AVID Pro Tools Workstation Requirements

The processor is the most important component in your Digital Audio Workstation, and often is the limiting factor in most builds. We suggest investing a large portion of your budget into the CPU. An underpowered CPU can lead to pops, stuttering, system crashes and ultimately an unproductive workflow. Pro Tools allows you to take advantage of your workstations processor cores and threads in quite a few instances. Processes such as playing a large template of instruments concurrently, processing multiple inputs from your MIDI, audio tracks and sampler can be handled by multiple cores. Effect plugin's are quite a different beast, these are run on an effects chain and can only be completed one after another which increases the relevancy of your processors clock speed.

In the case of the processor more cores are not necessarily always better. Selecting a processor with between 6 and 12 cores with the highest single-core speed your budget allows will typically produce the best results. Example a 6-core processor with 3.30GHz base-clock speed will likely produce better results than an 8-core processor with a 2.20GHz base clock-speed in the majority of situations as there are many processes that cannot be computed in parallel.

Small-to-Mid Sized Projects

As a baseline we recommend 6 (hex) core processors with over 2.50GHz base-clock speed for small to mid-sized projects. Many Intel Xeon chips with around a 2.50GHz base-clock speed will offer a sustainable turbo boost giving you more power for any processes ran on a singular core.

Large Projects

Larger projects that consist of a greater number of individual tracks and inputs will benefit greatly from a processor with more cores, typically we suggest 10, or more, cores with a 2.40GHz, or faster, base clock-speed for such projects (the faster the clock speed the better).

Official AVID Support

If you require official pro-tools support from AVID you must select an official supported workstation, with an officially supported processor configuration. You can find more information on AVIDs officially supported machines & specs list.

AVID Pro Tools doesn't have high RAM requirements for most users. Some workflows which consist primarily of sample-based instruments can have higher overall RAM requirements.

Beginner and Home-Studio

AVID do recommend 32GB for all users most beginners however will find that 16GB of RAM is perfectly suitable for their projects; home studio setups however may prefer to stretch to 32GB of RAM to ensure there are no bottlenecks down the line. Due to the low-cost of DDR4 memory we'd suggest both user types aim for 32GB of DDR4 memory if your budget allows for it.

Professional Studio Setup

Professional studio's may find that 32GB of RAM is suitable for the majority of their workflow. Due to the inexpensive nature of DDR4 memory we suggest upgrading to 64GB of RAM to ensure your productivity is never effected (if your budget allows for it and does not compromise your CPU selection).

Your storage media is equally as important as your RAM in a Digital Audio Workstation. We suggest a minimum of two drives, preferably SSDs or NVMe SSDs, to ensure maximum productivity and minimum down-time:

Primary Drive: A NVMe or SATA SSD Drive for the operating system, all applications and plugins.
Secondary Drive: A NVMe or SATA SSD Drive for active projects and disk cache.
Optional Tertiary Drive: An additional drive for samples freeing up space on the primary and secondary drive and improving overall performance.
Optional Quaternary Drive: A large standard SATA HDD for backup, completed projects and larger sound libraries.

Unlike most other DAWs AVID are very specific about the hardware they support. If you require official support from pro-tools you would be best suited choosing a graphics card that is officially supported for the exact workstation you select. This information can be easily found in AVIDs knowledge base; example for HP Z820 here.

For users not requiring official support - Digital audio work has very little bearing on the graphics card; however, a graphics card with two outputs is recommended as this can significantly improve your work-flow. For most users, who do not plan to do any graphical work alongside audio work, an entry-level nVidia Quadro graphics card such as the NVS310 will drive multiple large QHD monitors, for the most advanced studio-setups the Pascal series Quadro P620 will support multiple 4K monitors without inflating the budget.

AVID only offer support on systems and configurations they've tested. If you will need direct support from pro-tools you would be best ordering according to their supported machine & spec list under the 'windows computers' section. We at Bargain Hardware offer all of the HP-Workstation options pro-tools supports (From the Z420 to the Z8 G4). All models in 'example systems' section are officially AVID supported systems (see supported configurations here by searching the machine model and 'configuration' e.g. Z440 Configuration).

Entry Level Workstations

For beginners and home-studios with a strict budget single socket workstations offering multi-core processor options with stable clock-speeds (such as Intel Xeon E5-16xx Series, E5-26xx Series and Xeon W-2xxx Series) and multiple drive bays will provide the best blend of performance and value.

Example Systems:

HP offers the Z420 and its more recent sibling the Z440 which is more readily upgradable with DDR4 memory and faster processors.

Mid-Range Workstations

Perfect for home-studios with larger budgets and professional studio's looking to upgrade as they go - highly flexible and expandable mid-range workstations are ideal for most users. Primarily single socket, with some dual socket upgradable, systems offering higher-core counts but still high-clock speed options (such as Intel Xeon E5-26xx series, W-2xxx series and Xeon Scalable Gold & Platinum Series), high-memory capacity capability, multiple NVMe/SSD/HDD drive bays and plenty of PCI-lanes for add-in cards.

Example Systems:

HP provides higher-spec systems in the form of the Z4 G4 and dual socket upgradable Z6 G4.

High-End Workstations

Housing the best possible components and offering unfathomable levels of performance, high-end workstations go far beyond 'recommended specifications' from vendors. Ideal for professional-studios with the most demanding workflows, high-end workstations provide everything you could possibly need. Dual-socket workstations capable of providing 56-cores, terabytes of memory, four or more drive bays, and compatibility with the multiple PCIe cards provide more than enough compute-power to ensure your projects are delivered ahead of time.

Example Systems:

HP presents the Z840 and it's newer Xeon Scalable series compatible sibling the Z8 G4.

Unsure of how to configure a full system for Pro Tools? You can find our pre-configured systems specifically designed for digital audio work here.

We appreciate configuring an officially supported AVID workstation can be challenging, if you have any questions at all please feel free to reach out to our sales team via the live chat, email or by calling +44 (0)1254 878001.