Building a Pro Tools DAW in the UK

[Karel Bata]

• Hi everyone! Time for an upgrade of my DAW here...
  
  I've often dropped by to read the informative stuff here, but this is my first post so be gentle with me...
  
  Anyone built an LE system recently in the UK? Are you able to post a list of the main components and suppliers? (US folk have access to bits n bobs we often can't get hold of)
  
  Since I'm upgrading I don't need to find monitors, keyboard etc. just the box with all the magic bits inside. I need to use it for video post.
  
  I've got an MBox, a mixer, a Mackie HUI and a Korg MIDI keyboard. I'll never be recording more than 2 stereo tracks at a time, but mixing demands may get heavy involving virtual instruments.
  
  I'm on XP Pro SP2. Will I need to upgrade that? Not interested in Vista.
  
  There's must be someone here from Blighty who can help...
  
  
  
  
  ______________________

[Whitecat]

Try sub.co.uk. They do prebuilt certified systems but could likely advise you on useful individual components as well.

You could also try Jigsaw (UK Largest Reseller Of Apple Computers - Jigsaw Systems LTD) but I suspect they're more mac-centric.

Finally, Digital Village (dv247.co.uk) also does custom pc stuff.

Good luck!

[Karel Bata]

Cheers!

I want to build it myself. That way you get more for your bucks. Uh, pounds. Done it loads of times, but not built a fresh DAW for maybe 4 years. There's a lot of new stuff now.

dv247.com are new to me, but I see they've just opened a store around the corner in Clapham. I'll check them out, but I doubt they'll be able to help me with a new mobo or cpu - they only do ready built ones. They look pretty good though - I'll wander in tomorrow. For other music 'hardware' I tend to shop at Soundcontrol or Turnkey.

For PC bits I've found the best deals are on the net at places like svp QuietPC saverstore novatech or even amazon.

The question now is which combination of components will work best for me? Where to get them from? And if someone here's done it recently, how would they do it differently?



Edit

Just put together a virtual PC at dv247 - £819! And that's with a cheap DVD drive, a non-RAID mobo (remember I want to do video post) not much of a choice in hard drives and no OS.

[recall]

Try the Digidesign Windows forum here:

http://duc.digidesign.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=UBB32

There will probably be someone there who can help you furtherthumbsup

[RAVETILLDAY]

Its all about LE, and I've built an awsome INTEL QUAD CORE with A TRBYTE of hard disk space, a SICK tower with an ASUS M/Board, 6 GIG DDR3 RAM and it only cost me £350 from NOVA TECH. I chose this from their "barebones" section, and built it all myself, saved myself a packet, Win XP SP3! FTW . I highly reccomend NOVA, pictures and full TEch spec available! set of KRK's and a dual screen setup, MBOX 2 FACTORY usb EDITION,

[Karel Bata]

Wow. It only took you 3 1/2 years to reply!

Actually I'm thinking of upgrading again, so I'll take a close look at your recommendations. To think that 10 years ago I spent just under £1,000 on a system I could now pick up on ebay for £50. Or less. And the Digidesign 001 I bought then was about £600 in itself...

What's a SICK tower?

[RAVETILLDAY]

Originally Posted by Karel Bata

Wow. It only took you 3 1/2 years to reply!

Actually I'm thinking of upgrading again, so I'll take a close look at your recommendations. To think that 10 years ago I spent just under £1,000 on a system I could now pick up on ebay for £50. Or less. And the Digidesign 001 I bought then was about £600 in itself...

What's a SICK tower?

It's better to reply late then never! A sick tower is an awesome tower! I'm well pleased with my set up! You don't have to spend stupid amounts on a tower now to get a beast of a pc !

[Karel Bata]

Groovy, man.