[benherron.rrr]

Thanks The Weed, The Pro Tools PC looks very impressive and the specs are very similar to the build I was trying to work out. If I decide not to go the apple route I think one of this will be my choice.

Good points Propower, something I overlooked when writing the thread.

By unstable I mean that I pretty much constantly have issues with Pro Tools, ever since I started on 8LE If I'm honest. It can be anywhere from freeze crashes, plug-in instability, crashing on save or mid recording, VI's being very touch and go, odd CPU spikes that cause crashes. . . etc, I have posted a good few sandra reports on here before when I have had numerous problems and the general response I seem to get is that my problems are related to hardware issues. It has just got to the point where my constant issues are ruining my love and motivation and I am constantly letting people down as well as myself in terms of projects due to it.

My computer isn't particularly the problem, it has the power to do what I need it to (i7 2.8, 8GB RAM) and generally runs very fluently except when it comes to Pro Tools, I have done the win7 optimizations and even done multiple fresh installs over the years but have never been able to make a stable system.

My setup at the moment is very modest, Dell 8100 (computer), running multiple HD's for OS, Audio and samples, Pro Tools 11.3, a new mbox pro, control surface and graded hammer action keyboard. My main VI's are EastWest pianos and SO, BFD3/2, a couple select waves/NI plugs. When I'm not working on my own projects as an artist, I am composing music for media or am working on mixes. Call me a jack of all trades but I love almost every area of music and like to keep things fresh by doing multiple things.

I have really had enough of working on a system that I just can't trust any more, I have lost too many hours of work either from crashes mid-take or having to solve problems that magically appear over night. As I said, while my setup is rather modest, If I decide a new computer is the way to go I want to make sure my studio can expand around the comp over the next few years, I may have a laughable Mbox3 Pro now, but in the future I will be looking to upgrade to something along the lines of an appollo to meet my growing needs, I will be expanding to more, better quality VI's as I look to improve the quality of my ITB media compositions etc. My studio now is a very workable place, but the time is nearing where I will be looking to do my second round of upgrades. This is why I have been tempted by a new mac pro, if modular computing is the way its going I may as well jump on the train while I have no large investments in PCI/internal gear, money spent now could be saved 3 times over a few years down the line, if you get where I'm coming from.