Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[nickdahl]

Thanks for the help, Allan. I appreciate it.

Here's my situation: I can't build my own system (no experience nor time). I've been looking for something that'll work well with PT7. Someone suggested this Alienware computer. Here're the specs:

Alienware Aurora 7500
Athlon 64 X2 4400+ with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Windows XP Home SP2
650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply
Acoustic Dampening with AlienIce 2.0 Video Cooling
Alienware nForce 4 SLI Motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB PCI-Ex16 Video Card
1GB Low-Latency Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 400MHz
80GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM w/8MB Cache System Drive
16x Dual Layer DVD+-R/W Drive w/LightScribe Technology
Integrated Sound Card

This computer would cost me about $2250.

At this price, I wonder if a G5 Mac might run PT better.

PowerMac with Dual-Core PowerPC G5 2.3 GHz
2 processing cores, dual-pipeline 128-bit Velocity Engine
1.15 GHz bidirectional FSB and 1MB x 2 L2 cache
512MB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 16GB
DVD+-R/W SuperDrive double layer
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB GDDR Video Card
MacOS X 10.4 "Tiger"

This computer would cost me about $2500.

I haven't had a Mac since my IIci from the early 1990s. Should I consider it?

Thanks,

Nick

[Allen Hallada]

Thanks for the help, Allan. I appreciate it.

Here's my situation: I can't build my own system (no experience nor time). I've been looking for something that'll work well with PT7. Someone suggested this Alienware computer. Here're the specs:

Alienware Aurora 7500
Athlon 64 X2 4400+ with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Windows XP Home SP2
650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply
Acoustic Dampening with AlienIce 2.0 Video Cooling
Alienware nForce 4 SLI Motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB PCI-Ex16 Video Card
1GB Low-Latency Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 400MHz
80GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM w/8MB Cache System Drive
16x Dual Layer DVD+-R/W Drive w/LightScribe Technology
Integrated Sound Card

This computer would cost me about $2250.

At this price, I wonder if a G5 Mac might run PT better.

PowerMac with Dual-Core PowerPC G5 2.3 GHz
2 processing cores, dual-pipeline 128-bit Velocity Engine
1.15 GHz bidirectional FSB and 1MB x 2 L2 cache
512MB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 16GB
DVD+-R/W SuperDrive double layer
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB GDDR Video Card
MacOS X 10.4 "Tiger"

This computer would cost me about $2500.

I haven't had a Mac since my IIci from the early 1990s. Should I consider it?

Thanks,

Nick

Tough choice Nick. I prefer the OSX operating system myself. The AMD would be a powerhouse of a system but that dual G5 would have enough power for 95% of PTLE use. Ask they guys on the Mac thread if they have been happy with the dual G5s as I see there are some tricks to setting them up. I also see that there are versions of OSX 10.4 that do not work with PTLE 7.0 at this time so make sure you get the correct version.
Shane is going to kick me but I'd probably go with the Mac given the equal price. Your paying about 1k to have that Alienware thing made.

Allen

[Belladonna]

Hi Allen and all,
I got my Dell XPS 600 system today, with the following specs:

I went with the home edition of XP. My XPS 600 system has the Pentium D 830 at 3.0 Ghz, 1 Gb of DDR2 SDRAM @ 667 MHZ, 250 Gig and 80 Gig SATA hard drives @7200, 256 MB NVidia GeForce 6800 PCI express video card,
As I expected, the SATA drives are set up with a RAID configuration, which I understand doesn't work with Pro Tools.

Could you tell me how to change this? Is it difficult?
Thanks,
Bella

Bella,
I've seen many RAID configurations work with PTLE so I'd give it a try first. If you have issues you will need to reinstall XP with a full reformat of the drives. You could also add a regular ATA drive for the system drive and use the RAID drives as your audio drives. The RAID config. basically makes your two drives appear as one big fast drive although you can create multiple partitions on the RAID configuration. If it were me, I'd add a third ATA drive as system drive for 50.00 and use the RAID config as my audio drives.

Allen

Allen et al.,
As it turns out I was wrong - the drives aren't RAID-configured (I misread something in the manual) - so things are good. I installed Pro Tools LE v. 7, and a couple of IK Multimedia plug-ins (Amplitube & Sampletank 2) - so far everything is working great. I haven't done anything very complex yet, but everything seems to be working very smoothly and FAST!

Would it be advisable to put the Sampletank sound library on the second drive? I'm thinking that probably makes sense but thought I'd ask.

The Dell comes loaded with all kinds of software I don't need, so I'll probably remove these programs, and then do some tweaks suggested on musicxp.net - after which I hope to have a really lean, mean recording machine!

I'll post more updates about my experience with the Dell XPS 600 & PTle7 in the next little while.

Thanks,
Bella

[nickdahl]

Tough choice Nick. I prefer the OSX operating system myself. The AMD would be a powerhouse of a system but that dual G5 would have enough power for 95% of PTLE use. Ask they guys on the Mac thread if they have been happy with the dual G5s as I see there are some tricks to setting them up. I also see that there are versions of OSX 10.4 that do not work with PTLE 7.0 at this time so make sure you get the correct version.
Shane is going to kick me but I'd probably go with the Mac given the equal price. Your paying about 1k to have that Alienware thing made.

Allen

Thanks again, Allen. Yikes! $1000 for labor? Does anyone know a company that builds a computer for less? I'm not at all happy about spending the $$$$ on the Alienware computer, especially because it has a flashy shell. I never look at my computer, so that type of stuff is meaningless to me. I would prefer a kick-a** PC that works great for me. I mean, for that money, maybe I should build it myself.

Any help would be great!

Nick

[Matt P]

Yoda smells a MAC-N-RAT on the windows form.
Wait till Shane sees this post!

"Shane is going to kick me but I'd probably go with the Mac given the equal price. Your paying about 1k to have that Alienware thing made.

Allen "


Matt

[nickdahl]

Well, I looked into building my own box. Does anything here seem out of line?

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
I-STAR Storm Series D-300 3U Rackmount Case w/460W Power Supply
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
Seagate NL35 ST3250623NS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE 5X DVD-RAM Write DVD Burner w/LightScribe
Crucial 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory X 4
BFG Tech BFGR6600GTOCX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
SIIG IEEE1394 3-port PCI Card NN-440012
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

I can do this for $2000. Is that appropriate for this system? Did I forget anything?

Oh, I know what...how do I get PT 7 onto the new computer once it's built? I downloaded the 7.0 upgrade so I don't have any disks. I received PT 6.9 disks with my new 002R. Do I have to install 6.9 then upgrade?

Thanks,

Nick

[djspl]

Okay, I ordered an AMD dual core system based on the list on the first page of this thread.
I received it today from mwave.com and have spent the last 6 hours trying to get the thing going. The immediate problem is I have no video and the keyboard doesn't respond when the power is on (no lights). I also do not here a beep on start up. The Graphics card is the Diamond X700 PCI Express card and the Motherboard is ASUS A8N-E. The system came all put together but before booting it up i stuck another hard drive in it that I had from another system. Of course I wish I had tested it before opening the case up but I've replaced drives before and am confident my modification isn't the issue.
I am at the end of my rope. If anyone can offer some suggestions to help me trouble shoot this issue I would appreciate it. I will try to contact mwave tech support tomorrow and hope they can help too. Thanks in advance.
Eric

AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4400+ (ADA4400CDBOX) RETAIL BOXED W/1MB X 2 CACHE 90NM (TOLEDO)
ASUS A8N-E
Microsoft Windows XP Home
CORSAIR VALUE SELECT VS1GBKIT400 1GB KIT (512MB x 2)
BEST DATA DIAMOND STEALTH RADEON X700 256MB DDR PCI EXPRESS DVI/VGA TV-OUT DUAL MONITOR
ANTEC SONATA II (BLACK) MID TOWER W/SMARTPOWER 2.0 450W ATX POWER SUPPLYEXTRA 120mm FAN(BLACK)
WD 80GB WD800JB EIDE UATA 66-100 8.9MS 7200RPM 8MB (Bare drive)NO EXT.ENCLOSURE
ZALMAN CNPS7000B-CU PURE COPPER BASE CPU COOLING FAN FOR AMD (SOCKET 462/754/939/940) AND INTEL (SOCKET 478) PROCESSOR W/3 PIN
LITE ON SHMW-160P6S BLACK 16X DVD DUAL RW DRIVE w/SW (White box)
SIIG 3-PORT 1394 FIREWIRE PCI ADAPTER W/1-INT & 2-EXT PORTS

No beep suggests a motherboard having a problem posting. Of course make sure the motherboard's speaker is hooked up.

Have you tried clearing the cmos?

I would remove the drive you put in there and see what happens. Where the drive is on the cable matters, as well as the drive's jumper setting.

What exactly happens when you try to turn it on? Do the Fans spin? CPU fan spinning? Check the CPU heatsink and make sure you aren't going into thermal protection from a mismounted CPU cooler.

[Allen Hallada]

Well, I looked into building my own box. Does anything here seem out of line?

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
I-STAR Storm Series D-300 3U Rackmount Case w/460W Power Supply
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
Seagate NL35 ST3250623NS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
LITE-ON Black ATAPI/E-IDE 5X DVD-RAM Write DVD Burner w/LightScribe
Crucial 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory X 4
BFG Tech BFGR6600GTOCX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
SIIG IEEE1394 3-port PCI Card NN-440012
Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

I can do this for $2000. Is that appropriate for this system? Did I forget anything?

Oh, I know what...how do I get PT 7 onto the new computer once it's built? I downloaded the 7.0 upgrade so I don't have any disks. I received PT 6.9 disks with my new 002R. Do I have to install 6.9 then upgrade?

Thanks,

Nick

Nick,
You should be able to put together a smoking system for about 1k now. See the first post again on this thread and stick with the SLI motherboard to avoid having to purchase a separate firewire card.

Allen

[Allen Hallada]

PowerMac with Dual-Core PowerPC G5 2.3 GHz
2 processing cores, dual-pipeline 128-bit Velocity Engine
1.15 GHz bidirectional FSB and 1MB x 2 L2 cache
512MB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 16GB
DVD+-R/W SuperDrive double layer
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB GDDR Video Card
MacOS X 10.4 "Tiger"

This computer would cost me about $2500.

Looks like the Macsters are having to set PTLE to one processor on the new dual core G5s which is a big wasted of processor potential for these new G5s. I'd hold off on that Mac for now. The Duo Intel Macs are going to be better anyways.

No comments Matt or Shane!

Allen

[coelho]

I have been trying to get around to build a dedicated PT machine using some earlier specs that you had posted. With the advent of dual core AMD processors what would you advise as a strategy while one waits for the price of dual core processors to come down? I have an ASUS K8V Deluxe MB and have been looking for either an Atlon 64 3400 or 3700 Clawhammer. Would this be the best interim solution or should I cut bait and go for your under $600 solution with an Asus A7V600 Motherboard and XP2500+ Barton CPU? What I am asking is (in terms of performance) which of these two approaches would be the best bang for the buck?