QUESTION: ProTools on Windows - What Hardware?

[radiationroom]

If you would be building a Windows PC from scratch to run ProTools 7 with a Digi-003, what hardware would you use? Motherboard? Processor? Video card? XP or Vista? This would be an application specific machine NOT connected to the internet or anything other than running ProTools and eventually Sonar.

Or would it be cheaper getting one of those $300-USD Dell specials verses building a machine up from parts? My budget for this is less than $500-USD.

Thanks in advance - Peter Carli - http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelbio.xmc?ch=83

[GooberNumber9]

Either way I don't see $500 as getting you a lot of computer. You're not going to get much of a warranty for that much, so I hope uptime is not critical for the computer.

Beyond that you'll probably get lots of responses for this. My personal preference is for Intel processors and chipsets, and I'd probably go with an nVidia chipset on the video card, although I don't think you can get a video card that can't handle ProTools ok these days.

One area where I would probably agree with many others is that I prefer XP over Vista greatly. I'm holding off on Vista as long as possible. I ran it for two months and hated every inch of it. Get XP Pro, not Home, and not Media Center, if possible.

Finally, you should check out the Digidesign web site for the system requirements. Oh yeah, and get lots of RAM (you probably knew that, but just in case).

Also, don't take firewire for granted. I've had better luck buying PCI firewire cards instead of getting a motherboard with firewire built in.

Todd Wilcox

[Nick Sevilla]

If you would be building a Windows PC from scratch to run ProTools 7 with a Digi-003, what hardware would you use? Motherboard? Processor? Video card? XP or Vista? This would be an application specific machine NOT connected to the internet or anything other than running ProTools and eventually Sonar.

Or would it be cheaper getting one of those $300-USD Dell specials verses building a machine up from parts? My budget for this is less than $500-USD.

Thanks in advance - Peter Carli - http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelbio.xmc?ch=83

Try asking Digidesign. they have a spec sheet for just this question. Plus a whole section of their forum is for PT on WinBlows.

Personally, I would buy a Mac. it works, and is less of a hassle to set up.

Cheers

[radiationroom]

Thanks for the advice. It is appreciated.

[raw-tracks]

When it comes to building Windows machines to run PT, this is the thread to watch:
http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php? ... t=1#360675

The first post gets updated periodically as processors advance. Scroll past the first machine to the "under $600" machine. That will suit most users just fine. You can probably even cut back on the recommended processor to shave another $75-100 off the price, getting you closer to your $500 budget.

I built a machine based of off that posting about 2+ years ago and it's rock solid to this day.

With PT on Windows, it is critical to have the proper motherboard. If you don't you're doomed. I don't recommend buying the cheapest Dell you can find. There are a few Digi approved Dell machines, but I don't think they're in the $500 range.

[jackson park]

thanks for that great link

[Lee Knight]

I built the PC from the above link they had 3 years ago and it's still working great for PT. I'm ready to move up and do it again. Definately XP too.