G4 with dual 450 chips -- will this work with digi001/protools?

[tommydee]

i just purchased a turnkey system running digi001 and protools LE. it's a G4 with two 450mhz chips.

i just found out protools is not optimized for two chips!
feeling that he should have told me this, i called the sales guy back ready to rip him a new ***hole, and he assured me that protools will provide dual chip optimization very soon, and that it will be an easy download.

is this true? or will i have to upgrade the system to OSX?

basically: did i just waste money and end up with a slower machine than if i'd bought a single 633 or similar??

any advice/help much appreciated.

tom.

[uno1234]

yes, you should get a faster machine, not a DP machine. I doubt PT will support it any time in the next 6months.

[lwilliam]

My guess is that you'll have to upgrade to OS X before you'll see any benefit of DP using PTLE. A 633Mhz would be pretty darn nice! (I have a 400)

------------------
LW

[Nick Batzdorf]

Everyone has announced multiprocessor support - it's a question of when it'll arrive. I personally would spend the extra $300 to get a second processor regardless of which machine I bought.

The real issue is that the 450 DP has had its five minutes of being current (it's all of six months old), and the newer machines have beefier PCI busses and an extra slot. They're also a little faster in the same price range and come with CD-R drives (or DVD-R if you go for the higher priced ones).

Nonetheless, the 450 DP is still an excellent machine for running the 001 (it's the one I'm using, although I don't use an 001). Whether it was a good choice for you is simply a matter of price. If you paid more than $2k, go ahead with your reaming plans; if not, you have to decide whether you want to pay more for a newer machine.

[Azrael]

So I am getting ready to purchase a MixPlus system and a new Mac. I will be running 32+ tracks often. Should I go with a G4 533MHz Dual Processor (hopeing for DP support in the next 6 months) or should I go for a 733 MHz or what ever the top of the line is right now. Or what about a 450 DP, I can pick up one of those faily cheap. Anyone running a Mix Plus on a 400 MHz machine or less with 32+ tracks and having any problems?

Thanks!

[tommydee]

thank you very much for this advice, all of you!

i paid $1,900 for the computer, but an extra (near) $400 for a CD-RW drive. so while i didn't get 'ripped off', i do think i was misdirected.

so i'm a little pissed... think i'll call the manager of tekserve and have a (forceful) chat with him.

regards and luck to you all.

t.