Digidesign's Mbox or 002 Rack?

[whitelightening]

Hey everyone. I'm looking at finally getting into the computer thing and I'm needing your help. Right now, I'm looking at the Mbox and 002 rack. Two questions:

Do you know what computer system specs are necessary to run either one of these devices?

Is the 002R really worth (more than) twice as much money? Mbox is $450 US and the 002R is roughly $1200 US.

Sorry, one more question. How would I run midi using the Mbox since it has no midi inputs or outputs?

[Over The Edge]

Get the 002. It has 32 tracks, you can record at 96Khz,
it has two sets of midi ins and outs and four very nice
(Focusrite?) mic preamps, and more inputs than
M-Box.



FL
www.franklucas.net

[Spacehog]

You'd need to budget for an extra midi interface with the Mbox, as it doesn't have midi built in. It's also quite limited in terms of bandwidth, being a USB 1.1 device. I'd choose the 002 rack any time over the Mbox, although for my personal needs and tastes, I probably wouldn't go for either :)

Martin

[Purator]

Get the 002. It has 32 tracks, you can record at 96Khz,
it has two sets of midi ins and outs and four very nice
(Focusrite?) mic preamps, and more inputs than
M-Box.



FL
www.franklucas.net

it's one midi in and two outs.
you get 8 analog I/O (4 of them can be switched to mic preamps), ADAT I/O, SPDIF I/O...

so that's about 18 simultaneous inputs plus you can download a Digidesign ASIO driver and use it with non-ProTools applications...

def. worth the money...

[whitelightening]

Thanks, I am definitely leaning more towards the 002 now, but I still don't know about system specs. I have a PC running WinXP Pro, an Athlon XP 1700+ (right around 1.5ghz I think), 512mb RAM, and 50GB free hardrive space. I can also run dual monitors off of my video card if that makes any difference. Sound good enough, or does anything need an upgrade first? All that I KNOW I would need is a Fire Wire interface and some decent reference monitors. Any suggestions there either?

[Astroshock]

I would go with the 002 rack. M-box is great if you plan on just recording a synth. I have a M-box which works great, but I'm gonna trade it in and get a rack. I've been really working hard trying to get a bigger rack. Hopefully I'll get the rack this summer.

Scott