you can use it as your ASIO sound card. You don't need Toneport then. You only need software now - DAW & a couple of VST's. AS Juan wrote (and I agree), if you wanna work decently with VST's you will need a small MIDI keyboard. If you are not a keyboard player I suggest only 2 octave one.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jun 30 2008, 04:21 PM

I don't know what a DAW or a VST is, but I have magazine here that I've been looking through where I found something interesting. It's a pack from M-Audio with ProTools M-Powered and a midi-controller called Ozonic. Does this come with midi patches or does that come separately? Any experiences with it?

Another midi-controller is Axiom. Is it compatible with ProTools M-Powered?

Questions, questions, questions...

Posted by: 2mazzo Jun 30 2008, 04:51 PM

This is the one I would go 4: http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=349316
Thoshiba comes with a quad core soon, the qosmio g50, so if you can hold on for a while and save up another 5000 - 10000 nok you can buy this one
http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio/G50

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jun 30 2008, 09:36 PM

[quote name='2mazzo' date='Jun 30 2008, 05:51 PM' post='220031']
Thoshiba comes with a quad core soon, the qosmio g50, so if you can hold on for a while and save up another 5000 - 10000 nok you can buy this one



I don't think I'll be able to save up that as I'm probably going to get a midi-program in addition to the computer
Though, the other computer you showed me, Acer Aspire 6920G, looked a little interesting, what do you other guys think? (I'm not sure if I wrote the name of the computer correctly )

Posted by: Freebird Jun 30 2008, 10:30 PM

Whao!!! All that money... For a computer??? great you can buy a monster.
The actual crucial decision is that you want it portable: that restricts many possibilities, but lets try
Obviously it won't be a VERY portable one with all the features you want (it'll be heavy)

I suggest you get a dual core processor, as fast as you desire (look for online benchmarks to see who's fastest). Quad core wouldn't be useful, because most applications don't use it...
RAM... well all of them have 2 gigabytes or more now so no problem, especially on the high end segment. For that price you'll even find 4 gigs!
Hard Drive... I suggest not to search for the biggest storage as laptop disks are small, slow and expensive... I guess 160gbytes is the norm now. You can get an external 3,5 inch together
Sound card.... Well, sound cards installed in laptops are usually ok for listening, bad for producing (they throw all the hard work at the CPU). You'll need an external audio board, with ASIO support (this minimises latencies) and a lot of plugs for your equipment

I don't think anything else is important... I don't think you need a fancy expensive graphics card for audio producing, but you might ending up buying one, because most high end pcs have it (to run vista's aero)

Oh yes.... If you want to run XP on it, see if its supported and if you can find drivers, if not you'll have to stick to vista.

Hope it was helpful

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jun 30 2008, 11:23 PM

That was VERY helpful! Thanks alot!

Posted by: Koopid Jul 1 2008, 06:33 AM

The quad core is not really necessary, dual core will be well enough for another couple of years. I don't know about music production or soundcards. I do however know a little about laptops In my opinion you should stay clear of Acer laptops, I am the IT manager at my company and we have put a stop on Acer laptops due to too many problems. Toshiba, Dell and IBM/Lenovo are all very good choices. I heard good things about Sony Vaio and LG too but I have no personal experience from those.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 1 2008, 08:02 PM

Thanks alot for the advice! I have been playing around with the computer customizer at Dell's website, so maybe you should have a look at what I've ended up with!

SYSTEM COLOR Jet Black
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
HD DISPLAY Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
VIDEO CARD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
MEMORY 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2
HARD DRIVE 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS Dell 1510 Wireless-N Card
BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.0)
BLUETOOTH Dell Travel Mouse (with Bluetooth Technology)
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ Advanced HD Software Edition
FINGERPRINT SCANNER Integrated Finger Print Reader
KEYBOARD Back-lit Keyboard

My Software & Accessories
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE Norton Internet Security 2008, 15-Month
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 - Word, Excel + PowerPoint
DESIGNED FOR DELL BAGS Belkin Energy 15.4" Messenger Black/Gray
STORAGE & AUDIO Red 4 GB DataTraveler 110 USB Flash Drive

My Service
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Included 3 GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1Yr
AUTOMATED PC TUNEUP 3 Year Automated PC Tune Up 2.0
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS 6 Months FREE EarthLink Internet Access
ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS Recycling Kit and Plant a Tree for Me

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
LCD and Camera Glossy, widescreen 15.4 LCD (1280x800) w/ 2.0M pixel Camera
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium
Processor Branding Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1

Starting Price $1,762

Please tell me if there's something I don't need or something I need to upgrade

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 1 2008, 10:07 PM

A faster hard drive minimum 7200rpm is recommended for comfortable work in DAW. You don't need that Audigy card, the most cheap integrated chip will do just fine because you will by interface anyway.

Other than that it is a great machine. Also that integrated graphics card can cause troubles with Vista Aero, but you can turn off the visuals anyway.

Posted by: Freebird Jul 1 2008, 11:04 PM

Great machine, sure will last for a long time!
Plus I didn't know you could get a good integrated sound board on a laptop, but if you wish to use external boxes it isn't much of use like Ivan said. It would help if using VSTs though.
You can't do much about the hard drive... if it were a desktop you could have bought a 7200rpm (bigger) or 10000rpm (smaller) drive for the same price. Soldi state isn't an option up to now, they're too small in spite of their cost. If you aren't planning in moving the pc very often you could buy an external hd or 3.5"hd + box (you can choose the disk this way )
Graphics card is perfect for what you need, I think it won't have any problems.
Enviromental options are great I'd also pay more if I had the possibility to have my pc recicled when it gets old.
Integrated finger print reader.... cool! Watch out for your finger though, if you "lose" it or harden it up by shredding too much, you'll need to send your pc back
I've always had bad experiences with Norton Antivirus, very heavy and bloated program, but I can't recommend you another one, because I don't use any

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 2 2008, 01:16 AM

Ok...
What's DAW and VST?
Do you recommend using a graphics card or an interface?
How do I find out if it is possible to use XP instead of Vista on the computer?

@ Freebird: I'll use my right hand thumb and try not to use it on anything else than holding the pick

Posted by: Koopid Jul 2 2008, 06:17 AM

If you can find a faster HDD for your laptop you should as quoted above. HDD size is pretty cheap so I would add size too up to 320.

Dell usually match their components to eachother and the bundled software. They are really good at it too which is one of the reasons its kind of hard to upgrade a dell once you bought it. The graphic card will most likelly work fine on your system if you stay clear of graphic intense programs like new videogames (or Vista Aero, but the 3GB or RAM should help a bit here too).

Other than the Harddrive it looks like you found a great machine!

Posted by: Muris Varajic Jul 2 2008, 06:32 AM

I believe 2,4Ghz Duo is more than enough for you.

My old PC was 2,8Ghz Pentium 4 but I never managed
to load it more then 70% of its power.
I had 2GB ram and sometimes it got overloaded
because of many VSTs I used to run at the same time.

So this configuration you're talking about
is gonna work like a candy.

Posted by: javari Jul 2 2008, 07:55 AM

I have to say that I had some very bad experiences with Dell.
A few years ago i bought one of their most expensive notebooks (D 800)
In countless repairs the whole computer has been replaced, the screen, the keyboard, the harddrive a couple of times and the whole logic board, overything has been replaced.

Also, Dell support is very bad...
If you're lucky and have no problems with it than it's probably not a bad computer, if you have to deal with Dell support, you're in trouble...

How about an Apple?
They are great computers and there is a lot of good software. You get Garageband with it.
And if you want, you can easily make a dual boot system with the new ones, so you can run Windows as well.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 2 2008, 03:13 PM

Aren't Apples very expensive?
By the way, I found an XPS where I had the possibility to put in the T8300 processor (A cheaper one that goes with 2,4Hz and a 3GB cache I think) instead of the T9300. Then I would get enough money for a 7200RPM hard drive with equal disk space and a "Free Fall Sensor"..?

Posted by: Koopid Jul 2 2008, 05:56 PM

Me on the other side have only good experiences with both dell computers and in particular Dell support who has been superb the few times I had to be in contact with them. I have bought 2 laptops and 1 desktop for myself over the years, 9 servers, 2 server racks, somewhere between 20 and 25 desktops and about 15 laptops for my company. I have had problems with 1 laptop and maybe 3 desktops at my company. The laptop had to have a loose contact for the screen fastened and it also had a few problems with the keyboard. All 3 desktops had the same problem but just cant remember what it was.... They had to be sent back anyway. One of my own laptop shad a faulty docking station.

Dell support has been great, atleast in Sweden. the only time I got angry with them was when I lost my OEM OS disc and they didnt want to replace it (warranty was out by a couple of years but still). It should be said that I never had to call support as a "private" person though. The comps I bought for myself was when I had my own company a couple of years back so I only used "Company Support".

I have also bought 4 Toshiba lifebooks for my company and never had to call support on those, they been super so far.

Macs are great computers but they are a bit pricey and they dont have as much software to choose from. The major downside to using Macs or Linux software is that unless you have a lot of friends with the same stuff you dont have as many people to ask for help or advice.



Hard choice. You loose some speed on the processor and gain some on the HDD. I would say go with the faster HDD. You have to run pretty processor heavy apps to fully load a dualcore processor at 2.4Ghz

Posted by: tonymiro Jul 2 2008, 06:04 PM

When it comes to music (and media) production I'd have to say that Apple tend to have a more tightly integrated system whether it's with ProTools or Logic and the related peripherals then the pc. Also Apple laptops are not that much more in price retail wise now then the equivalent spec major name pc ones - at least where I am.

However if you need the laptop for more then media production then as Koopid says the pc tends to have more software. Another issue - pcs (including laptops) are, in my experience, easier to repair and the range of spares is better and prices lower then for Apples.

Personally both me and my wife use Sony pc laptops and have not (touch wood) had a problem with them. However we get them at a good discount from Sony Europe - if we had to pay full price we'd probably now go with Apple.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: Freebird Jul 2 2008, 08:16 PM

Tony now all Apples use the same hardware as PC so that's not a problem

Hehe, they can't sell XP anymore and it's difficult to downgrade... And most laptops don't have drivers for XP. Maybe you could find out on the Dell site...

Oh yes, for the 7200rpm drive: you may get it if its in the options, but beware it will consume more power (beware if you want to use the laptop on battery power). Other than that, get it The slower processor won't hurt much, as Muris said, you probably won't notice the difference.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 2 2008, 09:31 PM

I think I will go for Dell then I was at the apple store, but there weren't as many options as at the dell-site, plus that they seemed more expensive.
PS. There is still time to try and convince me to go with another trademark as I won't order it before the 11th of July anyways. Let's just cross our fingers and hope that I will get into the school


Only the midi-programs to go now

Posted by: javari Jul 2 2008, 09:49 PM

well, personally I rather have my nuts removed than ever do business with Dell again...

BTW, don't believe claims about "free fall sensors" or similar systems. If your computer is going to fall, it is very, very likely that your hard drive is broken. I know, I take my apple notebooks on location a lot and two times they fell of a table because somebode tripped over a USB cable. Bothe times the hard drive was broken, and both had a mechanism wich should have prevented that.

I've found that the best way is not to store importent data on yuor computer but on external drives. It's easy as well. For example, I have all things which have to do with palying guitar (like lessons, tutorials, videos, tabs and diagrams of scales an chords) on a USB drive. It gets its power of the computer and the great thing is you can plug it in any computer. When you going to play at a friend's house or in a rehearsel room, you just take the little drive with you and you have all the information with you.

And if your computer breaks down, you still have all your data...

Of course, ideally, you should make a backup copy of the disk...

Last thing: Apple's aren't that much more expensive anymore. I think if you want a good Windows PC, you pay about the same... 

Posted by: tonymiro Jul 2 2008, 10:52 PM

Very true Freebird - it's my age, I still tend to think of Apples as being on a motorola chip set . That and dream about RISK computer chip sets and nightmares about my old Commodore Pet .

Apple laptop clamshells though are a pig in my experience to get in to if you want to do anything more than replace RAM. Or they were the last one I did - very nearly cracked the case doing it - and you pretty much void the warranty as soon as you open the clam. (Wasn't my Apple so if I had .) Same with mass produced pcs but most of them are much easier to get into and you can usually make your entry and exit pretty clean . Apple branded spares/upgrades do seem to cost a fair bit more then equivalent non-Apple and like you say most parts are now pretty much generic. I'm not sure what happens to an Apple warranty if you put in non-Apple branded spares though - even if you don't crack the clamshell ...

Anyway I would still say that there isn't that much difference in price now and Apple - at least for music production - offers a much more tightly integrated solution. It's interesting that some of the expensive pro-end hardware specialists (ie SST, Apogee, Aurora, Prism etc) launch products on Apple OS platforms long before (if at all) you get a pc version.

Hard drives and backups - as javari says ALWAYS backup your essential stuff to a separate and external harddrive and also try to keep an upto date mirror image burnt to a DVD or similar via Ghost or similar. Again as javari says - a freefall sensor much rather have a backup .

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: Freebird Jul 2 2008, 11:29 PM

Wow that was a looooong time ago Apples were on motorola processors ! Unfortunately I got to the age of having access to a computer only when windows 95 was around Then they were already based on PowerPC!

I don't have any experience with Apple's notebooks, but I do with iPods and iPhones, and they ARE very difficult to open, at least without screatching the outer case... They unfortunately think that little plastic hinges are a substitute for a screw (my scooter is like this too... ) . Instead most other phones/media player have nice screws which are very easy to open and fiddle about with you just need that silly 10-point star screwdriver and you can open most industrial products (and take your hard disks apart when they break! They're cool inside!)

Very good advice that of backuping At least your more important stuff deserves a backup...Remember your precious data is stored in minute magnetic cells with a read head hovering on top... Ot if not, keep it directly on a flash pen! I saw one that claimed it could be run over by a car and still work

Posted by: tonymiro Jul 2 2008, 11:57 PM

Pre Win95 - heck now I fell old !

10-point star screwdrivers for the win imho - one of my fav essential tools . I still believe that if something can be put together it can be taken apart, fiddled with and reassembled - doesn't always work well with heat sealed plastic clams or plastic hinges though .

Once had a boss who took a brand new, very expensive, electron beam gun to bits fresh out of the box without waiting for the company's engineer to install. He dropped it, couldn't get it together again, so he reboxed it, sealed up the container and played innocent when the engineer arrived to install it .

Biggest and most expensive thing I've ever brutalised though was a quadrapole mass spectrometer back in the early 1990s (about 250 UK Sterling new then). We wanted but couldn't afford a new HPLC/MS/MS so did it ourselves. Lots of fun though I remember it was a bit of a pig working out the internal geometry to get the right place to drill out the casing. It did work though .

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 3 2008, 12:49 AM

Hmm... You've made me a little unsure again
Is it possible to get more information about the specs of the Macs than what's shown on the apple site?

Posted by: Koopid Jul 3 2008, 05:33 AM

If you are going to only use it for music/media production and you have previous experience with Mac (or you have friends that know Macs), go with Apple.

If you plan to use your laptop for more than music/media or you have no previous experience with Mac, go with the PC.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 3 2008, 09:52 PM

I don't have any earlier experience with Mac, but I was at the music store today, and the guy there told me to choose Apple He also told me to go with an Mbox 2 from Digidesign as a USB-interface as it gives me Pro Tools LE in addition and just get a cheap integrated soundcard for the computer. What do you guys think of this? I start thinking more and more of going with Apple now, but the only problem is that I can't find reasonable Macbooks with a 7200RPM speed hard drive

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple Remote
iWork '08 preinstalled
Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth

These are the specifications if I buy a Mac

Posted by: tonymiro Jul 3 2008, 11:31 PM

Whilst a 7200 spin speed HD would be great a 5400 is not the end of the world unless you do a lot of sample streaming. (I have a laptop that I use as a back up portable music one that has a 5400 spin speed 80 Gb ATA HD and it works fine.) Do however multi-partition the disc - or get the shop to do it for you. It's also always possible to either retrofit a faster internal drive or use an external if you need to at a later date - drives are pretty cheap now a days anyway.

Everything that I've seen of the MBox with PT is good - offers good integration and with PT you can also share files with the more pro quality PT HD - which is used in a lot of studios. PT is a v good sequencer as well. MBox 2 comes with quite a bit of additional software plug-ins which is a bonus.

If you buy it all from the same shop try to get them to give you some free stuff - headphones and a mic maybe . Maybe also get them to install and validate that PT works 'out of the box' with the MBox and the Apple OS version you get.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 4 2008, 12:43 AM

What is to multi-partition the disc? If I'm going to get the shop to do it for me there will be some problems as I'm going to order it over the internet, and I don't know if it will be easy to call as I'm going to order it from USA (I have to pay taxes for over 350$ if I'm going to buy it here!)

By the way, is it possible to get Mac-mouses with two buttons now?

Posted by: Koopid Jul 4 2008, 06:15 AM

It seems like you yourself would prefer to have a mac, so go for mac

Multipartitioning a disc means that you "fool" the disc that it is two disc. i.e the C: disc is now C: and D:

This is good especially for production as it lets you have all your mediafiles and projects on the D: disc (which is usually the larger disc) and the OS (Operative System) and programs on the C: disc. If You get a virus or a system crash that makes you have to reformat and reinstall the OS you only have to reformat the C partition and your projects are safe.

Posted by: javari Jul 4 2008, 08:56 AM

Mac-mouses all have two buttons now, it just seems one button.
You just press on the left side or right side of the mouse.

BTW, if I look at the online Apple store I get the option to put in a 7200 rpm 200GB hard drive, it costs € 90 extra. My experience is that you should call the number on the Apple website to order an ask for a discount, I always got at least a € 100 discount or an upgrade (like this hard drive or a better graphics card)

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 4 2008, 10:56 AM

@ Javari: Are you serious? Can I just call them and ask for an upgrade and I'll get it free?!
And when you say you have the option to put in a 7200RPM Hard Drive, is that with a normal MacBook?

@ Koopid: Aha, seems like a good idea How much does it cost?

Posted by: javari Jul 4 2008, 11:15 AM

Well, a bought a MacPro recently and got a € 150 discount of the price on the site, I don't remember exactly how much discount I got on my MacBook Pro.

I just say to them that I can buy the same thing at a reseller and ask them how they can make it atractive for me to buy with them.
I've bought about 5 or 6 Macs this way and it has always worked, in fact the first time the gave me the discount without asking...

You're right about the HD, the faster one is only on the MacBook Pro, not on the Macbook.
I wouldn't worry about that to much. I have never put a 7200 rpm HD in a laptop because I'm afraid that the extra heat wich is generated by a faster drive will cause it to fail quicker. Notebook HD are a bit more fragile than normal ones, everything is smaller and the computer gets quite hot.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 4 2008, 11:31 AM

So you think I can get a discount that easy? Do you think they'll just blow me off if they hear that I'm not from the US?
By the way, I was at a computer store today, and one of the people there said that it would be better with an integrated soundcard because it would go too slow with an external one

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 4 2008, 11:33 AM

You can't really work in DAW properly with integrated card, you must get an external one. SO cheap integrated is all you need really. You will barely use it.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 4 2008, 11:37 AM

Ok, I think I will stick with your opinion

Posted by: javari Jul 4 2008, 12:16 PM

Well, you're a customer aren't you?
I don't think they care where you're from. Why do you want to buy in the US?
Sometimes, if you do the calculations, it isn't that much cheaper. You have to pay shipment, tax and you'll have to check how the warranty works. They probably make you buy Applecare to get international warranty, thats another couple of hunderd euro's.

If you don't want to buy in you home country, why don't you buy in antother European country?
Norway isn't part of the EU right? That's a shame (only in this case... otherwise it's pretty smart)

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 4 2008, 12:37 PM

I'm going on vacation to USA, so my plan was that I'd ask some of the people we would be living at to order it to themselves, and then I could have it when I came to them and pay them what it cost

I know it's not always very beneficial that we are outside the EU, but I'm still happy we're not in for other reasons

Posted by: Freebird Jul 4 2008, 10:31 PM

WOwo you work in very advanced fields

I can see the look on the engineer's face, like "This is a real mess! Has anyone touched this?" and everyone suddenly had something to do I would have blamed the shipping
By the way I'd be scared of taking apart such things.... I'm already worried about taking my amplifier apart because I'm scared of those mighty condensers... And that biiiiig warning sticker "do not disassemble"
A spectrometer! Aren't those thingies for seeing what chemicals are on stuff? Nice and an electron beam gun? Aren't they used in CRT monitors? Your work sounds fun

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 5 2008, 12:34 AM

One thing I started wondering about is the PODxt, does it have drivers for Mac?

Posted by: Freebird Jul 5 2008, 12:44 AM

fast google search output:

What does the USB port do?

The USB port allows direct digital recording from your PODXT or PODXT Pro™ to your Mac® or PC, plus the ability to use PODXT Pro to play back audio from your computer like a soundcard. It also allows you to perform software updates and communicate with MIDI applications such as the Line 6 Monkey intelligent updater, Line 6 Edit™ and GuitarPort® without a MIDI interface – only a USB connection is required.

In order for your computer to be able to communicate with your PODXT or PODXT Pro over USB, you will need to install USB driver software.

Windows® and OS X® users: click here to get the Line 6 Monkey intelligent updater application, which allows you to install the latest drivers.


Yes it does

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 5 2008, 12:50 AM

Ok, thank you very much

Posted by: Koopid Jul 5 2008, 08:58 AM

I dont know what it costs. I only bought Dell's latelly and they dont charge for it since I order my setups by phone. Call your retailer and ask them. It shouldnt be to much unless the computer is already set up when you order it.

Posted by: IDontWantMyUsername Jul 5 2008, 02:49 PM

Will it be more expensive getting it done after I've got the Mac than if I get it done before it's set up?

Posted by: tonymiro Jul 5 2008, 07:49 PM

Used to work as a specialist in chemical analysis Freebird - mainly ultra low (ie sub parts per trillion) pesticide and forensics analysis . Mass spectrometry I did was all about forcing the chemical to fall apart in a controlled manner so that I could then detect and identify the constituent parts and from that work backwards to reassemble and identify the original. Computers can take a pretty good guesstimate at what the original chemical was but the software algorythms aren't perfect - so we always did a manual ID on unknowns. On national ID blind checks the good algos would generally get a 85% correct ID - over 4 years I drifted between 95- 100% (one 95% and 15 100% scores) .

The beam gun was for different work - did some research work on novel intermetallic compounds - the way I made them was to use a beam gun to ablate them under vacuum. Basically you hit the metals with high energy electrons which vapourise them in seconds. You then then redeposit and recondense them in a controlled manner as a novel amalgam. Lots of fun - especially knowing that you can vapourise a lump of metal in a few seconds - very science fiction .

Cheers,
Tony

ps sorry guys for going OT.