Archive for SLMC Second LifeŽ Music Community Forum
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Doubledown Tandino
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I wanna buy a new PC, suggestions?I want to buy a new PC, specifically made to handle Second Life as well and most topnotch video and audio things....
(please no mac people tell me to get a mac... I didn't start with mac, and i dont wanna start learning now.)
Ok, so here are my requirements as to what I need.. then you tell me what else I should get and where to get it :O)
-I need a graphics card that will have ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS with second life (pending LL doesn't change something)
-I need Windows XP.... not vista
-I need an S-video out
ok, what's your thoughts?
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Doubledown Tandino
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no suggestions? :O(
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vonjohin
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Get a Mac. 
Ok, seriously, no excuse not to now. The Intel ones run every OS known to man pretty much. You get the best of everything and a better overall hardware and software experience. Since nobody made a suggestion, I will. I run Windows XP, OS X Leopard, OS X Tiger all on my Mac Pro in my recording studio. Not via Virtualization either, native drives dedicated to each of them, plus a fourth drive just for audio and video production storage.
Using Parallels, I run Ubuntu Linux, and Windows XP at blazing speeds on my MacBook Pro on top of the Leopard OS running at the time.
Compare prices, feature for feature, spec for spec, on a Mac Pro with a comparably configured Dell, and you'll find the Mac Pro is actually the same price or slightly less expensive.
Wanna see a neat trick? Last night, on my wi-fi connection with my MacBook Pro, while running Second Life, and a web browser, and PhotoShop, and two mail programs, and an FTP program, I bought, downloaded and installed Second Inventory, a Windows XP application, which I installed and tested out without ever re-starting. I haven't even re-started yet.
So if you need a new "PC" get a Mac so you can run everything that's out there, not just Windows. Along the way you'll get a rock-solid hardware device with amazingly good customer support should you actually need it, in a solid system. Then you can experience all of it and make a first hand choice as to what you want to work on. But once you go Mac, you never go back. 
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Doubledown Tandino
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i know i know i know get a mac get a mac get a mac.
i know pc users that switch to mac, while mac users never really go to pc...
i know mac is better....
but i need a kickass PC with Win XP.
Number 1 reason is to operate shoutcast related projects, which can't be done on mac
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vonjohin
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That's why I said "Intel Mac" then you can do everything. It isn't just "get a Mac" it's "get a machine that does it all." You can do anything you want on an Intel Mac, including run native Windows at speeds that will make your head spin. I do my Ninjam rehearsals in Reaper in Windows XP with Komuso, and honestly, the Windows side is not as much fun for me, but it makes it easier for he and I to work together so I do it. SL running on XP on a Mac Pro? Amazing.
Buy what ya like, I'm just saying... it ain't "switch" so much as "why not have a "Swiss Army Knife" that does everything and does it all very, very well?
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Doubledown Tandino
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I'm gonna research into that, seein if an intel mac can run a shoutcast dnas server... if it can do that, that's a start, and may actually go with a mac for the first time in my life.
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Silas Scarborough
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| Doubledown Tandino wrote: | i know i know i know get a mac get a mac get a mac.
i know pc users that switch to mac, while mac users never really go to pc...
i know mac is better....
but i need a kickass PC with Win XP.
Number 1 reason is to operate shoutcast related projects, which can't be done on mac |
The above just ain't true. As von Johin has said already, running Windows on an Intel Mac is no problem at all and IT RUNS NATIVE. In other words, it will run on the Mac exactly as it runs on a Wintel processor because it IS a Wintel processor!
Check out the price on a refurb for a Mac Quad and you should be able to find one for well under $2000 (keyboard and mouse included, monitor is extra). I've been running Windows on a Quad for quite a while now and it screams. It's also vastly more reliable than when it was running on an actual PC. I have no explanation for that but it's a fact.
Your best bet isn't to talk to Mac people as we're already convinced we're the smartest people in the Universe so we're useless to you. Find some people who have switched and ask them if they'd do it again. I haven't talked to anyone yet who regretted it.
But it's really a question of balance. You're the avant garde DJ turntablizer but you're using your granny's computer. Screw the sentimental stuff - Talk to some people about what's really happening.
Here's one more fun fact before closing: I've been using Macs at home since the early 80's and I've never had a virus; I've never had any malware; I've never been phished; etc., etc. Macs are not invulnerable but they're vastly better for security than some half-ass system that doesn't even lock the front door at night.
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Doubledown Tandino
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| Silas Scarborough wrote: |
But it's really a question of balance. You're the avant garde DJ turntablizer but you're using your granny's computer. Screw the sentimental stuff - Talk to some people about what's really happening.
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haha Silas... im inta whats really happening lol. I haven't touched my vinyl turntables in about 3 weeks.
....I was asking about what computer I should buy to make it my 3rd computer, lol. I have a top-of-the-line PC, and a granny dell.....
now looking for a 3rd.
Definitely starting to sound like I'll be gettin a mac now, after I do some in store testing or somethin. I'm not lookin to spend $2000 though.
.... Ya think if i do a show for intel, and I tell em I don't have a good enough computer and i need an intel mac, they'll send me one?
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vonjohin
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I guess it comes down to what you want to spend in the end, DD. I don't know what city you're in, but you're likely to find a great deal on a Mac Pro on Craigslist that could even still have AppleCare with it, which for me has been first class as well. As long as you buy a Mac less than 12 months old, you can also add your own AppleCare to it, too.
I am a switcher. In fact, in RL, I was leading the marketing campaign consultancy initiatives for AMD directly as a result of meeting with their CEO and helping him form the team and concepts to address the needs of Windows users doing digital media. Then OS X came along. I ignored it until one of the machines AMD gave me from a company of theirs (great processors, by the way), burned up on me. I had an extra G5 at my publishing offices in the art department. Knowing the massive amount of crow I would be forced to eat when switching, I secretly setup the studio at our publishing offices with that G5, installed Nuendo, my plugins and everything that I owned that was cross platform. I was hooked. My audio device, it just started working when connected. Installing and uninstalling apps? Just drag and drop to the drive or the trash. Virus? What virus? Malware? None. No annoying pop ups, security programs hogging up resources, nothing.
The crow turned out to be a delicious dish. There were some who knew me from the pro audio world who razzed be, but I was like Paul on the road to Damscus, it was a genuine conversion. Now that's not to say the Macs don't have their problems or annoyances, but side by side with Windows, I'll take them any day of dealing with Windows itself.
When I talk to friend in Nashville who use PCs in the studio, they say "We don't have the virus, etc issues because our studio machine is not connected to the web." What a nasty compromise. Need an update? Download it, burn it, walk it over to the machine, install it. Bummer if you ask me.
My suggestion, honestly, look for a good deal on a used or refurbed Intel-based Mac, especially a Mac Pro, as they can hold four drives, which you can remove quickly and easily, support 16GB of RAM or more, and come ready to work out of the box for the most part. When I got my Quad, it was used, with 5GB of RAM, two 500GB drives, and with tax in TN, which is 10%, I spent $2300.00. That same machine used is about $1600 now. It runs three OS's on it natively, and using virtualization it could run more. It can run OS X server, it can run your favorite flavor of Linux as a server, and at the same time, it can be booted to become a Windows, Mac or whatever. Brilliant if you ask me.
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Doubledown Tandino
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Honestly, im looking to spend about $1200. notebook prefered, win xp is a must. graphic must be SL compatable. memory must be able to run second life. and the soundcard wont matter, because Ill have an external.
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Silas Scarborough
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You can usually find good deals on Macs at dealmac.com but keep in mind that none of the laptops have quad-core motors in them yet. That may not matter as SL probably isn't smart enough to use multiple cores anyway, most software isn't. I've run SL on a Mac dual, Mac 4-way, and a Mac 8-way. I currently use the 8-way for audio/video/etc and I use the 4-way mostly for Windows. That box has six GB in it but SL ran fine on four. Note that XP can't address more than 4 GB (might be 6 GB) so more RAM than that is senseless for Windows.
The way you do it is you get the new box and boot it up for the first time. That will take you into Mac OS X (Leopard). Then you run a program called "Boot Camp" that will set up your Windows partition on your hard disk. It'll do your Windows install from whatever CDs you used previously. Next move is to restart and boot into Windows instead of Mac OS X. Whammo...you're home. (Vista is supported for anyone mad enough to want to buy it.)
There are all kinds of virtualization software tools (VMware, Parallels, etc.) that will do very clever things in the way they let you run Mac OS X and Windows at the same time. I would not screw with them unless you have a serious burning need to move data very quickly between platforms. Later on it's great getting all creative like that but taking on multiple computer mindshifts at the same time is what gets people into computer hell and it's one of the few things that could force you to format your hard disk and reload the base operating system.
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