Back from injury...system advice 8.0.5/budget

[nuno81291]

Hello all,

I finally have gotten cleared from devastating hand injury that all but destroyed my career as a guitarist... my doctor thinks I am OK to finally put in the long hours after much Physical Therapy. Anyways, it has been years since I used my setup (depression got me bad!) but I am dusting the ol' desk off and trying to get back into demoing for a new project. I have a budget of about 1k to upgrade my computer (macpro, old aluminum deal) and either my PTMP 8 software or some other gizmos to help my workflow. I will go into detail about my computer and protools rig and ask the community to advise how you would spend my budget to make my rig as stable/useful for my needs.

I am a rock guitarist, I primarily use my setup to demo instrumentals or record rehearsals. I use a profire 2626 with its onboard pres. I do not use VIs except for EZdrummer (the old one) to just give a simple beat when writing on my own.

I just installed the update for 8.0.3 to 8.0.5.

my mac pro is running 10.6.8, has 2x 2.66 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon, with 5 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM.

I have only had this computer for about 2 months before my incident that crushed my hands! At that point I had only a few demos on it and yes like an idiot I recorded to the system drive (only 1 drive on this currently). I am not a techie by anymeans but this Macpro was far more stable than my XP/Vista/7 hodgepodge PC I had before... I would like the harddrive to remain 'in the box' since I have open bays for it...I figure my current drive can remain my system drive and the new one will be for recording to. I do not use samples or have a library of anything other than Ezdrummer so I probably do not need a seperate drive for that (again I sporadically use ezdrummer...when my analog human bandmate is MIA ;P )

SO. if you had 1k in your hands, and used a DAW the way I do (rock music, demos, basically a writing pad for me, or being able to handle 8 inputs for getting the majority of the band on "tape") what would you do?

Off the bat I know I need a harddrive. Are SSDs approved for my old version of protools or should I stick with a "fast" HDD? Is it worth it to upgrade my RAM?

I am an old analog guy and like the tactile feel of faders on a console (I HATE using the mouse for automation/volume/pan etc...just not my bag) so I was thinking of throwing money as a control surface to keep me from cursing my mouse any more! I was looking at something like the Faderport with HUI...a single fader/transport controls would do it and the price is right. But I am willing to consider something like the Mackie Universal Control so I can have 8 faders under my hands...again old school rock guy here that is more used to cutting tape than fiddling with mice and all that jazz...I am willing to separate the control surface into a separate budget and save for the mackie HUI if you guys think it is worth it for my purposes.

I am very hesitant to up/crossgrade protools to the latest configuration for $250 (software + new iLok fee?) and would rather be spending that money to get my first better tube pre and use the AD/DA capabilities of the Profire2626. I assume if I upgraded my Protools version to the latest, I would also have to be upgrading my mac OS to the latest as well and that is some serious coin for a musician who just gets by on his work...

I thank you all kindly for any help and consideration and will gladly provide more information about my system if it will help you give advice.

Nuno