MBOX and computer purchase assistance

[jcoker]

Ok...so I'm thinking of taking the plunge and purchasing a MBOX and a PC that will work well with MBOX and PTLE. I've searched the archives and read the PTLE docs. But I still have two basic questions for those of you that have been using MBOX/PTLE for awhile:

1) Will I regret running MBOX/PTLE on a PC with XP? I ask this because there seem to be a lot of people running MBOX/PTLE on MAC OS, but I've never used a MAC. But I'm not opposed to purchasing/using a MAC.

2) If running MBOX/PTLE on a XP PC, is there any particular vendor/model PC that is pretty much compatible with MBOX/PTLE, right out of the box?

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thank you.

[QuikDraw]

I don't see any problem with the MBox on XP. I'm running mine on a Gateway 400s 2.0GHz P4 notebook. It runs fine. You do need fast external storage though. Working to the system drive won't cut it. A Firewire hard drive would be the preferred choice since the Gateway has Firewire built-in.

I'm actually using a USB 2.0 hard drive. The Gateway only has USB 1.1 ports, so I had to get a USB 2.0 Cardbus adaptor, but it works great.

I'm not saying the Gateway is the best notebook out there. It's actually quite noisy! But the MBox works on it right out of the box. Perfectly.

Mike

[jcoker]

Originally posted by QuikDraw:
I don't see any problem with the MBox on XP. I'm running mine on a Gateway 400s 2.0GHz P4 notebook. It runs fine. You do need fast external storage though. Working to the system drive won't cut it. A Firewire hard drive would be the preferred choice since the Gateway has Firewire built-in.

I'm actually using a USB 2.0 hard drive. The Gateway only has USB 1.1 ports, so I had to get a USB 2.0 Cardbus adaptor, but it works great.

I'm not saying the Gateway is the best notebook out there. It's actually quite noisy! But the MBox works on it right out of the box. Perfectly.

Mike

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Thanks for the reply Quickdraw. I have been giving some thought to a laptop, but didn't see a very definitive list on the DUC for, say, two or three specific models known to be absolutely compatible, if there is such a thing [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I did see Allen's long thread re: a XP workstation build for under 1K. I assume that workstaion would be compatible with MBox? The original post is specific to the Digi 001 & Digi 002, so I wasn't sure. I guess I may end up going the route of building a XP workstation close to whats in Allen's thread. I wish my existing workstation were compatible. Thanks.

[Don Cho]

I´m running my MBox on an Acer Travelmate 422 LC notebook. Straight out of the box I was able to run atleast 24 tracks (probably more) with a bunch of plugins using only the internal drive. That´s pretty good for a 5400(?) rpm internal drive. It´s a P4 2Ghz with 256 ram.
Just recently bought extra ram. 512 MB now. I also invested in a firewire drive. Not because Protools wouldn´t run on the internal drive anymore, I had no problems there. Just needed more space [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] and have a lot of stuff to track.

Simon