Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[johnjm22]

[QUOTE]

I don't see any reason, but other people do. Just take a look at the Quad thread. Those guys have quite a bit more processing power than me, and the way some of them talk about their situations, they need it. I don't - I use my ProTools rig to record my demos for the band, and then the band for our demo stuff. Normally around 30 tracks on a song, a few compressors and some reverbs, that kind of thing. This will do everything I need, and should for some time to come. I just wanted a system that would be stable, solid, and responsive throughout my use of it, and so far it looks like that's just what I've built.

Although an dual core X2 system may not be as powerful as a quad, I still think it's a quite powerful system.

I'm currently running a Dual 1.25 G4 w/ 1 Gig of RAM, and a single 7200 RPM drive. This thing will do 32 tracks and 30+ plugins, 3 of them being reverbs. Considering a 4800/2Gig/2SATA HD setup more than twice as powerful, I'm excited to see what it will be capable of.

[MrJoshua]

Oh, it's certainly a powerful system. Blows away my old setup with an Athlon 64 2800+. I was amazed at how sluggish my old system felt after I upgraded to the Digi002R with ProTools LE 7.1, and now I'm similarly amazed at how responsive it is with the new setup. I had the guitarist over tonight to lay down some acoustic tracks (using a Rode NT5 I just purchased, and I'm pleased with it, too) and everything ran smooth as silk at 96kHz. I added a quick bit of compression and a TL Space reverb for playback, and it sounded just fantastic.

If you'd told me ten years ago that I'd be able to drop just a few grand on recording equipment like I have now and get the kind of sounds I'm getting recording in my spare bedroom, I would have said you were crazy. It just blows my mind that affordable recording equipment is this good these days. And as long as AMD and Intel are both making quality processors and forcing innovations and low prices from each other, I think that the performance is just going to keep getting better and better. As it is, with the newer systems I don't think there would be any problem recording 32 or 48 tracks at a time if Digi just made an LE interface with that many inputs. Not that I have a need for that many right now, but still. It amazes me.

[Noviisi]

Thanks for your thoughts MrJoshua!
Stable and reliable system is my priority number 1 too.
-n

[scar97]

Allen,

I am thinking of building a new PC with the athalon dual processor that everyone is raving about. Since there are so many strings to this post I need updated information to build a PC (hopefully under $1500.00). What do you recommend?

I am currently using a sweetwater cube turnkey system P4 3.2 800fsb with 1 gig ram. I have 2 internal seagate drives and 2 external GT50 FW drives on my current system. Look at my signature and you can see the rest.

I want something with no problems and stuff I can buy locally in Houston, Texas. I also need to know if you guys know how to image my system on one of the GT50 glyph drives with acronis 9 to where I can just plug the image and go (I hope there is not a difference in plugging a pentium image to an athalon).


Last question. If I build the PC, Install windows then can I just plug my image and go with waves plugs and all others (authorized already on the Ilock key)?

Please respond as soon as possible as I want to begin tomorrow.

Thanks and you can private massage me or send email to [email protected]

[unclemonkey]

How do I go about hooking 3 or 4 video lcd monitors to my protools le 002rack computer ?

[MrJoshua]

To use 3 or 4 monitors, you'll need at least two video cards. On a new SLI-compatible system that's no problem - you just use two PCI-Express video cards of the same kind. On an older AGP-based system or a non-SLI newer PCI-Express system, it means you'd need to use one regular video card and one PCI-based video card, which is slower. On my work computer (not the ProTools machine) I use an AGP-based video card and a PCI-based video card so I can run two LCD screens and one CRT monitor.

[Abomb97]

Hey Allen...I followed your advice and built a sweet as GIGA 3 & PT LE 7 rig (Allenstein not Quadzilla). Giga now rewire's into pro tools (which I wasn't aware)... Very cool. Runs like a dream.

One thought....is it possible to put either a MIX core or HD core card into this system?

Thanks again for the help!
Justin

[Tom Harmon]

HI Allen: I thought I'd try a Q. directly to you since you've been so helpful in the past...

In 2004, I had a local computer guru build me a computer with the components listed in the DUC. Recently, my computer had problems starting. So I called someone else (the original builder is out with health problems). We concluded a new power supply was what was needed and he installed it. Later that day, I turned the radio/receiver on and the AM reception was very full of static. After much testing, I concluded that the static only was present if my printer was plugged in with the USB cable and also if the 001 was plugged in.

I think this new problem resulted from putting in a power supply that was not properly "shielded/insullated"... What do you think of my theory? If I buy one of the power supply's listed in the current "Best Computer" on the DUC, do you think the static will disappear, like before? Thanks.. Tom

[Bergomi]

Hi Allen & everybody else!

I have put together components for a new system to work with PT LE & Mbox2/Digi 002.
Now I'd like to be sure this choice will be alright before I finally purchase.
OK, I thought of the following setup:

CPU AMD X2 4400 (socket 939) @ Scythe Ninja + (included fan)
MOBO Asus A8N-SLI or maybe the A8N32-SLI (just because of the better heatpipes)
The A8V has fans on it, therefore I'd like to use a stable alternative
RAM 2 GB
for example MDT DIMM Kit 2048MB PC3200 DDR CL2.5 (PC400) 184pin
CASE Lian Li PC7 SE
PSU Seasonic S12-430 430W ATX 2.0
GRAPHICS Matrox G550 PCIe, 2X DVI, passive, 32MB
DVD BURNER LG GSA-4167B Retail
FANS 2x 120mm Aerocool Turbine or 120mm Yate Loon D12SL for case and power supply
HARD DRIVES Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB 16MB SATA II
OR the corresponding 7200.10 model
OR Western Digital Caviar (as stated on the first page of this thread)

See, I'm still unsure about the right mainboard regarding its onboard firewire compatibility with the Digi 002 and which hard drive would be the best solution for optimal performance with minimal noise emission. Otherwise I suppose everything else should work fine, will it?

Can anybody help me out with this, maybe someone with a similar configuration?
I would be pleased to receive some feedback ASAP.

Thank you very much in advance for your effort, this is indeed a great forum!

Greetz, CB

[Doogz]

Hi all

Nearly time for the big upgrade, and I'm thinking of:

Intel E6700 Core2Duo
ASUS P5B Deluxe MoBo (Intel P965 chipset) or P5N32 SLI Deluxe (Nforce 4 SLI chipset)
2GB Corsair 6400C4 Pro RAM

Approx AU$1350-$1450

And then there is always the good old AMD fall-back:

AMD 64 5000x2
ASUS M32N SLI Deluxe
2GB Corsair 6400C4 Pro RAM

Approx $1100

Now - the AMD is tried and trusted - then new Intel is the future (or so it would seem!). It looks like I'd pay about 20% more, but get 30%+ or more performance from a cooler running, quieter, cheaper to run machine. Bigger cache, better for CPU intensive stuff? The big question is- WILL IT WORK? Anyone tried this? Keen to hear your thoughts!

Cheers

Doogz