Will Maschine work with this PC?

Hi there

I currently run maschine on my macbook which works just fine. However I've been given an old PC desktop that I'd like to be able to use just for Maschine - only thing is it looks like pretty much everything is below the minimum system requirements. Is it worth upgrading this PC - or will I even be able to? Is it just a question of adding more RAM and a soundcard? Or will I need a new processor? Will 1.8 even work with XP, or will the whole thing just melt? As you can probably tell, I know jack diddly nothing about PCs...Thank you very much in advance for any help.

The specs of the PC are:

Processor Intel* Pentium* 4 Processor 630
• 3 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz front side bus

Operating system installed: Genuine Windows XP Professional SP2

Upgradability: Windows Vista capable

Compatible Operating Systems: Genuine Windows 2000 (Web Support), Genuine Windows XP Professional SP2, Genuine Windows XP Home SP2, FreeDOS, SuSE
Linux 9.3

Chipset Intel* 945G chipset

Standard memory 512 MB (256 MB x 2)
Maximum memory 3 GB DDR2-Synch DRAM
Memory type DDR2 PC2-4200
Memory slots 3 DIMM
Memory Upgrade Expandable to 3 GB through three industry-standard DIMM slots
Internal hard disk drive 40 GB
Hard disk drive speed 7200 rpm
External drive bays 1 external Multibay
Internal drive bays 1 internal 3.5 inch
CD-ROM and DVD 24X CD-ROM Drive

 

XP is not supported, and they are way, way below minimum specs. Don't bother.

 

Yes itll run fine ive installed maschine on a old xp service pack 3. 2gb ram athlon 2800 pc and it runs very very stable and fast ..dont worry about unsupported that means nothing the controller and software work fine.
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Id just upgrade the ram too 3gb and upgrade the harddrive so you can store more samples.

 

lol. go tell people with old computers that bought Diablo 3 that. unsupported means it will probably not run, or not run properly. djwaxxy was an exception

 

maschine runs absolutely fine on xp. the ram is a problem tho. youll have to truncate all your samples. i ran maschine fine on an old pentium d for ages. you will bump your cpu ceiling if you start using plugins tho.

basically yes but put your hand in your pocket if you can. thats like a decade old.

 

im running maschine on a old computer that runs xp and loads of others are still using xp ..hell i even run cubase 6 on it ! the reason i havent updated it is simple ive paid good money for software that will not run on win 7 properlly also whats the point using a 64bit system when the plugin i use are only 32bit?theres no real reason to update the only thing i have isssues with some of the big sample packs in kontakt but thats no biggie i just bounce the tracks to audio .

some people have this fascination and gradure that they have to run the newest operating system and have the newest computer to be the best but most of the best dance music ever was written and produced on a crappy atari 1040 computer.

no company will say there software runs on older software because in some cases they havent had chance to test it or they dont have the time to try and fix and bugs in older computers but xp is the best most stable software microsoft ever did..it will run everything ive thrown at it and purrs along more happily than my new win 7 64bit intel pc.

i also bought a soundcard that wont run on win7 64bit computers i bought a emu pci card that emu no longer support they want you too buy crappy usb2 cards instead of the ones that work better and have lower latency the 0404 pci card is brilliant but emu wont do win 7 drivers so wont work properlly but in my xp pc i can get much lower latency than the ni gutar rig session usb soundcard i have in my new pc.

so to the orginal poster only thing id say is make sure you have a minimum 2gb ram and update to service pack 3 if you can that way youll be ok also if you do start experiencing problems just turn your ni plug ins such as massive into eco mode and bounce big sample loaders such as kontakt down too audio stems that way youll conserve ram.

 

your right about xp being fine but your wrong about win7 64 not being better.

from xp to win 7 64 on the same machine (phenom ii x6, 12g ram) the performance difference is insane, i can have a different full track on every pad across all groups.

couldnt do that on xp without glitching and dropouts.

 

what i mean is alot of music software still wont take advantage of 64bit systems so not matter how powerful your computer is if the software isnt programmed in 64bit it wont use more the 3 or 4gb of ram on your computer.

and some software such as waldorf ppg..attack..etc which i have simply wont run or install on newer systems.i contacted waldorf about this and they just said ppg3 will be ok on new systems but there not updating older ppg vsts and other older products..so i have a choice ether throw the stuff i bought in the bin or keep them running on a seperate computer.

alot of stuff will run happily on lower spec maschines my old computer run xp with 2gb ram fine ..hardly ever crashes and when it does its useally down too steinberg cpu hogs such as reverance bt having said that as long as i use reverance on a fx bus and send vsts to it instead of it being on every channel i have no issues since steinberg updated it .and concerning kontakt the ones which can cause problems are the studio drummer series and the pianos thats because they use ram to buffer the samples .so if im using them i just bounce the audio or freeze the track or just choose another vst which is just as good such as the yamaha s90 in halionsonic.

some people dont have alot of money to splash out on the latest computers i know i dont..and i definatlly wont be buying win8 ive been trying that out on another computer in my house and hardly anything will run on that cubase 6.5 crashes ..maschine freezes the only thing i got running ok was abelton..protools 8 wont install at all and my mbox 2 pro wont run the only system that i can run pt8 on without issues is win xp if i run on win 7 i get glitches.

 

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated...even if they are so conflicting! I might just bump up the ram and give it a go. I'll let you know if it works...

 

lol. OKAY you win, maschine works on xp.

and you used the term 'it may.' thats not good enough in my book, software is and will always be non-refundable. i'll stick to reading system requirements. unless it is known for working(like maschine with xp)

 

itll be ok i promise as long as you have a few gb ram a clean install..no security software running in the background and also set up your pc to run best for performance then youll have no problems if you do start getting glitches then bounce your tracks to audio or freeze them if your using cubase.