Worried about making the switch back to PC

[The Weed]

Please listen to Steve and Neil, they build Pro Tools PCs and support them; very knowledgeable people. My builds are based off their and others advice.

Go Intel as said and just get a firewire card with a TI chipset, SIIG comes to mind, so you don't need an adapter.

Get a minimum of 16 gb of RAM.

Use an NVidia video card.

Use Western Digital Caviar Black 64 mb cache drives for OS and recording drives or, better yet, Samsung Pro or Evo SSDs.

Do ALL the Avid optimizations. I have others as well.

And have a backup plan. I use Macrium Reflect to backup my OS drive nightly and before any update/upgrade/install/uninstall. I also have archived images of my W10 Pro initial install so I can go back to "ground zero" without having to install Windows fresh.

And have no fear. Follow the advice here and elsewhere on the forum and you should be fine. And be sure to list your proposed parts list so people can let you know if they think there will be any issues with your components.

[TOM@METRO]

^^^ What Bruce said. ^^^

[griff71177]

Got it thank you. But my main concern is the use of protools on windows vs Mac. That's what has me worried as windows isn't as stable as Mac OS. But it seems like each has its own issues. I think I'll be ok with this AMD Ryzen based CPU. If not, I will let you know. Thanks again for the advice and I will update once I get it and try it out.

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by griff71177

Got it thank you. But my main concern is the use of protools on windows vs Mac. That's what has me worried as windows isn't as stable as Mac OS. But it seems like each has its own issues. I think I'll be ok with this AMD Ryzen based CPU. If not, I will let you know. Thanks again for the advice and I will update once I get it and try it out.

I look forward to hearing back from you on this. While I have my reservations about AMD and Pro Tools, I would love to learn otherwise.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by TOM@METRO

I look forward to hearing back from you on this. While I have my reservations about AMD and Pro Tools, I would love to learn otherwise.

AMD used to be the beez neez up till about 2005-2006 or so. Then Intel flew by them so far, they have not even really been considered since then. Their new processor line is seriously going after Intel for the first time since back then. The problem lies in that I doubt any developers (for our world) are doing or checking anything on AMD. Most everything is Intel based anymore and those architectural differences do matter.

[Sugarnutz]

I'm running Pro Tools 12.7 "Vanilla" on Windows 10 64 bit without a hitch, interface is a RME 9652 PCI. No issues at all, PC build is in my sig. Also have two UAD1 cards for use in Pro Tools 10 co-install, also running well. I also highly recommend Intel over AMD.

[albee1952]

The perceived differences between Mac and PC are almost always down to user error Both platforms are totally capable of great performance(and both are equally capable of making you rip out most of your hair). I also say intel i7, all the way, but the single "make or break" item for a successful PC setup is the motherboard's chipset. The wrong chipset will ruin things. On a tight budget, look for some "older" parts like a socket 2011 motherboard with an X79 chipset and a 6-core i7 3930K cpu and 16GB(4x4) of RAM(minimum). Looks like the current "best" is the X99 chipset. Skip the i5 cpu(buying "right" at the start saves you money as you won't outgrow things to quickly).

[QuikDraw]

Originally Posted by griff71177

...That's what has me worried as windows isn't as stable as Mac OS...

Funny thing is I run a MacBook Pro, and I can't stand to boot into the Mac partition because of how painfully slow it is. I run Windows 10 in Boot Camp partition. Windows runs circles around OSX on this Mac.

[griff71177]

It was my experience when I bought a PC to run windows and protools, I had many issues with stability, drivers, etc and once I switched to a Mac Pro tower, all my problems seemed to disappear for the most part minus a few hw/buffer issues.

But now with protools being a 64 bit platform and me wanting to upgrade to the 64 bit version, but not being able to since my Mac Pro tower is a 1,1 version, I am looking at diving back into the PC world for the affordability factor.

My brother builds PC's and is very optimistic about the new Ryzen cpu's coming out in March. With the X370 motherboard and Ryzen 5 1600X combo, he's pretty sure that I should be able to fly along, figuring out what ever, hopefully, minor issues may come up along the way.

With new tech I guess you gotta try it to see how it works...

[TOM@METRO]

Gotta love the trailblazers. Keep us informed.

Good luck.