Should I, SHouldnt I???

[Halomobilo]

Hi there, I'm new to all this and looking into investing in a tasty little 002 Rack, the only problem that I have is I'm totally confused and am just scared that if I spend oodles of £'s on one of these it wont work with my existing laptop, I mean I read all the compatibility info on the site and think that it wont work with my laptop (4,200 rpm HDD etc) but then I come on here and read stuff and think that it might, I cant really afford to go out and but a new laptop but could a)upgrade my HDD to a 7,200 rpm one b) buy a USB 7,200rpm or c)buy a firewire 7,200rpm (perhaps a LaCie d2??) drive however I only have one firewire port (Texas Instruments OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller) which is integrated which (from what I've read on here) is bad. I was wondering if its worth taking the plunge and getting one of these babies, ahhhhhh so confused any help/advice you can give would be great as I've searched high and low on here for the best part of 2 hours and not found anyone who uses a Sony with Pro Tools only one article saying that they were used in a demo/tour!

Cheers

JC

Spec -

Sony Viao K115S (PCG-9P8M)
Mainboard : Sony Corporation (Q-Project)
Chipset : RS200 CPU to PCI Bridge
Processor : Intel Pentium 4 @ 2791 MHz
Physical Memory : 1024 MB (DDR-SDRAM)
Video Card : ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon 9200
Hard Disk : TOSHIBA MK6021GAS
Firewire : Texas Instruments OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Monitor Type : 20 inchs
Network Card : Atheros Communications Inc AR5212 802.11a/b/g Wireless Adapter
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.01.2600 Service Pack 2
DirectX : Version 9.0c

[Halomobilo]

OK so the LaCie d2 only has a single Firewire 400 port so found an alternative LaCie drive with all the recommended specs as per the HDD compatibility info and a dual Firewire 400 port -

http://www.bitzone.co.uk/product_inf...roducts_id=131

Is there something special about the LaCie chipset used? Or is it just because they're a good solid work horse?

[rageagainst]

hmmm, have you considered just picking up a 2nd hand digi 001 and buying a new Pc too! thats what id do if i were you.

sorry mever saw your Pc spec. ye upgrade your HD for defo

[Halomobilo]

Thanks for the advice figured the HDD would need upgrading as 4,200rpm is just way to slow. Sadly I have a laptop so firewire is the way to go for me I'm afraid, if I had a desktop things would be a hell of a lot easier (and probably cheaper) but I need to be mobile.

[Halomobilo]

My chipset is an ALI M5229, does anyone else have /use this chipset with out any problems?

I am running out of options as all the UK/London dealers that I have approached seem very reluctant to install the software on my laptop even if it means that they will secure a sale! But if I buy the digi rack 002 and it does not work because I have opened the software I cant return it! Does anyone know where I can get hold of a 'demo' copy of pro tools to try with the 002 rack? that way if it does not work I can simply return it with all the software seals intact and it can be re sold.

Please feel free to email me if you have any info about trial/demo PT software etc.