[raducanmihai]

Hello everybody. My name is Mihai and I'm new here.
My brother-in-law just bought ProTools 11 and he asked me to help him build a system that can handle the requirements. He will use it only for music, not video editing. The budget is around EUR 1000-1250 (USD 1300-1600)

I put toghether a list of components that, in my opinion, can do the job. :

CPU: i7 3770k 3.5 Ghz, 8M cache

Mobo: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H-WB (it has firewire, that's why I chose it)

Storage : 2 x HDD WD Blue,1TB, 64MB, 7200rpm, SATA 3 (but I am thinking about keeping 1 HDD for recordings and getting a small 128 GB SSD for OS and programs)

RAM : Kingston 16GB (2 x 8192MB), DDR3, 2133MHz (dual channel)

Power source: Corsair CMPSU-TX650M, 650W, ATX 2.31

Case: Cooler Master Elite 372 (nothing fancy, just a regular case)

I think the cooler that comes with the CPU will do the job (no overclocking, yet anyway), that's why I didn't put one on the list.

I have a hard time choosing a video card, because I don't know the program requirements. On the support page, the only thing I found is: "dedicated video card highly recommended".

My questions to you are:

1. Can this system without a dedicated video card handle ProTools 11 (with the integrated HD 4000) ?
2. Can a system with the latest Haswell chip (HD 5000) handle ProTools 11 without a dedicated video card?
3. If the answers to 1 and 2 is NO, what's the minimum video card you recommend: one from Nvidia Quadro line or a "gamer" video card (like GT XXX)
4. Do you have any advice in building a system for ProTools 11 (like compatibility issues or performance)?

Thank you very much for your help,
Mihai