Need advice asap!

[delgado]

So my grandparents own a company and they said they would give me some of their old computers if they met the specs I needed. The problem is I don't know what the bare minimum specs for running pt8 smoothly are(processor speed and type, ram size that is proven, ports etc.)! Help!

[sw rec]

There's TONS of info on here. Start here:
Compatibility:

- Verify your computer is supported and that your system meets all of the minimum requirements. You can find compatibility information (processors, chipsets, hard drives, operating systems, requirements, etc.) in the Support section of the website:
http://www.digidesign.com/support

Choose from the product list for compatibility information, and click on the links in the compatibility section for each product for additional information.

Verify that you have the Minimum/Suggested amount of RAM installed in your system. You can find this information in Control Panel > System > General. It is recommended that you have a minimum of 1GB of RAM installed and that the best performance reported has been with 2GB or more, especially when using virtual instruments/software synths/samplers.

IMPORTANT! You MUST use a secondary hard drive (not your main OS drive) for recording and playback of audio in Pro Tools. Recording or playback from the OS drive is known to be problematic and the cause of many different error types. If you are using your system drive and encountering errors, the first thing you should do is get a compatible drive. USB drives are not supported and are known to be problematic, so please do not use them with Pro Tools. If you're recording or playing back from a USB drive and are getting errors in Pro Tools, please switch to using a compatible external firewire drive or internal SATA/ATA/IDE drive and disconnect the USB drive.

Pro Tools supports recording and playback to a secondary drive that meets the following requirements:

7200 rpm or faster
9ms seek time or faster

[delgado]

haha thx i feel dumb for not finding that on my own. sorry for the inconvinience.

[TOM@METRO]

If you are still unsure, you can come back with a specific computer and a Sandra report and everyone will chime in on it.