Good enouh PC?

[Surfwhammy]

So, you have tempted me to buy an Apple iMac I've been watching some videos about it and it looks awesome. You mentioned the MC309. It's got 4GB RAM. Should I buy some extra RAM? And it's 2.5 GHz processor is less than the requirements for Hollywood Strings. Would it be better with the MC812 or MC813?

Read this first. You might choose to ignore it, but read it first. (True, it doesn't mention Macs, only iPods & iPhones, but it's the same company...)

And while you are reading how terrible a corporate citizen Apple is, you might as well read about DELL's and Microsoft's history of using sweatshop labor in China and other places, really . . .

DELL (Sourcewatch)

Foxconn Is Still a Hard Place to Work (The Atlantic Wire, January 2012)

The perspective here in the sound isolation studio is that everything should be made in the US by American citizens using advanced robotics, but this is not going to happen so long as corporate America is run by egregious sneaky weasels, which includes all the computer manufacturers, with the key bit of information being that someone in China is getting short shrift no matter which operating system platform and machine you use, really . . .

Really!

P. S. Working for a computer company in China probably is terribly hard and boring work, but in context it is better than not having a job in China, and regardless of what you might have deluded yourself into believing, if you pop the cover on your computer, including the display and any peripherals, and examine the components, most of them are made in Asia, Southeast Asia, India, Malaysia, Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, and so forth and so on, with some components being made in Central and South America, as well as some of the Caribbean islands . . .

[wglmb]

I wasn't necessarily saying Apple are any worse than Dell / Microsoft (though I've never heard anything about them... I'll look it up*). I just feel that people should be aware of things like this before they buy from a company that they would otherwise assume to be ethical. They should know that there is a bad history to the product, even if they ignore it (which may be because there is no alternative product that's as good, and I'm not condemning anyone for doing that!)

I don't think I've deluded myself into believing anything. I'm certainly aware that some products I own were not produced in good conditions, and that the west does rely a lot on production in China etc.


* Oh, I didn't notice your link. Seems Dell use Foxconn for manufacturing, which is the same company that Apple uses, so it's not surprising that there have been similar findings.

[pcartwright]

Bill made an excellent point earlier in the thread about resource usage and Miroslav. It may be in the user's interest to see why the slow down happens in the first place.

If you do plan on using Hollywood Strings, then a 32 bit setup won't cut it. You will need more than 4 gb of RAM and a method to use extra RAM. I don't know if Macs have a way to use more than 4 gb RAM in a 32 bit app like Notion (other than jBridge beta), so proceed with caution if you get a Mac.

[wcreed51]

It should also be mentioned that Notion doesn’t currently support Hollywood Strings and Requiem unless you create your own custom playback rules; no small task. Also, the 64bit version of Play is still problematic on the MAC side.

[mrarnesen]

I don't know if Macs have a way to use more than 4 gb RAM in a 32 bit app like Notion (other than jBridge beta), so proceed with caution if you get a Mac.

But in the system requirements for Notion it says it's 64 bit compatible. So what did you mean with "in a 32 bit app like Notion"?

Now i've been both recommended and warned to buy an iMac.

[pcartwright]

You can install Notion on a 64 bit machine, but Notion itself is a 32 bit program.

[mrarnesen]

You can install Notion on a 64 bit machine, but Notion itself is a 32 bit program.

Thanks

So my final question is, would I be OK with this computer?

Apple iMac 21,5"
2,8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 (upgrade from 2,7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5)
16 GB RAM (upgrade from 4GB)

Or do I need even better processor to run several softwares simultaneously? Like Notion or Logic Pro with several softsynths.

[pcartwright]

The hardware looks more than adequate, but, as I said earlier, Notion can only access 4 GB of RAM as a 32 bit program. jBridge let's you use more RAM through some clever wrapping, but I think it's still in beta testing on Mac OS.

And, as Bill mentioned, some of your libraries may not function as intended. You may need to post some of your questions in forums for other products you intend to use with Notion.

[mrarnesen]

I'll try to find some information on other forums as well.

If I buy an iMac tomorrow, I don't think it will arrive in time to download the Sampletank/Sonik/Philharmonik sounds that I bought and just recently downloaded on my PC, because the sounds will expire in a few days . Would it work if I download these .dmg files on my PC now and install them later on the iMac?

[pcartwright]

If I buy an iMac tomorrow, I don't think it will arrive in time to download the Sampletank/Sonik/Philharmonik sounds that I bought and just recently downloaded on my PC, because the sounds will expire in a few days . Would it work if I download these .dmg files on my PC now and install them later on the iMac?

Don't know. I suggest contacting support group for that library to see what they suggest.