[Steve Byers]

I have a ProTools LE 7.4 rack factory with a focusrite 428 preamp. I am
trying to scrounge some money to purchase a new PC. I am having troubles
locating one because of cost and secondly, meeting the requirements as
specified on Digidesign's site under approved hardware for computers. The
easiest but more costly solution is to buy a computer that is designed and
tweaked for protools operation like the XPC, but at 3 times the cost of
building my own. I have narrowed down my search to Future shop and a
private dealer in Ottawa, however I am open to any other recommended
suppliers or other suggestions?

I will be using the standard pluggins that come with protools LE factory 7.4
S/W. I have a nice set of KRK V8's waiting to be used. My biggest slowdown
in getting my system working is cost.

Before this my system was very low end, Cubase SX 3.0 and a delta audio card
(http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html) and
behringer 8 ch mixing brd. I've basically given up on this system and am
focusing on fixing up my room in my basement. It's all a costly and time
consuming venture.

S. Byers

[Geoff]

Steve Byers wrote:

Before this my system was very low end, Cubase SX 3.0 and a delta
audio card
(http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html) and
behringer 8 ch mixing brd. I've basically given up on this system
and am focusing on fixing up my room in my basement. It's all a
costly and time consuming venture.


Why do you think your previous setup was 'low-end' ? Low channel count,
yes, but you appear to have fallen into 'the protools is necessary'
syndrome.

You either have to pay for what is required, or bail and run a system that
does not have endemic high costs. There are plenty out there to choose from.

geoff

[straightnut]

On Dec 6, 9:42 pm, "Steve Byers" wrote:
I have a ProTools LE 7.4 rack factory with a focusrite 428 preamp. I am
trying to scrounge some money to purchase a new PC. I am having troubles
locating one because of cost and secondly, meeting the requirements as
specified on Digidesign's site under approved hardware for computers. The
easiest but more costly solution is to buy a computer that is designed and
tweaked for protools operation like the XPC, but at 3 times the cost of
building my own. I have narrowed down my search to Future shop and a
private dealer in Ottawa, however I am open to any other recommended
suppliers or other suggestions?

I will be using the standard pluggins that come with protools LE factory 7.4
S/W. I have a nice set of KRK V8's waiting to be used. My biggest slowdown
in getting my system working is cost.

Before this my system was very low end, Cubase SX 3.0 and a delta audio card
(http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html) and
behringer 8 ch mixing brd. I've basically given up on this system and am
focusing on fixing up my room in my basement. It's all a costly and time
consuming venture.

S. Byers

I was recently in the same boat. If you search for the thread in this
newsgroup entitled "PC Building Tips?" you'll see what I just went
through and all of the advice I got. I had originally planned to build
a PC myself, but eventually realized that for about a 15% markup I
could get one custom made, burned in and tested, with a warranty and
lifetime tech support from a dealer who gets excellent reviews on
resellerratings.com named AVA Direct. If you read the thread you'll
see that before going with this company I went with an unscrupulous
one named pcusa.com and had to return the PC with a whole lot of fuss.

But I'm happy with the PC I just got. I have to say that it came with
a case that was slightly scratched on the top and a missing screw that
should have held down the graphics card(which I didn't pay for and
apparently they just threw in for some reason.)

None of the custom places that I've searched for have every part you
may want offered in their configurators, but they seem to have enough
to choose from I think.

If I knew all of the ins and outs of building PCs I would have built
my own, but I kind of like the added assurance of a reputable builder
warrantying it.

If you want to know what I ended up putting in my PC which cost about
$1230 US, here it is:
Intel Q6600 Quad Core G0 stepping processor
2 Seagate 250G 7200 SATA II 16MB cacheBarracuda Drives
2G Kingston DDR2 HyperX Memory
Intel D975xbx2kr motherboard
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Lite-On DVD burner with lightscribe
Windows XP Pro
Antec Sonata Designer Case with 500 watt Earthwatts power supply

Dell's small business branch has some awesome deals for a third of
that price. I've bought from them in the past by making up a business
name. If you need a flat panel monitor as well, check out this deal
for $499 with free shipping:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...rpc2ff&x=6&y=6

The power supplies in these are only 250 Watts I believe, but someone
showed me this site, http://www.xpcgear.com/dellpsu.html, which has
larger power supplies that are made to fit certain Dells.

Hope this all helps.
Jeff

[straightnut]

The power supplies in these are only 250 Watts I believe, but someone
showed me this site,http://www.xpcgear.com/dellpsu.html, which has
larger power supplies that are made to fit certain Dells.

I don't see the Vostro listed on this site as compatible with these
power supplies, but there may be other dealers. I just don't know.
Jeff

[Philipp Wachtel[_4_]]

"straightnut" schrieb im Newsbeitrag

The power supplies in these are only 250 Watts I believe, but someone
showed me this site,http://www.xpcgear.com/dellpsu.html, which has
larger power supplies that are made to fit certain Dells.

I don't see the Vostro listed on this site as compatible with these
power supplies, but there may be other dealers. I just don't know.

Well, I would be cautious about "power supplies that are made to fit certain
Dells". A few years ago, Dell´s power supplies had an additional cable that
needed to be plugged into mainboard. If one attempted to connect a standard
power supply, the computer would NOT start!


Phil

[Laurence Payne]

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:42:29 GMT, "Steve Byers"
wrote:

Before this my system was very low end, Cubase SX 3.0 and a delta audio card
(http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html) and
behringer 8 ch mixing brd. I've basically given up on this system and am
focusing on fixing up my room in my basement. It's all a costly and time
consuming venture.

That's not "low end", it's just a system with certain facilities. What
further facilities did you need? ProTools isn't "better".

[Philipp Wachtel[_4_]]

Laurence Payne:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:42:29 GMT, "Steve Byers"
wrote:

Before this my system was very low end, Cubase SX 3.0 and a delta
audio card
(http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html) and
behringer 8 ch mixing brd. I've basically given up on this system
and am focusing on fixing up my room in my basement. It's all a
costly and time consuming venture.

That's not "low end", it's just a system with certain facilities. What
further facilities did you need? ProTools isn't "better".

But it´s way more expensive, thus it "must" be way "better" - if you want to
believe so... ;-)
If someone cares so much about names, that tells me enough about their
technical knowledge and understandings.
Well, let him have fun spending lots of money for stuff, that he will
probably never need - if that makes him happy, why not?


Phil

[Mike Rivers]

On Dec 7, 6:15 am, "Philipp Wachtel" wrote:

That's not "low end", it's just a system with certain facilities. What
further facilities did you need? ProTools isn't "better".

But it´s way more expensive, thus it "must" be way "better" - if you want to
believe so... ;-)

It depends on the user's goals, experience, and who he's working with
if anyone. If he's taking outside clients, he may need to have
ProTools (by name) for both compatibility with incoming and outgoing
work and for perception. It's like having Neumann microphones or not
having a TASCAM 8-track recorder.

But any one-man-band who can't make a decent recording with Cubase and
an M-Audio sound card needs to fix other problems before switching to
another DAW . . . . unless his problem is that he just can't get
around efficiently in Cubase and it's slowing down his workflow. This
is certainly a consideration, but before spending money on a new DAW,
he should be sure that ProTools will let him work better.

[Mike Rivers]

I guess I'm getting a little off track here. I just re-read the
original message. He already has purchased the ProTools hardware and
software and a civilized mic preamp. Soi it's too late to tell him
that his Cubase system was probably OK.

Oh, well. Another one bites the dust. You never stop fooling with
computers, and unlike analog equipment, it's rare that you understand
what you're doing (or assembling) when a computer is involved.

[Geoff]

Mike Rivers wrote:
On Dec 7, 6:15 am, "Philipp Wachtel" wrote:

That's not "low end", it's just a system with certain facilities.
What further facilities did you need? ProTools isn't "better".

But it´s way more expensive, thus it "must" be way "better" - if you
want to believe so... ;-)

It depends on the user's goals, experience, and who he's working with
if anyone. If he's taking outside clients, he may need to have
ProTools (by name) for both compatibility with incoming and outgoing
work and for perception. It's like having Neumann microphones or not
having a TASCAM 8-track recorder.

But any one-man-band who can't make a decent recording with Cubase and
an M-Audio sound card needs to fix other problems before switching to
another DAW . . . . unless his problem is that he just can't get
around efficiently in Cubase and it's slowing down his workflow. This
is certainly a consideration, but before spending money on a new DAW,
he should be sure that ProTools will let him work better.

But just as a Mac makes you creative, Protools makes you pro .

geoff

[Philipp Wachtel[_4_]]

geoff:

But just as a Mac makes you creative, Protools makes you pro .

Right! And just like owning a Fender strat makes you play like Jimi ;-)

[Geoff]

Philipp Wachtel wrote:
geoff:

But just as a Mac makes you creative, Protools makes you pro .

Right! And just like owning a Fender strat makes you play like Jimi
;-)

Not always. Mine does, but only cos it's red.

geoff

[rboy]

On Dec 9, 4:54 pm, "geoff" wrote:
Mike Rivers wrote:
On Dec 7, 6:15 am, "Philipp Wachtel" wrote:

That's not "low end", it's just a system with certain facilities.
What further facilities did you need? ProTools isn't "better".

But it´s way more expensive, thus it "must" be way "better" - if you
want to believe so... ;-)

It depends on the user's goals, experience, and who he's working with
if anyone. If he's taking outside clients, he may need to have
ProTools (by name) for both compatibility with incoming and outgoing
work and for perception. It's like having Neumann microphones or not
having a TASCAM 8-track recorder.

But any one-man-band who can't make a decent recording with Cubase and
an M-Audio sound card needs to fix other problems before switching to
another DAW . . . . unless his problem is that he just can't get
around efficiently in Cubase and it's slowing down his workflow. This
is certainly a consideration, but before spending money on a new DAW,
he should be sure that ProTools will let him work better.

But just as a Mac makes you creative, Protools makes you pro .

geoff


Jeez. Maybe the guy *likes* ProTools. Like many do. It's a good
interface. Nothin' wrong with that. A ProTools LE rack isn't going
to run that much more than any other hardware/software solution.
It's certainly the way I would go if I were at that stage, clients
perceptions or no.