Quad Core / Dual Core / Nvidia or not / I'm lost...

[AndyJCP]

Hi fellow DUCers,

I will soon buy a new desktop PC which should (of course) be compatible with PT 8.
I've experienced (and read about) many incompatibilies, so I'm a little bit lost now what to buy.
I tried to read through the Compatibility Infos on www.digidesign.com, but either they are not easy to understand or I'm too dumb... Maybe both...
Could anyone be so kind and point me in a direction?
The PC should be inexpensive (i.e. around 500-700€).

Should I go for:
- Dual Core or Quad Core?
- Intel or AMD?
- Which graphics card manufacturer?

Many thanks in advance!

Andy

[mano111]

Try reading the first page of this stickey thread

http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=200560

To sum it up for you, its Intel Q9xxx + P45 chipset motherborad + 4GB 1066 DDR2 ram.
ATI 4xxx display would be my choice if I had to buy today.

[AndyJCP]

Many thanks, mano, for pointing to this thread and especially for the short summary!

[sunburst79]

Quad, Intel, ATI.

You might just want to hold off on pulling the trigger as the newer i7 based build results are coming in and things are looking VERY good with no major issues other than PT seems to run better with HyperThreading off.

Having said that the Qseries stuff is proven and will only get more affordable. Let your budget dictate.

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by mano111

Try reading the first page of this stickey thread

http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=200560

To sum it up for you, its Intel Q9xxx + P45 chipset motherborad + 4GB 1066 DDR2 ram.
ATI 4xxx display would be my choice if I had to buy today.

I agree, but when the new incarnation of the i7 becomes available, we will probably be recommending that. By then the bleeding edge heroes will have uncovered any hidden mysteries. This however, is an easier decision for us because we build new systems every December. If you want to be on top longer with the system you chose today; then the i7 might be it.

[TOM@METRO]

Oh yea vdeo, We have had issues wth Nvidea so we now stay with ATI in the studios.

[AndyJCP]

Again, thanks a lot for the advice!
I will probably get a Q.... for budget reasons.

[CrAkD]

I was going to do the same thing and was shocked when it tallied to $750 so I went the extra mile spent 300 more to go i7 cause I don't want to have to build again for awhile

[detroitkruk]

my last three builds have been gigabyte motherboards and i haven't gotten one single "tech support" call from any of those guys...the asus p5k was a huge dissapointment and headache...the store i use here in the detroit area (www.microcenter.com) stopped carrying them and started recommending the p45 gigabyte boards..they have some gaming, raid, networking, power saving crap that you don't need for DAW use but the motherboard driver disk and bios are so intuitive that it's really easy to turn that stuff off.

as a matter of fact, we had horrible waves video glitches with the p5k...parts of the plug in disappearing or not rendering at all, fader freezes that required reboots, etc...the second we merely changed to the gigabyte motherboard it ALL went away...nice.

detroitkruk