In article ,
John Yorba wrote:

I've got a 1GHz Celeron
in my crap-ass PC.

Don't get your hopes up too high -- a Celeron is far less capable than
either a real P4 or an AMD chip of the same clock, for CPU-intensive
tasks.

I would guess I simply need a bigger hard drive and
more RAM.

Think faster more than bigger, and don't skimp on RAM. If you can put a
gig of RAM in your machine, you won't regret it. Faster, quieter disc,
and a cd writer, and a way to organize cdr's. If you want a jukebox
with a 200gb drive, build a mini-itx machine and put it near your TV
or whatever.

I'm also surpised to hear you all say Cakewalk is just as useful as
ProTools. I've heard so many people diss Cakewalk as "amateur" and
talk about PT as if it is the pinnacle of recording quality.

ProTools is a way of life, not necessarily a good idea for a small
budget. One reason it makes sense, is you can hire people who know it
inside and out. It's accepted in places that are slow to accept
anything new and slow to change anything once it works.

For everybody who says "protools sucks" there's someone happily using
it to turn out production work. If you're starting from scratch, there
are far less expensive options. Between Midi-OX, FLStudio, and Magix,
I hardly need anything at all. But I'm a musician, not a sound
engineer, and my goals are simple.