Need immediate help with decision!

[notCardio]

I hate to ask this because I'm sure it's been done to death and it makes me sound like a dweeb, but I've got an opportunity that I have to jump on now if I want it.

Can anyone think of anything that a 1GHz PIII with 512M of PC133 RAM won't do, software-wise, for a beginner? I figure I could get a fairly high track count with N-tracks, but is there anything that I'm likely to want to do in the near future that this would be woefully underpowered for? Like if I wanted to run PT LE, or an old version of Reason, or Cool Edit Pro, or Sonar, or whatever?

Since I'm starting out, I don't know what software I'll end up liking the best, and I don't want to limit myself too much right out of the gate. I know this system won't last me forever, but on the other hand, I don't want to find out right away that it won't do for much. The only real reason I'm concerned, is that I keep hearing that XP is a memory hog, and even though this has 512M, that's as much as the motherboard will take, so there's no room for expansion there.

I'm NOT asking 'what's the best software'! I just want to know if there's something that this machine couldn't run if I wanted it to.

Thanks for listening to my rambling plea for help.

 

[drstawl]

>I keep hearing that XP is a memory hog

Yes- but half a gig of RAM will keep that sow HAPPY!

You didn't mention the CRUCIAL component when worried about track count: The Hard Drive. But systems from that "era" typically came with HDs fast enough for fairly large audio projects.

 

[notCardio]

Thanks, Doc!

Yeah, Iknow that the HD is important for track count (45G 7200rpm, BTW) but that doesn't really concern me so much, because I figure that if the HD performance is what's hindering me, I can just get a new one realtively cheaply. But if the CPU and memory are maxed on the MB and either one of them is insufficient, then I've got to get a new MB, CPU and memory, which is basically getting a new system in my eyes. I just wandered if there were any applications that were so CPU intensive, or required so much memory, or faster memory, that I should just consider getting a different system. I know I probably can't run the latest and greatest version of PT, but if that's what I were interested in I'd get a Mac. But i would like to be able to run PT Free, or maybe PT LE well enough to get my feet wet with the PT line. THEN, if I decide that's what I want to do, then I know what I'm getting into. The same with Reason.

I guess I'd like to know if anybody had this setup and had to upgrade because it couldn't handle something.

And BTW, Dr., when are you going to post some more of that acoustic jazz you did with your trio? I'm not always the biggest fan of your midi stuff (alot of it goes over my head, I'm sure), but that acoustic stuff was great!

Thanks for the reponse! Any more?

 

[Stealthtech]

Im pretty sure you will be safe with that setup. If your planning on protools I would check there website for system requirements. There are some plug ins that are hogs but there's ways to defeat it which is another topic all together.
What is the motherboard and chipset in question ?
Personally, I would be a little reluctent to buy a system that is maxed out with 1gig CPU and 512Ram, but thats just my opinion.

 

[Jeff_D]

How much $!- Just curious, but its gotta be a factor right?

 

[notCardio]

Done deal.

Thanks guys (and/or gals) !

I ended up getting the machine (well, actually it's in transit, so I don't HAVE it yet). I'm sure I paid a lot more than it was worth, but I've been looking for so long I finally ran out of patience.

For anybody who cares for their own reference, I paid close to $500 by the time you include shipping, for a 1G PIII, 512M PC-133, 45G 7200 rpm on an ASUS CUSL2-C (Black Pearl) MB. It has the dual head Matrox 450 video and a SB Audigy with the Live Drive-type fron panel. And Reason 1.0 & XP Home. Now I need a good audio card that will play well with the SB and new (video) monitors. Oh, yeah, the case is butt-ugly too, but that's gonna have to wait. I hope the fans (and hard drive) are relatively quiet. Guess I'l find out. I know this system is a long way from the latest & greatest, and some will look down their noses at it, but I wanted something that's been proven relatively stable. I'm no technophobe, but software tweaks aren't my thing. It also beats the crap outta what I've got now (300 Mhz AMD K6-2 that I share with my wife). THIS IS MINE! MINE, DO YOU HEAR ME? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA..... sorry.

My plan is to partition and dual-boot, Win98SE for PT Free, and XP for N-Tracks and whatever else I end up using.

Anyway, thanks for all the help that's been given here so far, and for all that I'm gonna need real soon!