I ended up getting a Digidesign Mbox2 mini to do some recording with. Unknown to me, the Protools software that comes with it requires 1Gb of RAM minimum so it won't work with my Sony Vaio laptop (512Mb RAM, 1.75G CPU).
So, I have three choices...
(1) return the Mbox
(2) upgrade the laptop with more RAM
(3) get a newer PC
options 1 and 2 are pointless, so I'm left with having to fork out for a new PC. problem is that I'm fairly clueless as to what the best features are these days. My budget is £500, though I could stretch to £600 at a push.
Whats the deal with all the various CPUs these days? - Core2, Dual Core, Centrino etc... Are these budget versions of a 'proper' Pentium CPU? (bear in mind that the last time I was up on PCs was when I built a PC with a PII 450).
From what I've seen in PC World and Currys this afternoon, I can get the following within my budget...
* 2.2G CPU
* 4Gb RAM
* 500Gb HDD
Also, whats the deal with Windows Vista? - is it just the next generation of Windows after XP? I think the home editions of these are generally a problem with recording software - go for the Pro Edition?