PT just does not work, so should I build a new PC build or just but a MAC?

[ajcsound]

I have had a year a half of trying to make PT LE work and I still can't get it to do anything.

I have a good PC, AMD 1.8ghz, lots of ram, loads of HD drives, MOTU 828 Mk2 USB and MBox2 Mini, but of course PT LE8 needs a PT specified PC, and only firewire drives, intel processors etc etc etc. So I got a firewire drive, still problems. It won't save any work and crashes all of time. But of course all of my other audio programmes work fine......

Tried my new HP W7 laptop but it does not have firewire, just eSATA, but that isn't fast enough to work with PT. Again all of my other audio programmes work just fine.......

I tried PT 9 to see if that might work - not a chance, that was just a silly idea.

So here is my question. Shall I:

1) build a new PC with an Intel i7, 6 gig RAM, SATA discs and NIVIDA graphics, but as it is a home built machine it would not qualify with Avid so therefore it probably won't work at all. Costing about a grand.

2) Buy a DELL, Avid qualified machine and hope it will work. About a grand. But it is a PC so it won't work very well with PT.

3) Buy a MAC Book Pro, and then put up with an expensive piece of jewery with only two USB's, one firewire and an unsupported interface (Thunderbolt) which no one cares less about, but PT MIGHT work.

I have worked in audio all of my life, using many pieces of software on PC which work fine, but protools has sadly become a standard and I have to use it. But I have never seen a programme which is so fussy and unstable. When we do live broadcasts we would never use PT as it is just to unstable and unrelaiable, we use other machines instead.

If I build my own machine, which is what I would like to do, will it work at all with PT? I am afraid if I buy a MAC I am just throwing money down that fashonable apple shaped money pit.

I would be very greatful for some help.

Many Thanks

[cwsand]

You should look at the I7 thread - there are many users, myself included, who have built pc's modeled after the ones described in the first few pages that are working great with Pro Tools!

[rosemeister]

Buy a MacBook Pro.

Your lost time is money. People don't take that into consideration when making a purchase.

The difference is a few hundred dollars. Is your lost time worth that?

[DarylG]

There are reasons to use either platform. Go and read the threads on the OSX section to see if there are any complaints.

I have only been using PT for a few weeks, having previously not used it since PT 5.1, but already I've found differences between platforms, and Windows always comes off worse.

FWIW Pro Tools is the only cross platform application that I know of that works better using OSX.

D

[The Weed]

The i7 thread, first page or so as mentioned is your best bet for a reasonably priced, solid, stable Windows system to run Pro Tools. Follow the parts list and configuration suggestions and Avid's optimizations and you should be good to go. If you have any problems there are many people who have contributed to the i7 thread here on the forum more than willing to lend a hand.

Cheers,

[Bill Denton]

Gotta wonder if some of the posters here even bothered to read the whole post from ajcsound...

First, let me give you a link to a post regarding one of my "adventures" with Pro Tools 9...

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=292063

See...you sometimes have to work really hard to make PT 9 not work. And I failed at making it not work.

Now, back to ajcsound's original post. Here's a couple of points...

Tried my new HP W7 laptop but it does not have firewire, just eSATA, but that isn't fast enough to work with PT. Again all of my other audio programmes work just fine.......

I tried PT 9 to see if that might work - not a chance, that was just a silly idea.

First, eSATA is faster than Firewire, and an eSATA drive would work better with Pro Tools than would a Firewire drive.

There is a strong possibility that PT 9 would work, assuming it is a legal copy. And I'm including that caveat because Pro Tools 9 would have cost you between $250 US and $599 US, and I just don't see someone casually discarding that investment.

Do this...

Get an eSATA drive, but make sure it is at least a 7200 RPM drive and is not a "green" drive. "Green" drives use various power-saving schemes and they don't work well for audio drives.

Go to the Avid web site and perform the recommended optimizations.

Do a search on this site for posts by me related to PT 9 installation. Read them carefully and follow the installation instructions exactly.

Then go make some music...

[jntracks]

i use windows 7. and i use eSATA not firewire for my drives.

neither of these is the cause of your problems.

[pot3]

make sure the firewire card has a Texas Instrument chip set and load absolutely everything before you start to install protools and I mean everything all drivers for your mbox. I have found if you dont have the TI set protools wont recognize the firewire. I have been fighting for quite a while with a projectmix and finally this worked. then deep freeze it.good luck. most problems I found were with win 7 not protools. try 9 crossgrade.

[jntracks]

weeeellll, that's not exactly correct. when i was setting up the 9.0.2 driver updates i tried playing around with both the TI chipset and the firewire built into my mother board, a VIA chipset. they both work the same.

the detail is that TI chipset is heavily tested and approved. other chipsets will probably work, but aren't guaranteed to. if you have problems with interface communication while using a non TI chipset, try a TI chipset.

also: just read over your original post again, you didn't describe your set up with much detail. AMD 1.8 ghz sounds extremely slow. is that single, dual, quad core? what chip gen?
it's not to say pro tools will not work with an older CPU, but my impression is that a chip that slow would be able to do very little in pro tools.

[rosemeister]

Here's another option, get one of the new iMacs and use your FireWire drive with it.