New Windows user

[Larryboy]

As the title says, I`m a new windows user and dearly need some hand-holding. I`m planning to use the machine as an external effects box after I get a PCI card with ADAT IO (maybe an RME or old Lecicon, etc). Here are the figures for the machine.

Pentium III - 500 mhz
320mb of RAM
100 mhz system bus (I think)
USB, no firewire

Here are a few questions.

1) Should I upgrade the CPU and if yes then should I go with another PIII or Celeron (Athlon won`t work in this machine, I just checked) and how much of a performance boost should I expect.
2) Which OS would be best. I don`t need bells and whistles, just something that`s stable and low latency.
3) I`m pretty sure the HD is pretty much a standard issue low grade piece. Should I change it even though I`m not really thinking of using it to record music on.
4) How well does Pro Tools free run on Windows. On my Mac it almost never freezes and I`d love to have the same hassle free setup on the PIII.
5) Since I use both platforms, which software developers to you see that give you both without extra charge. I hate the idea of buying the same thing twice.
6) Do any of you notice a difference in sound when going between programs. I could swear everything sounds better in Pro Tools than in Logic and Studio Vision on my Mac. Is it the same on Windows.
7) On the Mac we have sound manager. What is the Windows equivalent and is it limited to 16 bits or is it 24.

Thanks people.

[Stone Knife]

For the perfomance, you will get a lot out of THIS.

Waves seems to be a real staple over here...

As to the OS Digi has just moved on to XP so pretty soon it'll be hard to get the 9x/WinMe variety of ProTools LE.

If your primay (and only, sounds like) HD is slow, then get a second 7200rpm or faster drive to write audio to...

Lots of people have had lots of trouble with PT Free on Win systems. I spent about $600 trying to get it to work right and it was still a POS. I did wind up with a system that has hosted a 001 pretty well, though.

[Bastiaan]

With ptle, you don't need soundmanager (or the pc-variant), so you are not limited. I think that windows doenst have limitations for their own sounds. I checked audio-recorder, and that gives me options from 8 till 48 Khz to record.

spread the costs, and byt the digi001/amiii now, and update your system later. I run a system (piii, 600 Mhz, 384 MB ram, one 7200 rpm HD) and get nice results:

recording up to 8 tracks at a time with no problems
playing back 24 tracks with no problems
I WILL get into trouble if i want to use a lot of plugins, but the occasianal dverb here and there is no prob at all.

Big plus with older pIII machines: they are very quiet compared to the amd-athlon machines.....

[da BaSsTaRd!]

Originally posted by Larryboy:
I`m planning to use the machine as an external effects box after I get a PCI card with ADAT IO (maybe an RME or old Lecicon, etc).

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">What is it exactly that you're trying to achieve here? i'm not quite getting the concept. is it to run soft synths? or is it to process effects?

[Larryboy]

What am I trying to achieve? Basically, an 8-channel effects box. I plan to us my Mac for the audio files and soft synths since I`ve acummulated a few things like Battery, B4, etc. Today I just saw a Sonorus Studi/o for $70. I guess that would work for the digital transfers but did that company go under or something. The info on their web site looks old, talking about Windows 98 and Logic 4. With what I`d like to do, I don`t really need the newest OS, do I?