True or false? The answers might surprise you.
1. Programs will work if your computer meets the minimum system requirements.
Well, yes, and you can drive a car using only first gear. But even if a program says it will work with 256MB of RAM, that might mean most of the time it will be swapping data to a hard drive because it can’t get enough RAM — and performance will slow to a crawl. If you run music programs, you need 1GB of RAM, and 2GB is better.
2. FireWire is a better choice for audio interfaces than USB.
Firewire was originally designed to shuttle data around at high speeds from hard drives, camcorders, etc., while USB replaced the Apple Desktop Bus and a PC’s serial ports for mice, printers, and other peripherals. USB 1.1 is indeed fairly slow, but now it has evolved into USB 2.0, which is not only equivalent to FireWire 400 in speed, but also works extremely well with audio.
3. Macs are more expensive than PCs of equivalent performance
This may have once been true, but times have changed. The myth persists mainly because there are a variety of budget PCs on the market that are ideal for surfing the Internet, running spreadsheets, etc., at price points far lower than a Mac; but they’re a poor choice for high-performance music programs. At the level of performance we need from our computers, and given what you receive in return, today’s Macs and PCs represent more or less equal value.
4. PCI soundcards are obsolete, now that we have FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces.
While convenient, outboard audio interfaces have an additional “layer” that adds latency — not that much, but it’s there. Onboard cards still give a performance edge.
5. The most important component of a good music computer is a fast processor.
While a fast processor helps determine aspects of performance such as how many plug-ins you can run, many other components influence performance and stability to a huge degree in Windows, such as the motherboard, its associated chip set, and the graphics card.
6. It’s necessary to do lots of tweaks to Windows XP to optimize it for audio.
This was true for pre-XP versions of Windows, but the only truly essential tweaks are to give priority to background services (important for ASIO; right-click on My Computer, then go to Properties > Advanced > Performance settings > Advanced > click on Background Services), and you might want to disable some of the “eye candy” interface graphics. You may also need to take graphics hardware acceleration down a notch (right-click on the desktop, then go to Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot) if you have problems with bit-mapped image corruption, but that’s about it. It’s generally best to resist tweaks that supposedly improve performance, as they may confuse a program that expects a “standard” XP implementation.
7. It’s no longer essential to defragment hard disks.
In an office environment, that’s mostly true; today’s hard drives are so fast compared to just a few years ago that they have no trouble picking up pieces of a small file scattered all over your drive. But for intense multitrack sessions, particularly those involving video, defragmenting can improve performance.
8. The Mac’s operating system is less prone to crashing than Windows.
With a modern Mac or Windows computer, the OS itself will almost never crash. Crashes arise not so much because of the OS, but from the relationship of other programs to the OS and to each other. For the most stable computer, avoid downloading unproven software and when updating software, always update one program at a time, verify that nothing is “broken,” then move on to the next program.
9. Macs are harder to service than Windows machines.
Actually, some Macs make servicing nearly painless: You can rip open a case and install a hard drive or more RAM within seconds. The reason for this myth is that once you get beyond simple service (like replacing a hard drive or RAM), you may need custom parts you can’t find at local stores. But there’s nothing inherently “unserviceable” about a Mac, and these days, it’s not hard to do DIY upgrades.
10. With laptops, it’s important to discharge the battery completely from time to time to prevent the “memory effect.”
This was true with nickel-cadmium batteries, but today’s batteries will last longest if you keep them “topped off” and avoid frequent deep discharges.
Craig Anderton uses both Windows and Macintosh computers in his work as an author, musician, consultant, videographer, and lecturer. He is currently Executive Editor of EQ magazine and Editor in Chief of www.harmony-central.com.
