Upgrade help

[E-an]

Hi All,

We're currently sat in a upgrade rut really. We've got a ageing 9600/350 with a 2940UW card and PT 24 (using the d24 card, and 3 dsp farms) plus an 888|24 and a 1622. The system is falling over far too often and is causing me one serious headache.

Therefore I'm looking to upgrade in the simplest and fastest way possible (want to minimise downtime). What would people recommend and any advice on pitfalls to beware of?

What CPU models are recommended and is it possible to get enough PCI slots to run our entire system without an expansion chassis?

Any advice on where to start is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Iain

[Chief Technician]

Any QuickSilver 2002 or MDD G4 will allow you to avoid purchasing an expansion chassis IF you use internal ATA hard drives for Pro Tools.

It should be noted that the MDD models are loud.

If you don't work with a high track count or with high edit densities (that is, say, 24 edits on 24 tracks at the same location) then you should be OK. Check their compatibility docs for what they claim you can do with ATA hard drives. As with most things, YMMV.

If you require SCSI, then you will have to sacrifice DSP power to avoid an expansion chassis.