P4 and Protools and Digi001 and OS and RAM
 

Sup doods.
This is david d from T666, bondi beach sydney australia.
This message is hell long!


I need some advice on what limitations there are for protools 5.1 and digi001 on a PC and what would be the best companants to reduce the limitations.


Operating System: which is the best???
Cpu: INTEL P4 1.5GHz
Motherboard: which one to get???
Drive C: IBM 36gig scsi
Drive D: IBM 30gig non-scsi
Drive E: IBM 30gig non-scsi
Ram: 1 GIG (4 X SILICON 256MB PC 133)
Video Card: GeForce 2 ULTRA DDR 64Mb


I need a computer for more than just Protools and i want everything installed on the same operating system so i can open up programs as i want to use them in

combinations or by themselves.

For recording instruments i will only have protools open but once i have a library of sound files on my computer for the most part i want to be able to

compose songs in protools but at the same time be able to do a heap of other things.

One cool thing would be to run games like Quake or Halflife in a small window mode while at the same time having protools open. This way i can listen to and

watch games and soundtracks and get ideas and also actively work on composing new soundtracks.

I also have a lot of internet jobs to do that constantly chews ram and resources and for the most part I want to be able to work in protools while these

others things are running.

I would like to have 2 cool computers but i only have budget for 1 computer right now.

I thought a P4 with 1 gig ram will handle this stuff with ease but now im not sure.

Would a Semi Trailer hitting you in the head at 300 miles per hour hurt?

You would think so but then again someone else told me:

"Win98se use no more then 512mb
Win mel use no more then 512mb
If you use more then 256mb you have to set a minimum and maximum vcache to 512mb.
Best platform to use now is win2000 but protools wont work on it"


So this is all realy confusing. Its like buying a massive Semi Trailer and getting up to 300 miles per hour and running some dood down only to find out that

the Semi Trailer was made out of air bags and weighed a total of 0.01 kg. Like whats the point!

Im want to spend extra money on RAM and a sick CPU but is their any hard proof that these things will improve performance.

Well now you know my story.
If you have any advice or similar situations id like to read about that.

Thanks
david d. T666

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T666 da nuclear bomb from your stereo: http://www.T666.com/

Re: P4 and Protools and Digi001 and OS and RAM
 

Man thanks for the info!

Ill research on the ram but can you tell me if i have 1 gig of ram will the programs see the extra 512ram on OS 98SE or WinMillenium. Which OS would you use. I heard the max you can have is 512 which just doesnt make sense becasue why do they give you a motherboard with 1 gig available.

You also just gave me a mad idea.
I could install protools onto a 4th Harddrive with its own OS and use this just for protools for serious recording and editing.

But I could also have protools installed on my C drive with all the other aplications and use this instance for when i want to have other programs running at the same time as protools! And i could transfer the sessions from drive to drive depending on which platform i want to work on. Can you tell me tho. for this C drive could i be running win2000? Win2000 is realy good for all the windows programs i am running but will protools work on win2000 becasue the protools|24 works on NT so i am hoping LE will wor on win2000!

Any extra info on these issues would be cool. I am about to go into the shop and ask them but i want other peoples opinions also.

Thanks
david d



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T666 da nuclear bomb from your stereo: http://www.T666.com/

Re: P4 and Protools and Digi001 and OS and RAM
 

If you get a PIV 1.5Ghz make sure you use RAMBUS memory as that is the only memory that will work with the PIV. Also you need to make sure that the memory is matched in size and speed (PC600, PC800) on the first memory bank and (Speed needs to be matched on the second). Try to get an Intel or ASUS motherboard.
So Far all the users with PIV seem to be doing great, but be aware, PTLE likes it's own environment and does not like to share with other programs. Network cards are a pain in the neck etc. You really want to make sure you dedicate the machine to PTLE when you are working on audio.

Re: P4 and Protools and Digi001 and OS and RAM
 

Man i just learned about Athlon 1.3Ghz v P4.
Now i read alot of fors and against...

The p4 seems to suck at alot of things but is realy good at a few specific tasks so im wondering if protools might be one of them

or

Is their any hard proofs that the Athlon can out perform the P4 with specific protools related tasks

Thanks
david d


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T666 da nuclear bomb from your stereo: http://www.T666.com/

Re: P4 and Protools and Digi001 and OS and RAM
 

If you are looking for the most powerful computer that will run pt, then i would definately go athlon. The pIV may have high clocks, but it is no where near as effecient running the floating point operations (that composes protools), as the athlon T-bird chips.

You will either have to stick with win 98 SE or win me, cause no other os is supported. I would recommend 98 se as their drivers are more mature and you will probly run into fewer problems(my friend downgraded back to 98 se after putting up with win ME driver problems for a month).

As far as ram, if you go with some of the newer athlon boards you can get use DDR-SDRAM. You may not see a vast improvment verses the normal SDR ram but, if you have the money it wouldnt hurt (it will probly help, but i am not sure how big a difference it makes).

Now you may have some problems getting it up and running being that ahtlon chips, and via mobo's are still not supported by digi yet. i did not have but one minor problem which was very easily fixed once i found the the gremlin, but since then my system has been running like a dream. i have not tried playing games while using pt, but i can stay on the interent with my lan card, and us pt at the same time. Besides why would you want to run pt while playing cpu demanging games. Your games will not run fast, and you will probly keep getting pci bus too busy errors (which will probly lock your system up entirely).

So if you have the cash, the patience and the skill go amd all the way. you will get the best performance possible, along with a cheaper system then a pIV.

Christian

Re: P4 and Protools and Digi001 and OS and RAM
 

According to MS, none of the Windows 9x products will recognize for than 512Megs. There is a fix, though. A shareware program called Cacheman will fix the problem. Also MS has a fix for it. Go to their site.