Help me spend my money!!

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by right beside

I'd save a little if I did my own ram

That, my friend, is the way most of us have always done...

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by right beside

I have all the accessories already. My post did say I was doing an UPGRADE and that the components I was UPGRADING were the computer, interface, and version of PT. That's what I asked about. You are raising issues beyond the scope of my thread.

Anyone else?

Well I think you should consider only upgrading your interface hardware for now. If you want to go PT11 (who would not want to?) you need to think about PT11 requirements. It is ML only, meaning only latest computers. It also requires minimum 8GB memory, which also means only latest computers. So you cannot save on that part at all. Probably you will be spending more you would like to, just to have a decent computer that is capable of running PT11 smoothly.

Just get the interface hardware to the level you require *now*, and then maybe later upgrade computer and PT to the latest. This is how I would do it with a limited budget. Probably.

That said; you could probably get a fully functioning PT HD system for half the price, if you do not care about being most current. Take a look at eBay -- grab a core card and a blue HD interface and a dirt cheap PowerMac / Mac Pro (depending on which cards you buy, you need to know whether you need PCI-X or PCI-express workstation). That can be done for half your budget. But it will be hard to upgrade later, if you do not get a transfer of ownership for the core card.

[right beside]

Yeah, i always do my own ram too. I've been using pro tools on macs since back in PT 6. I'm not new to all this. I just haven't updated things since PT 9.

I already ordered everything, so I can't consider PT HD anymore. I thought about the used system, but I need to get up and running quickly. My macbook is truly on it's last leg and I have an important project coming up.

I'm not going to upgrade to PT 11 right away, for sure. But it's nice to get the free upgrade now for the future. I'm not sure how easy it will be to downgrade the OS on the latest macbooks to Lion and then get a stable version of PT 9 to work with it. So getting into PT 10 with a free upgrade to 11 made some sense.

I ordered 16GB ram to put in the Macbook. I'm not worried there. But since I ordered the 2.6 gHZ chip instead of the stock 2.3, I have to wait for Apple to assemble it. I'm just hoping my current one makes it till then.