Building an Audio Recording PC

D

DarkCide

Member
Hi All, It's been years since I've posted. I've been a member here forever.

The last time I built a recording PC was about 10 years ago. I'm quite outdated on the technology and need some help. I'm trying to strike a balance between cost and having something future proofed.

Any specifics resources I can read up on for an Audio recording PC for processor, ram, ...etc specs?

Is it more cost effective to buy a prebuilt system or build something from the ground up?

I realize my questions are general. I need some direction to get me going.
 
I'm a bit out of touch with recording on computers, but not out of touch with computers.

There probably are a ton of resources out there that may suggest specifications for a DAW. I googled it, and the
first link gave computer specifications from about 25 years ago...

From personal experience, practically any decent processor will suffice. I use to mix on an AMD Athlon XP, and it worked fine.
That was 20 years ago. Your options now are almost limitless for audio recording and production. The advent of SSD technology and
better cooling solutions make for a very quiet PC for recording in the same room with.

In my opinion, you do not need to go crazy on the specifications. I will give you my recommended specs, if I
were to build a DAW for myself though:

Intel i7
16GB RAM
m.2 hard drive of whatever size you think you might need
Dedicated video card - something with just a heatsink and no fan, Nvidia GT 710 perhaps. If you
are a gamer, you will have to live with the fan noise (which isn't that bad these days, depending on the video
card).

If you are building it yourself, this company makes some decent, quality products to keep the noise down:

www.bequiet.com

be quiet!

be quiet!
www.bequiet.com www.bequiet.com

A bigger choice will be what audio interface you want to use. How many inputs and outputs, USB or PCI-E, budget etc.

EL
 
PC technology outstripped the requirements of audio recording quite some time ago.

Saying you need to spec out a computer for audio these days is kind of like saying you need to spec it out for image editing. Sure you might see some performance improvement from that extra 16 GB or RAM, but your peripherals are going to be far more important. (audio interface and speakers)

So that said, obviously, you want lots of storage space. HDDs are super cheap. Having a faster SDD drive to store your sample libraries is nice (tho not even all that necessary). Building your own is probably still cheaper and also has the advantage of coming with less bloatware.
 
To be open, I have a decent i7 3820 I built in 2014. Since day 1, I have been struggling with reliability and never being able to pass the Latencymon tests. That's why I want to sell what I have and start over fresh.
 
30 years ago building your own PC was worth it, because you could buy special expensive fancy graphics cards and the like.
As years went by, you got all those fancy features on mainstream PCs.
Nothing is ever future proof, it all changes.
All you can do is spend enough now, and that should get you through the next 5 - 10 years.
 
Slouching Raymond said:
30 years ago building your own PC was worth it, because you could buy special expensive fancy graphics cards and the like.
As years went by, you got all those fancy features on mainstream PCs.
Nothing is ever future proof, it all changes.
All you can do is spend enough now, and that should get you through the next 5 - 10 years.
Click to expand...

Can you steer me towards some sensible prebuilt pcs?
 
I think it is just down to money.
I use a quad core i5 laptop with SSD drive , and a second SSD drive just for project data.
I have not yet got into Thunderbolt interfaces, and just use Focusrite 18i8 through USB3 port. I think it has 8GB ram.
This is a middle cost/power setup, but perfectly good for what I need.
What kind of interface you want to use woud dictate whether you need a special PC.
There is a new Apple 'Studio' computer, taking up to 128GB of ram, and other fancy features, but probably way beyond my budget.
i7 PCs were over my modest budget.
It has always been the same for me. With all the other calls on my wallet, I could never afford a top of the range PC.
 
I don't know what your issues with reliability were, but it might be helpful in deciding which direction to go, if you better understand latency. Lots of part contribute to how fast it takes audio to be converted into bits, transported, processed and then returned back from bits to audio. Both the interface hardware and driver contribute to latency and no matter what computer you use, it will not speed that portion up any. Then Buffer size and how much the software is processing plays a sizable role.

Here is a good read (though it is a bit of an ad for Presonus) explaining. Latency Explained

Both PC's and Macs support Thunderbolt. I decided it was cheaper going Mac Mini than building again but it is not for everyone. There are however a lot of computers that have faster I/O and that would be the starting point. You don't mention which interface you have or if you are planning to upgrade that as well. Either way, just realize, every interface is going to have some latency built in. Older ones usually more so as they use slower converters and often the drivers are not as up to date. USB 1, 2, 3 and Thunderbolt, the older the protocol, the slower the pipe.
 
Slouching Raymond said:
Nothing is ever future proof, it all changes.
All you can do is spend enough now, and that should get you through the next 5 - 10 years.
Click to expand...
Probably the best way to future-proof your recording PC is to protect it from the future.

Pick a software platform that will be what your PC uses (e.g. Windows 10, Reaper 6.x, whatever). Get that fully configured. Then unplug the computer from the network and leave it as a dedicated audio workstation. If you leave it online and use it for things besides audio, it will naturally accumulate cruft. Other random bits of software will claim more and more of your CPU and RAM; your hard drive will fill up with unrelated data; if windows 11 doesn't totally break your backwards compatibility, windows 12 will.
5 years out of date and still running like it did that first month is far better than state of the art and crawling.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top