[rescue] PowerMac recommendations?

[Joshua Boyd]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2004 at 12:51:52PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:

> >Yes, PCs generally suck, but will 3 PCs (or two and something like that
> >audiomedia appliance) running linux suck more than a single Mac trying
> >to do three seperate somewhat performance intensive tasks at once?
> >Sure, the Mac is like 10xs more powerfull than needed for any single
> >task, but can it juggle the tasks well enough to do the three
> >simultaneously without blips, and how would you control them anyway
> >(presuming that the presentation software doesn't support control on 
> >way
> >head and display on a second head)?
> >
> >For what he describes, three lintel machines wouldn't be my first
> >choise (*) But given volume constraints, and an extremely low budget,
> >lintel using used notebooks is what comes to mind first.
> >
> >(*) which might be a beefed up U5 running linux for the video capture
> >(using a hardware compression card or firewire), and an I2 or Octane 
> >for
> >the presentation stuff (with a console extender so that machine would 
> >be
> >in a closet nearby), and either another SGI or some PCI linux system 
> >for
> >the audio, to support a sound card with very clean audio outputs, 
> >though
> >we could perhaps use any machine that has USB and a reasonable OS that
> >supports USB audio (which says to me Mac OS X, Linux, or perhaps
> >Solaris).
> 
>   Oh, I forgot.  "Cheaper == better" now.  I'm sorry, I will try to 
> remember that in the future.

I didn't say cheaper == better.  He said cheap was nescessary, and I'm
just saying that I think using one Mac is a highly risky proposition,
but three linux machines should be safe.  Of course, three Macs would
also be safe, but can they be gotten cheap enough for the job at hand?
I don't know, but I'm inclined to think that isn't so likely.  Off the
top of my head, I would imagine that one would need at least one good
PCI powermac, and one ibook or better, and as he doesn't say what he
needs for presentation software, I have no way of knowing if a pre ibook
powerbook is good enough or if he will need an ibook, or perhaps even
something newer still.  Add three macs up with the extra hardware
needed, and it starts to sound like more money than he made sound
available. 

Of course, if the machines can somehow be housed in a seperate room,
that opens a lot of options.  Like using two Octanes and an O2 or Sun.