Sometime, probably mid-November of this year, I'm going to buy all new gear. I'm looking at the Mac Pro (quad core probably) with 4GB RAM, 3 hard drives (software, samples, recording), Logic Pro, Kontakt, and the M-Audio Project Mix I/O. I'm largely behind on computer technology (I bought my last PC over 3 years ago, and my last Mac was a 6100/60...yeah). Anyway, I have a few questions to ensure I make wise choices. 1) Hard drive space preinstalled from Apple seems to run similar prices if I buy smaller drives or if I buy one large drive. Is it worth the performance gain to have 3 smaller drives and having less room to grow, vs. having a large drive with more room to grow later? Is it better to get 250GB for os/apps, 250GB for samples, 250GB for recording vs. 500GB for os/apps/samples and 250 for recording? 2) I notice all the talk about the upcoming Mac OS. What have people's experiences been with Logic Pro running on the bleeding edge versions of Mac OS? Would I be safe trying to buy the machine with the old OS? Do the people in the Apple store know anything other than iPods (that's all I've bought so far from the Apple store)? 3) Price-wise, the 8-core is going to be a tough sell to my wife. Does anyone have opinions on the benefits of the 8-core for someone using Logic Pro to record folk or pop/rock music? I'd like to dabble down the road with some the crazy massive sample libraries like the EWQL Symphonic Orchestra as well. 4) I'd always been using a regular home stereo with halfway decent home theater type "reference monitor" speakers. I'm planning on getting regular monitors you'd find in a home recording setup. I'm going to be recording mostly folk and basic pop/rock type things, maybe tickering with orchestral type stuff down the road. Room wise, I'd probably be on the small end. My gut instinct has me looking between the lines of the M-Audio Studiophile BX5a or Mackie HR824. What price range should I be looking at for monitors? 5) I'm hoping to get a Furman-type "power thing" to protect this stuff and a few other pieces of gear. I see power conditioners, voltage regulators, and even a Furman UPS. How much better are these compared to a traditional APC computer UPS? Any comments on anything would be greatly appreciated. I'm excited to be returning to Logic and Mac after a long break! Hopefully I can be an asset to this community someday. :) -Ken "Hat" Crouch