Been gone a while. Please help modernize me...

[guitarzzan]

After purchasing BFD2 and having it laugh out loud at my 2 gigs of ram, I'm starting to look into a computer build down the road a bit. I've ordered more ram so I'll have 4 gigs, which I gather only a little over 3 actualy gets used, but I don't think that will save me down the road when I'm using bfd in a big session.
I searched here and read the threads on builds some of you are doing/have done etc and the Digi site is,as usual, a gauntlet of mazes to try and find specific info on my questions. ..so here goes:

-Does 7.3 or 7.4 HD support 64 bit systems?
-Does digi now support Vista and if so, what have your experiences been with it and PTHD so far?
-Am I correct in that regardless of one's system, if they're on XP, 4 gigs of ram is all that's supported?
-If digi doesn't support the quad core currently, do any of you know if they're working to do so?
-Knowing only a little about computers and being currently on a single core 2.6 P4, Is a qual core faster/more capable than a core 2 duo etc? ...and why is a Core 2 extreme so much more expensive than the rest?

Sorry for the onslaught of questions. I'm just thinking down the road a bit and am probably going to start plannning out a new computer to keep up with monsters like BFD2

thanks,
steve

[sunburst79]

After purchasing BFD2 and having it laugh out loud at my 2 gigs of ram, I'm starting to look into a computer build down the road a bit. I've ordered more ram so I'll have 4 gigs, which I gather only a little over 3 actualy gets used, but I don't think that will save me down the road when I'm using bfd in a big session.
I searched here and read the threads on builds some of you are doing/have done etc and the Digi site is,as usual, a gauntlet of mazes to try and find specific info on my questions. ..so here goes:

-Does 7.3 or 7.4 HD support 64 bit systems?

No, not at this time, Well at least under Windows.

-Does digi now support Vista and if so, what have your experiences been with it and PTHD so far?

Not currently supported, The LE users using it seem happy, the older forum users complained of a Vista performance hit along with a general performance hit with 7.4. These are native systems results.

-Am I correct in that regardless of one's system, if they're on XP, 4 gigs of ram is all that's supported?

This hold true of both XP and 32 Bit Vista. It's a limit of 32 bits operating systems more that type of operating system. Vista hogs a little more memory for itself at 3.12 Gb Vs 3.25 to 3.5 under XP. The amount of memory that that graphics card has onboard effects how much memory the system sees. Smaller video cards are better in this respect.

-If digi doesn't support the quad core currently, do any of you know if they're working to do so?

Only Digi can answer this and they are staying mum. We know the Quad is working quite well for both HD and LE.

-Knowing only a little about computers and being currently on a single core 2.6 P4, Is a qual core faster/more capable than a core 2 duo etc? ...and why is a Core 2 extreme so much more expensive than the rest?

Yes! PT is multithreaded and makes good use of multicore processing, It prefers cores over clockspeed and in this case the performance quite simply doubles. The Extreme Series are the chips that can run higher clock speeds than normal-they are for the most part regular chips that have tested better than most and are priced accordingly. They are not cost effective for Pro Tools.

Sorry for the onslaught of questions. I'm just thinking down the road a bit and am probably going to start plannning out a new computer to keep up with monsters like BFD2

thanks,
steve

Check out this board - Which is as far as I know the only one that will work with HD

Also this thread - Bob Nagy and NickH are the 2 most knowlagable guys on these rigs.

[guitarzzan]

Thanks a lot for all the info. Much appreciated.

My PTHD3 rig is just the original core and process cards...not accel, not pcie etc. Knowing little about this stuff, can my Pt cards work in motherboards with pcie slots or are they not compatible?

I may be wrong in my assumption, but with 64 bit architecture and quad core processors seeming to be such a great step forward for PT, it seems like Digi, albeit slow to move, would move into supporting these. It seems like now might be the perfect time to just wait a little bit to see what they do. I'd be pissed to build a new computer now and have them open up PT to 64 bit in 6 months. According to BFD's FAQ, they're planning to support 64 bit, but waiting on the hosts like Digi to get into the game.
I think for now, I'll scrap it out on my meeger system and wait for Digi to embrace the world of 64 bit with loads of memory.

thanks for the info.

[sunburst79]

Thanks a lot for all the info. Much appreciated.

My PTHD3 rig is just the original core and process cards...not accel, not pcie etc. Knowing little about this stuff, can my Pt cards work in motherboards with pcie slots or are they not compatible?

I may be wrong in my assumption, but with 64 bit architecture and quad core processors seeming to be such a great step forward for PT, it seems like Digi, albeit slow to move, would move into supporting these. It seems like now might be the perfect time to just wait a little bit to see what they do. I'd be pissed to build a new computer now and have them open up PT to 64 bit in 6 months. According to BFD's FAQ, they're planning to support 64 bit, but waiting on the hosts like Digi to get into the game.
I think for now, I'll scrap it out on my meeger system and wait for Digi to embrace the world of 64 bit with loads of memory.

thanks for the info.

Your PCI cards are not PCIe compatible and from what I understand about the crossgrade pricing its cheaper to buy a expansion chassis or build a Quad. Hopefully Digi will embrace 64 bit sooner than later. If you current systems working than biting the bullet and buying 4 GBs of RAM should buy you some time.