Need advice using different macs together + macpro users: Attention Please!

Question

Hello to all Logic-freaks:-)
I'm new on this forum and have a couple of questions.
For now I'm working on PC with CubaseSX3 mainly and I'm tired of software and hardware issues(worked on G4 3 years ago but finances led me logically to pc...)
As I can't run into buying the new MacPro(wich I want to) I thought getting a MiniMac or new Imac with Logic Express, so I could learn the new soft and MacOSX's working flow, while getting my actual PC-projects done, and then get Logic Pro and bigger machine Mac.
I wonder if:
1.) I have a Imac and then a MacPro, can I use the Imac as a node and the screen of the Imac as a second screen for Logic Pro on the MacPro?
2.) I have a minimac and decide to get an Imac extra instead of a Macpro, could the Imac accept the minimac as a node,or is the node-thing reserved to Macpro's(Or Powermac G5's)
Besides that I have some Windows-only apps and plugins wich I want to keep and if I first buy a "little" mac like mini or Imac I know I could run Bootcamp and link the machine,using pc-vst plugins with the bigger Macpro to have a kind of "cross-OS"-power setup.
BUT, attention to all of you considering buying a Macpro:
I just browsed through this forum for XP on mac and I followed a link,leading to a benchmark of XP running on Macpro(and talking about the future Quad-core also) and XP running on Intel Conroe's(same as Minimac and Imac,if I got it right?): now look at the conclusions and you will see that the Single Conroe Dualcore OUTPERFORMS THE DOUBLE XEON DUALCORE when rendering and encoding/decoding mp3's, wich are the only applications in the benchmark related to audio-processing, and that could be the Fully Buffered Memory in the Xeon's causing latencies(wich I happen to HATE when it's about music making on the computer)....now that brings up some serious doubts in me, wich lead us to the third question:
-Knowing this, I'd like to know from as many Macpro users possible, if they are experiencing latency troubles or any kind of hardware related trouble in using large sessions,with lots of audiotracks and virtual instruments?
Knowing that the tests were performed with Bootcamp, could there be a significant difference under OSX?
Does this mean I'd have to wait some kind of hardware/driver update?
How is the stability with the new Macpros and Logic(or other softs) anyway?Are their lots of crashes due to the freshness of the product?
Here's the link to the benchmark,go through it,and read the conclusions:
http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=6
Thank you all for your time,I'd really appreciate to get as much input possible,because the computer issues I went through last months were horrible and I hope going to Mac will change this,
Best Regards,
Biggnik

Answer 1

There are several questions there, and several misunderstandings.
Some answers to some of the questions:
- no, you can't use the screen of the iMac as a second screen for the Mac Pro
- yes, you can use almost any recent Mac as a node, but it's best if the nodes are connected with gigabit ethernet. Logic Node (Distributed Audio Processing) has some significant limitations - it's best overall to get a fast computer, and not use Distributed Audio if possible.
Now for the misunderstandings. Do not confuse rendering and encoding/decoding MP3 with 'audio'. It's got little to do with the kind of processing involved in Logic. And don't confuse RAM latency with audio latency. RAM latency has no effect on audio latency.
Latency in a DAW, whether you're referring to monitoring latency recording audio, or latency playing virtual instruments, is almost entirely determined by the size of the audio buffer used. A much smaller component of the latency is the latency of the link to the audio interface (usually Firewire these days), and the inherent latency of the A/D and D/A converters in the audio interface.
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