Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[Sonny in London]

Hi everyone...
Im a new PTLE digi 002 user living in new delhi, india. So a lot of laptop companies mentioned here arent really available or have been tested by Digidesign.
Could someone suggest a good Windows based laptop that will be good for PTLE Digi 002.
My best bet is a Sony viao with upto 80 gb harddrive+ 3 usb ports, 2 gb expandable RAM...and 1 1394 fw port.
Im also thinking of the IBM Lenovo T and A series as mentioned here.
but they dont have a FW port.
The Apple Powerbook is a good option, but its a bit step, but id still consider buying it. any tested and recommended models fpr PTLE?
What is the basic guideline as to buying a laptop for PT LE?

thanks
gucci

Welcome!

Try this thread mate.

Sonny

[cinemod]

Hey MattP,

Thanks for the reply. I will update the BIOS.

3 hours was enough time wasted trying to figure out the LAN problem.
The Linksys is there to stay and it's not sharing IRQ with anything else.

Now for the bad news. While waiting for the parts to arrive, I spent 4 days
cleaning up/organizing my room and getting rid of tons of stuff...
Yesterday I started going over docs on the site to prepare for the install in the
near future...I went to the shelve where I have all my s/w and " where the heck is it??"

All last nite and this morning I searched for the original s/w pkg. So far I have not
found it. I'm devestated. Although I have the 6.7 upgrade sealed pkg, it looks like I'm
out of luck with all the other bundled s/w.. or at least that's what Guitar Center told me.

I haven't searched the boards/Support site yet. So if there is some good news or alternative
can someone let me know? Please don't comment on my stupidity as I've already addressed that.


wicked depressed,
cinemod

Hey MattP,

That BIOS update link didn/t work - is it the latest shown on the DFI website???

Also, I found that 6.7 is a full install - so I'm lucky!

Not so lucky with the Ignition Pack those were priceless to me. Digi customer service said I'm out of luck.
I still have the license codes for Amplitude, SampleTank and Reason Adapted.
I think I found these on the IK site:
STInstaller119RTASSE_WIN.zip
Install_AmpliTube_LE_Digi_Win_XP.zip
DigibundleUpdate_05_12_2003.zip

Haven't found if Reason Adapted is a update or if I can recover that.
In the meantime, I'll start with the BIOS, a re-install and several levels of ghosting.

I posted elsewhere for my s/w problem as this topic isn't appropriate for this thread.

best regards,
cinemod

[Matt P]

Hey Cinemod,

Yes the BIOS found at the DFI website is correct.
There is a Beta BIOS at the DFI website that is newer but it doesn't help any with this setup so i would stick the latest offical one.
I also have modifed one's for for higher VDIMM's but if you don't OC you wont need them.(For old Winbond BH-5 memory.)
Glad you found PTLE!
Good luck,

Matt

[writeroxie]

my Aspire Case didnt come with any directions (nobody's did?)...
is there a special place to put that thermostat wire inside the machine?
or should it just float around loosely?

Thanks guys!
jim

[bmmpxf]

Oh, and while I'm asking questions, is there any performance difference between having one hard drive (partitioned into system and audio partitions) or two hard drives? Should they be masters on both IDE channels (With CD-ROMs as slaves), or master and slave on one IDE channel?

Thanks again,
Mike
bmmpxf

[writeroxie]

Wow, so I'm half way there!
Last night I finished building my (7-10-5) Allenstein and I'm happy to say it booted up fine and XP loaded in with no problems. Now I've just gotta get my hands on the Digi002R and I'll be good to go

However, I still have few questions before I go any further:

- Is there any info on recommeded Virus Protection for this system on this forum? I didn't see anything on page 1. Would software like Mcafee/Symantec interfere with my system running Protools LE at optimum performance? I want to be safe, but I also don't want bog the system down, as Virus software seems to do. What do you guys use?

- My DVD burner drive showed up in the system bios as Secondary IDE 'slave'. The "Secondary IDE Master" came up as 'not found'. Is this proper, or should I switch the jumper on the DVD drive to make it the Secondary IDE "master"?

- Then there was that question 2 posts above this one about my cases' thermostat. Should that wire be 'mounted' inside and/or close to a certain area (cpu?). Or should it just generally float inside with the other cables? Also, what's a safe temp for the inside of that case? After loading windows XP for about an hour last night had it sitting at about 81 f. What's dangerously hot?

- I'm concerned a little, as I just found someone post this on another board: "Using the Zalman all copper Flower cooler{A very unique installation. Taking the backplate off the K8V in order to install the one that came with Zalman gave me the hee-bee jee-bees!!!"

See, I installed the same heatsink, which came with a plastic backplate, but the K8V's metal backplate looked like it was affixed permanently. So I was afraid to rip it off like this guy apparently did... should I be worried about using the stock backplate that came with the board rather than the one that came with the heatsink/fan?

I appreciate your help guys, you've made this incredibly easy for me... And this is the first computer I've ever built.

-Jim

[AM STUDIOS]

ok building a new system for PT7.

can matt.P or someone help me please.

ive curretly got all the hard drives and ram i need. just want help with CPU and mobo selection.

which one should i get:
CPU
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
OR
- AMD Athlon 64 4000+

MOTHERBOARD

- Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939

can someone please let me know ASAP.

[sbs]

might be worth holding fire till Digi publish compatibility info for PT7.

OK, for a long (and rather annoying) time the Allenstein wasn't part of the "official" compatibility but be good to see what they say first...

[chahende]

I am using the original, Asus A7V600 and xp2500, and although it does run protools, I cannot get the tracks/plug ins count that I would like. I am thinking of overclocking. You said to set the bios to 200 X 11. Pardon my ignorance but could you explain exactly which settings in the bios I should change to overclock safely?

[writeroxie]

hey allen or mattp, or anyone who feels like helping a newbie out...

it seems that the bios setup is recognizing that i have 2 hard drives installed (master and slave). however in the 'my computer' section, it only shows one (80gb) hard drive "C:" ...shouldn't I be seeing my other drive? How else would I put my protools files on the 2nd HD, which I bought dedicated for just that?

thanks in advance for any tips!
Jim