Is the Sweetwater Tower LE good enough?

[pribb1]

Can anyone recommend or discourage buying the $1000 Sweetwater Tower LE?
Is it ready to go pretty much right out of the box?
I'm not very technical, so I don't want to have to do a lot of configuration...


Or is the $1,500 Sweetwater Tower significantly better?

Do these satisfy all of the Pro Tools LE Windows requirements?

http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/

Thank you for all of your help! This forum has been a great help.

pribb1

[BPlayer]

I have the Sweetwater "Tower" (not the LE version) and have had no issues at all. One of the main reasons I went with the Sweetwater setup is because it's tweaked specifically for Pro Tools Audio.
I would guess the Tower LE would be fine also but obviously a little less powerful. You may want to contact Sweetwater. I have used them for years and been very pleased with their service & support.

[pribb1]

thanks for the response. was it practically operational right out of the box?

[mano111]

You will get better preformance out of the box if you buy an iMac.
Theses systems while designs fairly well, are more than double the price of the parts.
If you build your own for $1000 US you can get a quad core with a P5K mobo better RAM and more of it, more disk space, a better case, a better PSU... you get the picture.
The only down side is you will have to spend some time to configure it properly (basically read the first page of the 'best core 2 for PT' thread... and perhaps the XP troubleshooting thread)

I've never used a Sweetwater system but I have read threads about them with mixed opinions. Like I said if you just want to turn it on and play, and are willing to spend more than the cost of parts then get a MAC.

[GTBannah]

You will get better preformance out of the box if you buy an iMac.
Theses systems while designs fairly well, are more than double the price of the parts.
....
Like I said if you just want to turn it on and play, and are willing to spend more than the cost of parts then get a MAC.

There has to be a dollar value for the "they just work" Mantra of Mac heads.

[SixChurchStreet]

I believe the tower LE only has one hard drive. So plan on buying an external firewire drive for your audio drive. Luckily they are pretty cheap these days and should only cost you another $100-$150.

[J_Plum]

I built a rig for PT LE 7.4 w/ XP pro on NewEgg.com for around $500 using a power supply, case, and hard drive from another computer. Runs like a charm.

IMO, you don't have to spend that much to get what you need. Or, as previously suggested, you could spend that much and get something better.

Sweetwater is great, but their prices are usually easy to beat.