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norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian to HappyFrappy

Premium Member

to HappyFrappy

Re: Build ideas?

said by HappyFrappy:

you'll want to stick with Windows 7 as it is rock solid and Avid sucks for Pro Tools certification of new OS releases--some audio interface companies usually have issues with new OSes too.

And hardware it seems. Looking at the specifics for Windows here there seems quite some restrictions to hardware, firmware etc.
Also here for graphics cards.

Although all Apples with i5 here suggests the cpu is fine, it maybe more as pointed out about the motherboard?
said by HappyFrappy:

If he uses Cubase & Ableton they're likely going to patch existing release to support Win8--Ableton v8.4+AmpliTube is working on my Thinkpad w/Win8. Personally I use a Mac+Logic for heavy recording duty as Avid hardware certification of desktop components is a pain on Windows and why I still use a old trusted "certified" Thinkpad T61 for Pro Tools.

These 3 points (software, then motherboard then graphics) may direct the end result in hardware here - I'd almost go Apple to save the headache. .

signmeuptoo94
Bless you Howie
Premium Member
join:2001-11-22
NanoParticle

signmeuptoo94

Premium Member

Thanks so much guys. I tried my best to fill him in and he explained more stuff to me. I'll exchange some emails with him and then get back you y'all some more. As for today, I'm a crispy critter I'm so tired (worked).
HappyFrappy
join:2000-10-04
North

1 edit

HappyFrappy to norwegian

Member

to norwegian
signmeuptoo, cost to specs he'd likely be spending as much as a refurb 21.5" iMac(May 2011) on a workstation grade PC(~$900-950 without a SSD). If you cut back to a cheaper nVidia GeForce/Quadro card, two WD Blue 1TB and some cheaper RAM(ex: Kingston HyperX) you could pull it off at ~750-800. Keep in mind since WD Blue drives 1TB+ have 32/64mb cache, you could/should skip the WD Black series. Personally I only use WD Black drives on notebooks, WD Blue desktop drives are very reliable at 24/7 usage(I average 4-5yrs before I do early retirement).
said by norwegian:

And hardware it seems. Looking at the specifics for Windows here there seems quite some restrictions to hardware, firmware etc.
Also here for graphics cards.

Although all Apples with i5 here suggests the cpu is fine, it maybe more as pointed out about the motherboard?

The graphics card is less of a factor on a PC/Mac unless an IGP starts to take a huge chunk of shared memory to power a high resolution monitor--keep in mind that technote is for ProTools HD which is used by movie/5.1 audio studio work who use multi-monitors(30"), regular ProTools 10 has similar requirements of v9 but you'd still want to lean towards nVidia GeForce/Quadro for quality drivers. 8-16GB of RAM is enough to avoid the wraith of Intel IGP pulling too much memory(768mb is the most the 3000/4000 will share with twin 27" monitors connected to a Mac mini).
I've used Pro Tools M-Powered 8 & 9 on a 13" 2010 MacBook Pro(nVidia 320M), however I had to replace the slow stock 5400 RPM HDD with a 7200 RPM drive, pull the DVDRW drive to fit a 2nd 7200 RPM HDD(recording storage) and max out at 8GB RAM for recording duty. (I've considered the Mac mini server route after seeing a small studio with such a setup)

Digidesign/Avid never/rarely certified "consumer" Macs due to slower stock HDDs, single HDD & lousy amount of stock RAM. I've used Pro Tools on iMacs off & on since OS 8.5 era, typically you need to partition a HDD to create a "scratch partition"(similar to Photoshop users) and is a very stable platform with a single HDD. With Thunderbolt solutions, lack of PCI/PCIe/ExpressCard slots on an iMac/Mac Mini/MacBook Pro is no longer a negative aspect.

Music recording is just as expensive as AutoCAD setups... sadly anyone who is stuck using ProTools either is stressed out for PC options or settles with a Mac. Thankfully there are other recording software companies with less anal "requirements" such as Reaper, Ableton, Cubase, etc. Avid ProTools is just as evil as the RIAA.