General purpose PC and DAW?

[jc7]

I know everybody says that our DAW's should be just for audio only, but unfortunately I cannot absorb the cost of having 2 computers. I just went through a situation where after years of faithful service as both a general, internet PC as well as serving as a home for Pro Tools via a Digi 001, I got a virus and had to do a complete reinstall of XP my problem now is that my Pro Tools 6.4 - Digi 001 won't open. Anyway I'm researching for a new system and am wondering the safest way to have Pro Tools and do general MIcrosoft Word, etc. and surf the net all on the same computer. Any info would be greatly appreciated yet I am looking for more info on these to ideas i have.
1. Mac instead of a PC - Apple software running Pro Tools, Bootcamp running Vista and doing all other work on that operating system leaving Pro Tools separate. Would that keep things safe? any potential problems with this idea?
2. Dual Booting a PC either XP or Vista for Pro Tools and say Vista as another operating system on the same computer to do the internet, etc. Any ideas about a dual boot system? Any reasons not to do this? If I dual boot a PC I've heard that it is better to have each operating system on separate drives rather than just different partitions, is this true? Is it better to have XP and Vista, rather than Vista and Vista?
Once again any info I would be greatful for, I'm just trying to gain info right now and I admit I am paranoid after my experience with the virus I just got.

Thanks
Jeff

[jmitchell1532]

1. Mac instead of a PC - Apple software running Pro Tools, Bootcamp running Vista and doing all other work on that operating system leaving Pro Tools separate. Would that keep things safe? any potential problems with this idea?
2. Dual Booting a PC either XP or Vista for Pro Tools and say Vista as another operating system on the same computer to do the internet, etc. Any ideas about a dual boot system? Any reasons not to do this? If I dual boot a PC I've heard that it is better to have each operating system on separate drives rather than just different partitions, is this true? Is it better to have XP and Vista, rather than Vista and Vista?
Once again any info I would be greatful for, I'm just trying to gain info right now and I admit I am paranoid after my experience with the virus I just got.

For number 1, if you look around the forums, Mac users seem to have just as many glitches and headaches as Windows users. As long as your system is properly adjusted and optimized, you should be fine either way. Of course, different systems allow different amounts of RAM, different cpus, etc.

For 2, I'd stick with XP. I've found it far more reliable than Vista. Of course, I'd love to try out 7.

[albee1952]

I would do a quad core PC using all SATA hard drives, and use one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817990003
so you can reboot with a separate system drive set for Pro Tools use. This triple bay unit would also allow you to remove your audio drives when not needed, or the same company makes a single slot version which would be handy for swapping just the system drive. Much like dual boot, but totally separate to avoid any cross contamination and also makes for easy drive cloning(my favorite insurance policy) or you can just save drive images of both versions of system drives.

[sw rec]

My main control room rig (002 Rack) is Pro Tools, Roxio, FTP and that's about it. My BACKUP Pro Tools (M Box) rig also is my main e-mail computer, accounting, publishing, web-page design, Photoshop, Internet, and everything else under the sun. They both work great. Both XP, Core-2 Duo/Asus P5PE/2 gigs ram.