G4 Vs Dual AthlonXP

Which is a better OVERALL DAW??

  • Dual AthlonXP

    Votes: 4 36.4%

  • Mac G4

    Votes: 6 54.5%

  • Pentium 4

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • Total voters
    11
C

c9-2001

New member
i have a partner that just got a G4 for payment for studio time... running a production studio... which system would you run?a Dual AthlonXP or a G4 and why.
he runs sonar, which is a windows based program so he won't be running it under the G4.

if he keeps the G4 i think he should get Nuendo or DP3 on it.
if he stays with the PC and upgrades to the Dual athlon, i think he should use Nuendo,Cubase,Logic 5

Performance wise... i haven't used many G4's but i'm sure the performance of a G4 won't out do a Dual AthlonXP...
 
If money is no object, I'd get a Pentium III Tualatin at 1.2GHz. But given the choices, I voted for the G4.
 
Well, a dual Athlon XP vs Pent 4 is no contest. The AMD chips have waaay better price/performance. For equivalent clock speeds, they have considerably better performance, period. And with a dual CPU system............

The dual Athlon XP vs G4 is closer. But, personally I'd prefer the flexibility and raw processing power of the PC machine. Especially since you are using the 2408 which is dependent on the host CPU (not DSP) for handling all the tracks and plug-ins. The G4 could probably do it, but if you get a nice mobo and a lot of DDR RAM, that dual XP will smoke. If it was a Pro Tools or similar system, I'd probably go with the G4 and save some cash.

I voted dual Athlon XP.
 
Eurythmic said:
If money is no object, I'd get a Pentium III Tualatin at 1.2GHz. But given the choices, I voted for the G4.
Click to expand...
the G4 was given to him as payment for studio time. a PentiumIII can't hang with a AthlonXP though.
 
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Everyones always going on about how much faster G4s are over any intel/amd computer. Is this still true?
 
i don't understand how a G4 would be closer to a Dual AthlonXP. i know the G4 is clocked at 833 or 850, but it runs like a 1-1.3 gig, but a dual 1.4 or 1.6 Athlon SHOULD kill any other system performance wise. he's gonna try to get the BEST he can. sence he has mastered Sonar i wouldn't want him to change unless he was gonna use Nuendo(mac or PC), DP3(Mac) because they are really the Best programs.
well keep um comming, he's not gonna make a desision on the matter until the 14, so 3 days... i was gonna tell him to do his mastering with theG4 but he doesn't need that seeing that he runs a Mackie D8B at his studio.;)
 
C9 - I agree that the dual XP definitely has more processing power. But after building a PC DAW and experiencing LOTS of head aches due to compatibility issues, etc., I think the G4 has some advantages. It most likely will work with very little tweaking and should be much less buggy. Thats why I said its closer. Besides, you should be able to get more than enough tracks outs of a system with 1-1.3 GHz of processing power on the mac. Dual processors might be overkill. Try it and see.
 
ok so money wise i think the dual Athlon is the way to go. i've built 4 different DAW's and i've never had a problem with any of them (all PC) i usually run win2000 pro on them. i've made athlon,athlonXp,Dual PIII and a OLDER K-400. they all ran fine. i use the 1.1 gig athlon riht now in my studio. i run winXpPro with no problem. none of the systems i've built have crashed but the k6-400 but it didn't have the power to handle cubase vst32 :D

Mac, the 2 programs i told him to use on it if he uses it would be DP3 or Nuendo. i'd like him to be able to runwhat he knows already though and that would be Sonar....i don't know...i think the Pc is gonna have the edge on the Mac...i'll wait til friday to see the replys and the pool and let him choose what he really wants.... thanks for whelping yall :D
 
AMD is not the best chip to get for recording use. They are cheap for a reason. They use a 3rd party system/memory controller for their CPUs, amd that means frequent compatibility problems with other programs and hardware. They run significantly hotter than P4 chips making them less stable and therefore less reliable. I'm not sure about the G4, but the P4 will cost you more but give you a much more solid, reliable system.
 
not always. a partner of mine posted this same thing on another forum. and we have recorded with P4's and Athlons... by far the athlon chis were the best. the p4 2gig with 712mb of ram couldn't even get us 50 tracks under nuendo. with the athlonXP 1600+ we got all64 done and never had any problems and that system only had 512mb of ram.
but we did have some pops with the athlon we didn't have one with the P4 so that is something to think about. but after adjusting the buffers we never got one pop.

as for the heat issue. AthlonXP's i belive run Cooler than any other chip. the system that i'm using at this time is a athlonxp 1600+. this system has been on for the last 3days. i restarted it and went into the bios and pc heeath about an hour or 2 ago... the chip is at 34c.... thats not that hot....now take in mind that i do have a huge heatsink on the chip along with a very large and fast fan(its quiet though) the 1600+ out performs the p4 2gig no problem, and it works fine with all my software and hardware. the system i planed on building my partner with this G4 and pc issue was gonna be a dual 1600+ athlonXP or a dual 1800+ athlonXP. i'm not sure if there is a board that will take 2 1900+AthlonXP's but if there is...it might be a little over kill but its his money so if he wants the Dual 1900+ thats what he'll have.

i think he wants to put the G4 to use but i know he mainly uses SonarXL, and its not gonna work under the G$ and his open projects he'll have to restart... he is out of town right now but i plan on seeing him on thursday next week to find out what he's gonna do.
 
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