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I would be willing to go overboard if the 2.93 Ghz makes a real difference. This is my parents money, and although they don't want to spend that much (and I don't want them to spend that much!) they said they would since this is for an educational purpose (I'm planning to be a music major and I need all the experience I can get). I have to work off the money anyway and pay them back so it would be a question of how much I need to work off, $400 vs. $600 (I have $900). If the 2.93 makes a big difference it would save me from having to buy a whole new computer in the future so I'd rather be safe than sorry if it does make a difference.

EDIT: The two I'm debating between are these: http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB419LL/A?fnode=Njc4MjQzOQ&mco=NjgwMDIxOA
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB418LL/A?mco=MjE0NjA3MA

Hmmm the difference is pretty small and the 2.93 does have discrete graphics. If you can swing the jump the 2.93 should be noticably faster as it's almost 300Mhz faster per core.
 
Alright I'll try to swing that if I can, if not I'll just get the 2.66. Thanks a lot nuckinfutz! You've been a great help.

This is off topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread. I just went looking for my Logic Express disc since I'm gonna install it when I get the new computer. It's kinda scratched...logic is still installed on my computer, so could I transfer that to my external hard-drive, then transfer it back to my iMacs hard drive? Or could Mac send me another disc if I prove that I have it, but it's scratched?
 
...How could I go about doing that?

If you have never built a computer or arent tech-savvy i wouldnt bother with this, but building a Hack is still relatively easy. If you are interested look for the Merged Hackintosh Thread and we can talk about it more (i dont want to derail this too much).
One of the best things about a hack is that you can get a quad core for under $2500 and you can upgrade anything whenever you want.
The install is pretty easy, you just have to know what hardware you have and which boxes to check, but overall its really simple.

If you want something that you dont have to worry about at all or just want to jump right in and use then by all means get a mac, but if you want to save a bit of cash and learn a bit about hardware and OSX at the expense of losing a little time on occasion then a hack is the way to go.
 
If you have it in your budget I'd go for Logic Pro, as it has better support for film, and more goodies included, not sure what the EDU price on that is though. Plus it features one of the best score editors on the market, so you may not even need Sibelius then. And with it's included library of samples you may be able to hold off on symphonic orchestra for a little while (I'm guessing that would be on EDU pricing too).

Whatever you choose though, as other helpful folk on here have said, try to get the quickest CPU that you can, and try for 4GB of RAM, and try to get an external HD.

Also if it's of any use I scored a few short student films for friends at film school back in the day, using Cubase 5 on my eMac G4 800, so even the lowliest mac mini should do, with some freezing of tracks and bouncing here and there to save on CPU cycles.
 
If you have it in your budget I'd go for Logic Pro, as it has better support for film, and more goodies included, not sure what the EDU price on that is though. Plus it features one of the best score editors on the market, so you may not even need Sibelius then. And with it's included library of samples you may be able to hold off on symphonic orchestra for a little while (I'm guessing that would be on EDU pricing too).

Whatever you choose though, as other helpful folk on here have said, try to get the quickest CPU that you can, and try for 4GB of RAM, and try to get an external HD.

Also if it's of any use I scored a few short student films for friends at film school back in the day, using Cubase 5 on my eMac G4 800, so even the lowliest mac mini should do, with some freezing of tracks and bouncing here and there to save on CPU cycles.

Well I actually already have Sibelius, Logic, and EWQLSO, so I'll upgrade Logic to pro eventually. The reason I'm getting the new computer is because I can't run any of them without constant freezing :p

I'll probably get the iMac 24" with 2.93 Ghz and 4GB (upgradeable to 8 so I'll do that eventually).
 
I dont think anyone on here really understands the needs of someone running east west. You're gonna run into a wall pretty quickly and you're gonna have to start purging samples on all your instruments before you build a complete orchestra, never mind all of the different articulations you will have to use.

When it comes to film scoring, I'd suggest looking at digital performer. Its tempo operations and tempo find feature make it worth the upgrade cost from logic alone.

DP also runs east west in a much simpler way where you won't have to go into the environment just to add multiple instruments to a single instrument track.

That said, you could theoretically run logic on your mac mini and using MIDI over LAN you could run your sample library from a separate pc. That way, you'd get the benefit of running os x without spending the bucks for a mac pro.

Good luck!
 
I'm starting to feel that I should just hold off for a while and save up for a Mac Pro refurbished. My parents agreed to put $400 in, and if I can get a job for the summer I should be able to afford this: http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB871LL/A?mco=MjE0NjQ1OA

I'm assuming that would meet all my needs?

EDIT: Just curious, is it possible to upgrade the quad core mac to a 8 core mac? I doubt I'd be able to do this since I'd really have to work really hard just to get the mac pro, just wondering anyway though haha.

EDIT 2: Would I be able to make any money if I sold my iMac I have now (1.83 GHz 1 GB RAM 2006 Model) on eBay? I'd take out the hard drive and sell it with everything, but hard drive, keyboard, and mouse.
 
2.0 Mac Mini Upgrade

Hello, my name is Rick. I bought my Mini from Micro Center and sent it to "Other World Computers" for upgrades. It was back to my house in 3 days. I was amazed. Upgrade was to 4gb ram with the new Seagate 500gb/7200rpm HD. I is very fast, stable and quiet. Very cost affective, and with the money I saved I got Logic Studio.
 
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