The Ideal Machine

[Mick]

I would love to know, and I think it would be interesting all round, to hear what you more technically inclined members would consider the ideal machine on which to install pro tools, adobe CS4 and like programs for maximum performance while still being relatively affordable, say with a cap of $3500. At the pro tools class I attend on Saturdays the instructor, who used to be a tech support guy at Digidesign before they outsourced his job, (another potential thread) says to look for I series Intel quad core processors. I'm not as deep into PCs that I know what the comparisons are but I'm sure some of you will have the savvy to render an opinion or two.

Thanks

Mick

[DBurnette]

I assume you mean the computer only? Because the other stuff will eat half of that easily. CS4 plus an LE/rack setup will run you $2500 alone...

I can give a little Mac advice, because I've installed a few of them for studios. I wouldn't call myself an expert though.

An 8 core Mac Pro with a little RAM bump will run you about $3500.

The mac hardware premium is much less severe at the higher end, and the machines are easy to work on. I did a recording studio upgrade a couple years ago for a client, and the Mac Pro was fast to get going. In this case, it was a MOTU system (and PT LE for occasional use), and I was upgrading a quad core G5 that I had also installed even longer ago. The SATA drives were easy to move from one computer to the other, and it is a LOT faster to use Setup Assistant to move data between SATA drives. Not an issue for you though.

I haven't run into any major Protools issues on macs. LE is smooth on the Mac Pros.

CS4 can be buggy occasionally. I haven't worked with it as much, but it's as stable as one could hope for the amount of bloat the has creeped into some parts.

I would just be wary of system software upgrades (check with digi for compatibility first)...And for a really robust system, I might avoid having PT and CS4 on the same user account...They have the potential not to play nicely together.

For PCs, hopefully someone could chime in...I don't like doing PC support.

[Jeff Wexler]

For PCs, hopefully someone could chime in...I don't like doing PC support.

I do not have direct experience myself but I have never heard of anyone preferring to run any ProTools installation on a PC. I know it does work, Digi was very concerned that they would lose market share if they didn't have ProTools running under Windows, but in the professional world I don't think there are a lot of ProTools systems running on PC's. I could be totally wrong on this and your decision should be based, in part, on what platform you are most comfortable with (and which you are able to support yourself through your own knowledge or that of a friend/colleague).

What DBurnette says about system (operating system) upgrades is very important. Digi takes a long time, as does Adobe, to upgrade to compatibility to newer operating system versions. Digi is getting better on this score, Adobe, not so sure.

-  Jeff Wexler

[studiomprd]

high speed (rpm) drives!!

don't just bump the memory,  max it!

[Matt Radlauer]

Seriously, if your looking at a Pro Tools setup, be it LE, M-Powered(M-audio) or even going HD....GET A MAC!

I actually use the M-powered version and it works quite nicely on my Mac Book. No latency issues and I've been able to daisy chain my interface with a "non-compatible" interface to give me 16 channels.

Everytime I've used PT on a windows box it seemed buggy, clunky and somewhat un-natural.

As for CS4....I think with the recent release of CS5, you will see that its a lot more stable on a MAC. I have CS 4 and have no big complaints with it. All Adobe products are very memory intensive programs, so rendering video or working with RAW files are going to chew up processor and memory pretty quick!

I guess the question I have for you, is what is the intended purpose of the machine?? Are you gonna multi-track record on it everyday? Edit video? Do graphics and photo editining? All of the above??

My advice is to get as much computer as you can for your budget. If you have to buy hardware and software in your $3500, you will end up with way less computer.

Think about what you want to do the most with and go from there. Macs are not cheap but well worth the money IMO.

[Philip Perkins]

PT works fine on properly set up PCs, but many of those PC based PT setups are found in large organizations w/ IT depts to maintain them. There isn't any reason why you as an individual can't have a great PT system on a PC, but I have found that most of the OTHER people you will meet using PT, that could advise and help you, are likely to be on Macs, at least on the west coast.  As an individual user that "friend" base is really important to keeping your studio running, and might tip the scales towards going w/ a Mac.

Philip Perkins

[Derek H]

I say to each his own regarding OS choice but in response to the original post, if you're looking for a computer with an i5 or i7 series quad core cpu then you can go with either mac or PC. 

The mac pro uses the server version of this CPU and the imac can be outfitted with an i7 quad.

Even the macbook pro can get you a i-series cpu now.. though not quad core.. yet!

Cool thing about the i-series intel chips is that they automatically overclock whenever they can. (atleast in PC's ...hopefully apple has not disabled this feature) So the chip may be rated for 2.4GHz or whatever but that spec is assuming you're using all 4 cores to the max.. if you're doing something that's only using 1 or 2 cores (most apps are not written to be able to take advantage of all cores) it will use the extra headroom to overclock those to cores up to 3GHz or more..

Very rough explanation there.. if you're interested I suggest you go to anandtech.com and dig through the archives.  Excellent articles on all these technologies.