I run a pretty bare bones set up that hasn't changed in years. Reaper, ACID 6, Audition 3.0, Kontakt, Omnisphere x86, 250GB of sound sources, Waves and a few others. Everything with i7 32 RAM, 1-2 TB SSD is over $1000.
It depends on what you're after. Obviously for scalability and maximum power potential the answer would be a Desktop PC. But RAM prices are fucked right now. If you're not after high end, just a powerful machine on which you can work very comfortably I would recommend looking into M4 Mac Mini or M4 Macbook Air, but ONLY if you don't plan on making heavy use of Kontakt or other large sample libraries. Reason being that as soon as you go over the default of 256gb of storage with Macs, the prices skyrocket harder than any RAM you've ever seen. Even just upgrading to 512gb of storage is like an extra 200 bucks. Not worth it whatsoever. Don't get a Macbook Neo, it's a trap. But beyond that, if you're getting into music production, then you'll also be wanting an audio interface and a pair of studio monitors. Mac is generally more capable of producing music without an interface than a standard PC but I still wouldn't recommend it.
That's too much, here's i7 8700 32GB/512 for 330, buy another SSD for saving 100 bucks over that one https://ebay.us/m/3wbfne also don't you have drive from previous machine that you can reuse, SSD's went up in prices, of course they will make those larger ones more expensive, better use 2 or 3 of them, you don't need M2's for everything anyways. This one is ok if you want double the RAM and SSD, 64/1TB for 550 https://ebay.us/m/T1SVWm Last edited: Apr 1, 2026
Actually, my career as a home recording artist is winding down :-( I'm mostly remixing my reel to reel sessions that were digitized in the early 2000s using Cool Edit Pro. I rerecord a few tracks here and there, and run different effects plug-ins to tailor the sound. I'll be sticking with Windows. I really don't see myself expanding my set up. Thanks.
Yeah. $429 seems to be the going price for i7 32gb RAM 1T SSD. There is an HP with 512 SSD, but probably not enough storage and I don't think I want to deal with putting in another SSD. On a separate note, will I be able to mirror(?) my content on to the new drive or will I have to reinstall everything?
Desktop. Look for various Dells that are refurbished on Amazon or something. Look for a bulk seller, eBay somtimes has them. Periodically businesses upgrade, buy one of those in like the mid $200 to $300 range. What I mean by that, is a large business will upgrade, then sell everything off to another party who will refurb them and sell them, that's what you want. Typically RAM and CPU are the most important, SSD is good, but you can always add USB externals. Buy something that isn't too pricey, then use it to determine what you need. Once you know your own user preferences, then you can start researching higher end stuff, premade vs. build your own.
SFF (small form factor) cases are ok for light duty but for anything other than web browsing or word processing they heat up like mofo's. If you can get that same thing in a desktop MT (mini tower) or T (tower) case style you would have something.
Producer? You're putting the cart before the horse. I'm a wrtiter/producer, FYI there is no such thing as a 'producer' of music. Period. Only laymen amateurs or wannabe's call themselves 'music producers.' It's a huge mistake to assume a PC will make you a producer, perhaps it would be more sensible to consider a keyboard as your first purchase. Keyboard and drum box is the best place to start, with or without a PC. Speaking empirically, you don't need any prior knowledge to write a decent song, and that decent song can easily be from your first attempt, if so, you would need a producer though, to, er, produce it for you, so make a choice, do you wanna be a songwriter or producer or both, one you can do immediately, the other, maybe, comes with time, not every songwriter can produce too, production is a very specialist job, more so than the actual writing. Ball's in your court.
I was on a laptop i5 8700 8g ram ssd and I could do something but not even half of what I can do with my tower i7 8700. 32g ram ssd. both are HP.
IMHO I would not recommend a beginner to go dawless. Let's be real: Not everyone is sticking to it after a few months. A PC is something that can be used for other things too, but if one decides that that whole making beats was a dead end, there is not much you can do with a keyboard and some desktop synths. Besides that, as a beginner you don't know what sound you like yet. So deciding what synth to buy would be extremely hard. I would go cheap 5 octave Master keyboard, PC, going wild on the sister site and see where it is going. After a year or so it could be a good idea to buy some hardware synths. Because hardware sexy
Either way, you can produce the goods, to side with one or t'other is futile. Many many hits have been written on one, or more, pieces off harware. Using hardware is a very rewarding approach, its quick, efficient and powerful, difficult to put into words but you learn so much more and can become proficient in a very short space of time. Buy the right gear second hand you can re-sell at for what you paid for it. I would urge any youngsters, or beginners to go hardware, it's very immediate and exciting and amazing fun, Roland TR6S and Roland JU06A will suffice then add Cubase and more hardware. A drum box, the step input, is a particularliy superior way of grasping what make beats tick, step writing the notes will also show you, literally, where the action is.
You got many replies, but even 3 months later, you didn't reply to any of them. Your short and generic post was met with some negative comments, because you never explained what your musical background and general knowledge on the subject is. So people assume you have no skills or knowledge but just a desire and frankly i 'd be on the same page with them. Acquiring a new pc will not magically make you a "producer of music", whatever this may mean. So unless you spill the beans about you, you won't get any decent answer. Cheers
He hinted earlier at serious personal issues causing him to lose motivation. Not his first rodeo either.
Yeah i see it now, it was in Italian and i didn't bother translating at first, thanks for the heads up.
Yep. I hear that. Built my new main production box in '24 and glad I did. It will last a good long time. Unfortunately the semiconductor industry has seen fit to "control" the production of RAM and related devices to keep the prices as high as possible. This along with industry sponsored planned obsolescence, they are attempting once again to force the end user to pay thru the nose for new gear when present or older gear will suffice just fine for the long term. This model is supported by the hardware and operating system OEM's in order to railroad new consumers (as opposed to corporate, data center, big data, "AI" conglomerates) into dumping present working equipment for new stuff just because they think they can. This is made clear simply by comparing the spec's of the newest stuff with your present working rig (built within the last 3-5 years). The performance differences are not close to anything that would motivate me into dumping my current rig for a newer, overpriced rig. FFS, the cost of the RAM alone right now would pay for my latest production rig with $ to spare. It's ridiculous... Last edited: Apr 12, 2026 at 1:14 AM
an i5 will just fill you with regret and will really get on ur tits sooner or later,buy the latest i7 u can afford and a mobo capable of upgrading to 64G. The biggest diff. you will see is an SSD compared to a SATA... Do NOT buy a PC with a SATA HD That said, also get the biggest SSD u can as you can fill up like a 500G SSD VERY quickly. I run a 2TB SSD, a Core i9-14900k, 64G Ram with an extra 1TB SDD and about 5 SATA's in an external docking bay. Very nice I suppose.... but id trade half of it to get fucking OMNISPHERE AUTH'ed again!!!! Last edited: Apr 12, 2026 at 3:09 AM
Due to my worries about hot CPUs, I opted to go with an older i7 12700k. I would have taken a NON-K but it was more expensive, but i use Throttlestop.... Not to PREVENT thermal throttling, but to INDUCE it. It has more power than i need for general use, so I undervolt a bit (-110mv) and thermal throttle. Keeps things cool
