desktops protools/mbox studio(ram, hard d, mixer)

[intel515]

I am a junior in high school looking to get a Pro Tools rig(Mbox+mixer...)for my Dell PC in order to continue my production interest as well as complete required demos for a few universities I'm looking into.
I have a few questions.
1)I currently have 256 mb ram on my dell, I am aware that protools and similar programs require a great deal of Ram, but how much(mbs?) and what type(ddr,bus, etc etc)?
2)How much better would my pro tools run if I had an external dedicated hard drive just for my production needs?
3)Recommended mixers(under 200$) to use with an mbox?

Thats about it
Glenn

[JT916]

1. ram, the more the better. It is also depend on how many tracks you plan on running...let's start at 1 gig...safe
2. for Mbox, use those firewire, preferred at 7200rpm. if your Dell is running scsi...external scsi more better.
3. for the money, you can't beat those Mackie VLZ series...take your pick.

[intel515]

I remember being told that among the different types of RAM, there was one that had an advantage when it came to running programs such as pro tools well.(BUS?maybe adn something about Macs have this type standard but PCs usually don't) any help with this?

Glenn

[tele_player]

I remember being told that among the different types of RAM, there was one that had an advantage when it came to running programs such as pro tools well.(BUS?maybe adn something about Macs have this type standard but PCs usually don't) any help with this?

Glenn

Whatever type of RAM you install is determined by what your computer's nmotherboard can handle. You really don't have much choice there.

512M is plenty for running ProTools on XP, the number of tracks is completely irrelevant. (In other words, the amount of memory used by ProTools isn't significantly affected by the number of tracks in use.) But 256M is not enough; though it might work, there will likely be serious performance issues.

More than 512M may become necessary if you running sample players, such as Reason, Kontakt, SampleTank, AND load very large samples.

[lemix]

intel515,

Your Dell's motherboard will only accept 1 type of RAM. Consult the manual or call their support.

cheers,

[Bastiaan]

to answer question nr. 2....

I would try it first with only one drive. I used to run ptle of my systemdrive (that was a 7200 rpm drive though...) and really never had any problems. Later i got myself a nice second drive. If you get any errors complaining about ptle not being able to get the audio from the harddisk fast enough...THEN it is time to grab another disk.

And that leads to the $200 mixer. There are no good $200 mixers. I would ask you to wait a bit on that too. See if you can grab a secondhand Mackie mixer or something like that for around $500 or so...but $200 new really only can buy you Behringer stuff...wich you dont want.

The mic-pre's on the Mbox are quite good actually.....so dont write them off.

Ehat ois also good to know...most systems dont really have a problem playing back 32-tracks if the HD is fast enough, but the number of plugins yopu can use varies with the CPU=speed. Example: 600 Mhz PIII can play back 32 tracks or so, but with only 1 or 2 plugins in total, as where a new 64 bit 3,2 Ghz Athlon CPU can have loads of plugs on every channel and still play back 32 channels (that is what the DAVEC is all about...number of plugins as a benchmark to pure performance)