Published 1/6/07
PCs for Pro Tools
Two years ago, American company Terra Digital Audio entered the PC workstation market with their M6R machine, the first in their range of Pro Tools-optimised PC systems.
Their latest product is the MX2, which is available as either a tower unit (the MX2T) or in a rackmountable configuration (the MX2R). As standard, both systems ship with two 2.66GHz Intel Dual Xeon processors, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive, although the machines can be upgraded to accommodate two quad-core processors (that’s eight cores!), up to 32GB of RAM and a total of four hard drives. There are two IEEE1394b sockets (also known as Firewire 800), eight USB 2.0 ports, and a variety of PCI, PCI-X and PCIe slots. Power is handled by a 650W ‘ultra quiet’ power supply, there are two DVI video outputs, and a pair of gigabit Ethernet sockets enables high-bandwidth connection to a network.
As Terra Digital are an official Digidesign partner, their systems are configured to work seamlessly with Pro Tools hardware and software, and the included version of Windows XP SP2 is set up to support an HD3 rig. What’s more, there’s a bundled version of Acronis’ True Image data-recovery software that can be used to duplicate entire hard drives for backup purposes.
Both the rackmountable and tower versions of the MX2 cost $2499, which was about £1258 when we went to press. Despite being based in the USA, the company will ship to other parts of the world using UPS, Fedex or TNT, and their web site has details of package dimensions and weights, with which you can get quotes for shipping prices. Bear in mind that, if shipping from abroad, you may incur import duties.
Terra Digital Audio hope to start making workstations for other popular software packages over the coming months, so keep an eye on their web site for the latest news.
Terra Digital Audio +1 866 826 0340
www.terradigitalaudio.com
Their latest product is the MX2, which is available as either a tower unit (the MX2T) or in a rackmountable configuration (the MX2R). As standard, both systems ship with two 2.66GHz Intel Dual Xeon processors, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive, although the machines can be upgraded to accommodate two quad-core processors (that’s eight cores!), up to 32GB of RAM and a total of four hard drives. There are two IEEE1394b sockets (also known as Firewire 800), eight USB 2.0 ports, and a variety of PCI, PCI-X and PCIe slots. Power is handled by a 650W ‘ultra quiet’ power supply, there are two DVI video outputs, and a pair of gigabit Ethernet sockets enables high-bandwidth connection to a network.
As Terra Digital are an official Digidesign partner, their systems are configured to work seamlessly with Pro Tools hardware and software, and the included version of Windows XP SP2 is set up to support an HD3 rig. What’s more, there’s a bundled version of Acronis’ True Image data-recovery software that can be used to duplicate entire hard drives for backup purposes.
Both the rackmountable and tower versions of the MX2 cost $2499, which was about £1258 when we went to press. Despite being based in the USA, the company will ship to other parts of the world using UPS, Fedex or TNT, and their web site has details of package dimensions and weights, with which you can get quotes for shipping prices. Bear in mind that, if shipping from abroad, you may incur import duties.
Terra Digital Audio hope to start making workstations for other popular software packages over the coming months, so keep an eye on their web site for the latest news.
Terra Digital Audio +1 866 826 0340
www.terradigitalaudio.com
