Setting up a Mac G4 to record

[seansigep]

Hey ladies and germs,

Just bought a Mac G4 400mhz (was new in '99, but was only $41, thats one perk of working at the shack). Never owned a mac before, so i am confused as to what is so different. I used Macs in college for graphics, but when it comes to recording, I'm in the dark. It only has 128 megs of ram in it, and a 10 gig hard drive; not sure about the soundcard, but i do know there is only a mic and headphone jack on the back. I want to use it mainly for graphics and recording, and macs are supposed to be a million times better at that stuff than PCs. What I currently run now is a Dell 2.0 ghz, with 512 megs of Ram, 120 gig hard drive. Sound card is crappy soundmax deal, came with the computer.

So i guess what I am saying is, should I keep my current setup, or try to upgrade the mac. If i dont upgrade the mac, it still runs photoshop and illustrator just fine.

If i do upgrade, what are the differences when buying parts and cards and such. The slots in the back look smaller than PCI cards in the PC.

Also I heard that you cant just buy any PC100 ram for the mac, you have to get a certain kind with a special chip in it. That sounds like BS to me, but I dont know.

Thanks for any and all feedback.

Scogs

 

[IronFlippy]

Alright, if I were you, I'd keep the Mac and use it solely for recording and use your current Dell for everything else. You're going to have to get a bunch of upgrades for it though: RAM, hard drive, and sound card.

It's been a while since I've used a Mac, so I'm not 100% sure on this, but I'm pretty sure most more recent Macs can use your standard PC RAM. To be on the safe side, I'd go look at some Mac hardware sites first. I do know that they can use regular PC hard drives, so get one of those, preferably with an 8MG cache and 10000RPM. The sound card you choose (I HIGHLY recommend you replace it) will depend on how much you're willing to spend. Check places like zzounds.com for prices and compatability. Most sound cards are Mac compatable, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about that.

Good Luck!