Windows vs. Mac for Pro Tools LE

[mudman]

I'm looking for opinions/advice from experienced LE users. I've been using LE 6.9 on a pentium 4 3.0 Ghz laptop and I'm constantly running into CPU/Hardware buffer type erros. Even on Bounce to disk, my PC will stop and give me a 6086 error telling me to adjust hardware settings, etc...(you know the ones). I have tweeked my PC until I'm blue and don't know what else I can do. I'm trying to use this for a business and I absolutely dread dealing with these issues. I really want to find out if there are these types of problems when running P/T le on a MAC?? I was at a workshop recently with Dan Workman from Sugarhill Studios and he runs LE on a G4 laptop with more tracks, plug-ins than I could ever do and he said he just does not run into the same types of problems. i want to purchase a laptop because I do offsite recording jobs often and can only afford to go with one new mac at this time. Will I be better off and most likely not run into so many problems with a MAC? Please, respond as I'm almost at my wits end but don't want to go out and spend the bucks just to have the same issues that I'm getting on my PC now. Thanks so much for your professional input. i remain.....incredibly frustrated.

[albee1952]

Well, you will likely get tons of opinions on this so here is mine. Assuming you want to do this as a paid PRO, I would probably not go the laptop route but instead would build a nice travel rack with a rack mounted Quad machine built around the AMD Opteron chips. Nothing against MACs at all but the dual Opteron system (if done right) is killer, and if you think MAC's are simple and trouble-free, just go read the MAC section of the DUC. The troubles may be different but they still have them. My AMD x2 system is pretty smoking but I built it right before the Quads where a real considration. The 6086 error sounds like a setup issue to me. I have not been a fan of the P4 at all even though some are getting good results. A paying client will be more impressed with a slick rack full of hardware than a laptop, a rack bag with an 002r and a milk crate full of cables. Besides, a pro setup will require more mic pre's and such anyway so you will need to decide just how much stuff you will need to do the work you want to get. I would go for an 002r with at least a Presonus digimax and 4 more mic pre's so you can record 16 channels in one pass. I use a focusrite ISA428 quad pre with the ADAT option card that includes 4 more A/D converters for adding more mic pre's(handy for patching in some UA610's or some Neve clones. Now if you are just recording yourself and friends.....then a new Intel dual MacBook might be just the ticket.