Looking to upgrade my DIGI 001 PC

[thruhiker]

Hey folks,

I just got back into the world of Pro Tools after a much too long hiatus. I still love my DIGI 001 as it has never let me down. I am looking to possibly upgrade to a faster CPU.

However as my current motherboard in the system is a socket 462 (A) with a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ CPU (2.0 Ghz) the highest AMD I can upgrade to is the Athlon XP 3200+ (2.2 Ghz). I am not sure that this will be an optimal upgrade to stop Pro Tools from stopping when sessions get loaded down with tracks and plug-ins. I currently have 1.5 Gbytes of RAM in my system (I just added a 1Gbyte stick) and have added a video card that has its own on-board RAM as well.

I'm not sure just yet if the additional RAM and the new video card with its own RAM will help the problem of shutting down.

I am considering a new motherboard / CPU combo as well. I know PT can be picky so any suggestions for such a combo are greatly appreciated.

Currently my system is:

DIGI 001
Windows XP with Service Pack 1
ASUS A7V8X-X Motherboard
1.5 Gbytes of DDR RAM
AMD Athlon XP 2400 CPU
BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Graphics Card

Cheers, and thanks in advance
Tony

[TOM@METRO]

The 001 and PT6.4 won't recognize the extra cores that modern systems bring, so you will not see much gain in a that system with more than a fast Core 2 Duo.

[thruhiker]

Thanks!

So would a dual core help any at all? Or maybe another Gbyte of RAM?
I haven't found any dual core CPUs that fit a socet 462(A) motherboard. So I would still need to get a new motherboard with a dual core CPU.

[Folkcafe]

Hi Tony

I just posted the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Oddly enough my solution was to re-purpose an old motherboard I had (A7V8X-X) from a Pentium system that was running at 600Mhz. For me the board you have was a great improvement thus far. I have only done some modest testing but the largest project I have is working great.

If you are having issue with shutting down, have you checked the hardware at all. The A7V8X-X were boards I used for my kids old computers and theirs would get pretty clogged with dust and start to become unstable.

Just a thought.

Don

[thruhiker]

Thanks Don,

shutting down was always an issue, but only when my sessions got heavy with tracks count and plug-ins, some intensive ones. I could always get around it by printing some of the tracks with the effects onto another track and then removing the heavy track. Would like to get around doing that if need be, but I thought it would be worth inquiring about.

And, this system has ALWAYS been strong (knock on wood). never had any complaints escept for the occasional shut down.

I love that motherboard even if it is considered ancient now.

[Folkcafe]

NewEgg still sells DDR memory. You could pick up a couple of 1 gig sticks for cheap. I only found one 1 Gig stick so I ordered some today.

Don

[thruhiker]

I'm gonna see how the 1.5 gbyte works for now. I have one more slot for another 1gig stick. I also heard that the CPU makes more of a difference but I'm sure it's a combo of both.