Building a good multitasker

[adb99]

I am about to build a new system solely for recording. Im not going to record for a living. I want to be able to surf the net and listen to music and all the stuff you would normally do on a cpu. But, i want my recording program, Pro Tools M-Powered 8, to run flawlessly. Right now I have it installed on a cheap toshiba laptop with a 1.7Ghz pentium dual core processor with 2mb of ram. While reording with all other programs closed, it uses every bit of my cpu power. Clicks and pops all over. In the pro tools program, it says that i can use a multicore processor. In this i mean that u can assign different tasks to different cores on the processor. I believe in order to fully utilize this i would need a quad core processor? Id really like to build one based on a quad core anyway. I will be using a 32 bit xp pro, with 4 mb ram. I really need a good recomendation on a processor, and price is an issue. Id like to get one for under 300. So it looks like amd for me. the lower the cost the better, but if i cant get the performance i want, i will pay more. I just want my recording software to be fast with low latency. Ill also be using an M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R. Please, pretty pretty please, help!! Oh, i will not be using any midi.

[fmw]

What you need to do is learn to turn things off when you record - things like internet, network, background tasks, that sort of thing. As long as you do that, it will work fine.

[Audio~Geek]

you need 2 drives too

[adb99]

I do turn everything off. I dissconnect and turn off my wireless, turn off all messengers, and antivirus. anything that ive installed that uses cpu power, i turn off. What type of processor do u guys use? and i dont know much about startup programs, and i dont know which ones to turn off? When i do build my new cpu, i will use one drive solely for the system, the second just for audio, and the third for misc. stuff. i plan on backing up all audio to an external unit.

[Audio~Geek]

My processor is an intel core2quad Q6600 4 X 2.4GHz

If you're building a computer to use with Pro Tools, don't cheap out, it's not worth the headache.

Try this build listed here:
Digi User Conference - View Single Post - Pro tools the real price on a pc?

Give yourself $1000 to work with and you won't regret it.

[adb99]

theres alot of good stuff right there. Does the ghz on the quad matter much? Also, could i go with an amd quad? does anyone use pro tools m-powered?

[spaceatl]

Create a new Hardware Profile called DAW and turn off all non-essential services including network, antivirus and everything else you don't need to do music...It does mean rebooting to fire up anti-virus and network...You can disable/disable specific hardware and services under a hardware profile...And it takes way less space & time than doing the dual boot approach where one installs a second instance of the OS configured for DAW...

If I were building a rig for something hosting Protools, I think I would look for OSX compatible hardware and I think I would think very seriously about installing OSX...

[fortyseven]

Personally I've never been a fan of using one computer to do everything on. I prefer to keep my DAW seperate from my everyday internet machine.

[adb99]

Ok, i understand it this way. In order to get the absolute best performance i need to build it just for recording. I need to give myself atleast a $1,000 dollar budget. No internet at all. And mac software is the way to go. I have just a few more questions. Does OSX make it run better? I just got pro tools and im still learning it. Ive never used OSX before. All ive ever used is windows. if were to use OSX, is there anything special i would have to do to make it run on the cpu? u know, like different hardware or something?

[Audio~Geek]

I honestly don't understand the paranoia of having a computer connected to the internet.

phone line->DSL modem->router->computer
no anti-virus ->no anti spyware ->kick ass DAW computer.

I ran it like this for 3 months, then did a full anti-virus/spyware scan. Not 1 infection.

having two computers and having to constantly share things back and forth, not to mention the fact I do internet collaboration every week makes the idea really inconvenient.

adb99 - There is no cheap (or legal) way to build yourself a MAC. For $1000 you can probably get a used iMac or a new Mac Mini.