i'm thinking this would suffice. your opinion?

domhatch

the machine in question is an imac 21.5" 2.9ghz. i'll be running it with reaper 4, a line 6 kb37, various plugins, otherwise pretty stock standard. looking at getting this seagate 4tb backup drive as well, as my current back facilities are massively inadequate. the imac will be used exclusively for music production - in my limited capacity.

i will then use my current and ancient, but working 17" macbook pro for things like itunes, office things, and hobby photo processing.

primarily, though, whaddayathink of the imac? for reaper? my main concern is the standard 5400rpm drive, but only coz way back in 2008 when i bought the macbook, i was told the machine would be better off with a 7200rpm drive. however, the imac is obviously way faster. and i'm not, at this stage, going to be looking at big-ass productions with huge numbers of tracks. this is for me. and for me to get my own stuff down.

i'm definitely going mac, not pc. input appreciated.
thanks, dh|

AlanRatcliffe

I'm no Mac fundi, so won't comment on the Mac itself. However, drives is drives and IME, 5400 rpm drives are too slow for recording where you are likely to be streaming multiple uncompressed tracks to and from the drive (even with a stripped down production). The sustained transfer rate of the HDD is the critical spec (and usually the one spec you have to dig for ...if the manufacturer even gives it at all) and is directly tied to spindle speed and this is usually the biggest bottleneck in recording machines.

This is offset somewhat by RAM, because the more you can load into RAM, the less has to stream from/to the HDD. Still, while RAM is inexpensive and on the increase, sample banks and the OS itself are taking up more and more of it too. So the chances are even with a ton of RAM, at some point it's still going to reach out to the HDD and then the speed of the drive then becomes critical if you are to avoid dropouts.

I'd say if the upgrade option for a 7200 drive is available, pony up and go for it. And always double the RAM from the stock spec if possible.

Warren

The iMac isn't a bad machine, but last year when upgrading my home machines I took a serious look at them and decided that, for the price, the hardware really isn't particularly great. So I built a couple of monstrous PCs for the same money and haven't looked back, despite the fact that Windows 8 is the devil.

If you're hell-bent on Mac, Alan is right: see if you can get the 7200 rpm drive as an upgrade option. The iMac in its current incarnation is really quite similar to an equivalent MacBook, given Apple's continuous drive towards thinner and "sexier" designs. A 5400 rpm drive in a "desktop" machine seems like a bit of a waste.

At 8 Gb the RAM is probably fine, but if you want more I would suggest you look at after-market upgrade options for the RAM as Apple's options can be quite pricey in comparison.

Just to throw a bone out there, this is the machine I built for myself last year:

Intel 3770 CPU (3.40 GHZ)
2 x 670 GTX NVidia GPUs in SLI
128 Mb SSD (system)
2 TB HDD (general)
16 GB RAM
2 x full HD 22" LG Monitors
Full Tower Chassis

It cost me about R26k in total, and the specs of the closest priced iMac (the 27 inch version) are vastly less appealing. Of course, I've not factored in the purchase of Windows 8 / OSX and the iLife bundle (which is really nice), but the difference in hardware is actually quite staggering. Added to that the fact that I have great upgrade options with that chassis, and it was a no-brainer. There is currently a hefty premium to pay for the Apple brand, and although I still think their laptops are great, I'm not much of an iMac fan at the price.

That said, if you're adamant about it, you might want to wait until the local stock is upgraded. Apple's web site already lists newer GPU and processor specs than what you'll find at Incredible Connection, so I would suggest you wait for the next shipment of the latest stuff before you buy or you'll end up with old tech.

domhatch

thanks gents. i'm afraid i'm stuck on mac. one simple reason: i currently have a mac, and i'm familiar with the environment. to be completely frank, i lost touch with windows with the introduction of win7. the machine i'm looking at, i'll be getting on contract, so it only has to be current for 2 years, after which i'll probably upgrade again. i've seen that the 27" comes with a 7200rpm drive standard. so maybe i'll look at that. (also, i don't have the 20+k cash to lay out on computer stuffs. specially when i could spend it on guitar stuffs. yeah? ?

ta muchly for the input, still plenty of time to mullet over in case i smell something fishy
dh|

doc-phil

Re-familiarise yourself with Windows (Reaper in Mac and Windows are virtually identical so no problems there) and spend R12k on a PC which will guaranteed be far superior in performance to the Mac. Remember you're paying about R4k extra just for the apple logo.

My PC which I bought for R9k 4 years ago is still going strong (provided I don't run too many CPU-intensive plugins simultaneously at extreme low latency).

domhatch

thanks guys. input appreciated. i think the purchase might just be pushed out a touch, until i can have a proper look at a few more options and make a decision. one of which is to have a look at a decent sound card solution like avid's m-box, bundled with protools express. (apparently protools is one of the daws that is less system-intensive?) at any rate, if i do go for an imac, it won't be the 21" with the standard 5400 hdd - i'll upgrade the hdd or will get the 27" with the 7200rpm drive. in the mean time, i will probably look at putting more ram into my aging macbook, if that's at all possible, and just carrying on regardless.

i'll keep y'all posted, and more than likely come back for more advice as the weeks - if not months - roll on.

spanks again
dh|

Audible-Anarchy

Solid state drives for recording based apple mac / iMac for sure - 7200rpm at a minimum