> From: "Vicente Prats Fraser" <vprats@...> >I'm fed-up with my itching PC setup, and since I have to upgrade it anyway, >I'm thinking of crossgrading to LAMP and getting a Mac. Any tips on what I >should get would be greatly appreciated. As far as audio hardware, I'm >waiting for the Mac drivers for Pulsar/Scope. >Thanks a lot, >Vicente Hi Vincente - probably a good decision - any of the following should give you little trouble if well set up (I've included stuff you may be able to pick up cheap and upgrade, if you're feeling intrepid): RECENT SYSTEMS Macintosh G3 (blue & white) 300, 350, 400, 450 (3 PCI slots, may need a SCSI card, 100mhz motherboards) Macintosh G4 if you want to be on the bleeding edge... OLDER SYSTEMS 3 PCI slots: Powermac 7500, 7600, 7300, 8500, 8600 (dual onboard SCSI, max 50mhz motherboards) (and add a third party G3 card, probably Newertech is best) Macintosh G3 (beige) 266, 300, 333(?) (onboard SCSI, 66mhz motherboards) 6 PCI slots (one may be used by video card): Powermac 9500, 9600 (dual onboard SCSI, 50mhz motherboards) (and add a third party G3 card, probably Newertech is best) Mac clones, possibly: Supermac S700 (3 PCI slots, dual SCSI, 50mhz motherboard) Supermac S900/Umax pulsar (6 PCI slots, 1 used by vid card, dual SCSI, 50mhz motherboard) (and add a third party G3 card, probably Newertech is best) The blue & white G3s and the G4 have no serial ports (or floppy drive), you will need a third-party adapter if connecting a midi interface via serial. With any G3/G4 or G3 upgrade card you want 1 meg of backside cache. Get at least 128MB of GOOD QUALITY system RAM. Format all drives using Apple's "Drive Setup" wherever possible. Recommended OS: 8.6 or possibly 9 Don't hold your breath on the Pulsar/Scope drivers - newly released Mac versions of drivers for PC hardware manufacturers tend to be extremely buggy for several versions. I may of course be wrong in this case, but I'd lay odds on there being substantial problems with the initial driver releases. John Pitcairn