Hello there!
I'm finally able to afford a new PC but wanted first your input.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X870-E Gaming WiFi

• RAM: 128GB (4x32GB) DDR5-6000 CL30

• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB

• SSD: 8TB total (2TB Gen5 + 6TB Gen4)

• HDD: 2TB

• Power Supply: 1000W or 1200W 80+ Platinum

• CPU Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360mm

• Case: Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL or Corsair 5000D Airflow

My budget is around $7,500 - $8,100 USD

I currently own a Focursite Scarlett8i6 but I plan to upgrade to a RME Babyface Pro FS, unless I don't really need to?

Any room for improvement without adding too much additional money? Any things you'd change entirely?

 

Last edited: Jul 19, 2026 at 12:53 AM

what about sound card ? also.. be sure to have lots of usb connections.. it could be useful in the future

 

Thanks! Edited the post!

 

Well, one thing is certain you definitely have deep pockets. Your choices are solid, but if you're looking to do audio production you'll need a pro audio system OTHER than system board audio, which sucks in most cases. I recommend RME-audio for that part. You'll have to peruse their lineup to find what you need.

The devices I left above from your original post are going to cost you 4-5 times as much as they should normally (I put some starting prices in there in red). My personal advice to you unless you like shoving cash down the toilet, is to wait for a while. If you have an adequate machine to the task currently, use it until you reach an absolute impassable blocking issue. Reason being is that price gouging for digital memory products has gone insane since last quarter of '24. Building machines right now for the average non-mega-rich person is pretty much stifled until the prices return to more sane points of pre-last quarter '24...

You can thank the industry stupidity and pointlessness surrounding the "AI" craze for the absolute insano $$ gouging occurring with memory products right now.

 

Last edited: Jul 19, 2026 at 1:21 AM

Yeah, the thing about prices suck and waiting is something I'm considering, still, I'd like to build one to have an idea.

 

That's fair. If cashy money is no object then by all means go for it. Within the last couple months I had a couple of servers that needed to be upgraded on my backend LAN and I ended up grabbing a couple of older dell machines off of ebay. I used to build them new, but not now. The dell machines serve the purpose just fine, and in this climate 100-200$ @ machine is a steal. You might be able to find some used iron on ebay that fits your bill for the interim

 

Without knowing your actual workflow, it’s impossible to say if this makes sense. Right now, you’ve specd out a massive gaming rig, not an optimized DAW.

If this is strictly for music and you aren't running humongous sample libraries, you're wasting your time and money. Parts like that RTX 4090 and the 4-stick RAM setup are major red flags that will cause serious fan noise, system instability, and audio latency spikes.

Honestly, if this is purely a DAW, you could spend a third of this budget, use the rest to actually treat your room, and get way better results. What are you actually producing, and is this machine doubling as a gaming or video editing rig too?

 

if i was you, ill spend into some analog gear... that pc its too much ..idk if u cant use 100% of that pc... to be honest... u can still do some hard work in AM4... the ram and storage, its welcomed... but if u have that money focus on spend on some analog like an EQ or mastering compressor. THATS THE CHERRY ON THE TOP.

 

If you can, spring for a larger hard drive, even 4 terabytes would help, maybe even 8 or higher depending on your budget. Or maybe get a slightly smaller ssd to make more room in the budget for a larger hard drive, don’t know if they make 6 terabyte ones or if you can get a 4 terabyte plus 2 terabyte and have lanes for a hard drive and everything else

 

Oh yeah, maybe should've mentioned that but I also want it for gaming and video editing.

 

yes. he maybe wants gaming pc and music production pc.. i am wrong? hard drives is probably important, id also get a dvd or blue ray reader for storage on that and backup

 

Personally I would go for 2 sticks of DDR5 RAM. Either 2x48GB or 2x 64GB depending on what you really need (In most cases 2x48GB will be more than enough)? Using 2 sticks usually has less compatibility issues than 4 sticks. But be sure to the check the Quality Vendor List (QVL) of the ASUS ROG Strix X870-E Gaming WiFi on their site to see what memory configurations have been successfully tested, before actually buying any!

Like mentioned before if you build this PC especially for DAW use you can save some serious money by downgrading the graphics card. No need for RTX 4090. Unless you also want to play games at high fps rates.

I would strongly suggest not to go for a 6TB gen 4 drive. Because they are extremely expensive pci-e drives that make no sense installing in a consumer desktop. Rather go for the M.2 gen4/gen5 drives that are available in 1, 2, 4, or 8TB capacities.

The Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 is still a very decent interface so IMO I don't see the immediate need switch over to RME Babyface Pro FS.

Other than this the system looks solid to me.

 

Last edited: Jul 19, 2026 at 3:00 AM

for music production only, I'd change a few things, but I don't know how you work so it's based on my experience.
I'd only get 64GB of RAM
I'd get a slightly less powerful GPU as this looks more like a gaming PC than a music production PC, I'd settle for a RTX 4070
I'd get the babyface. I have one and couldn't live without it. On windows RME's drivers are simply the best. Period.
perhaps a 4TB HDD for storage instead of 2TB...

 

That's a freaking beast man, I'm both happy and envious for you

Well, I do have a critically important advice:
no need to overclock

 

Last edited: Jul 19, 2026 at 12:24 PM

If you plan on putting roughly 8000 USD on a PC which I assume. would be to prioritise audio production, I would put at least 2000 of those USD towards a decent audio interface (read: RME) and less on the GPU. Or is this now a gaming forum?

 

Man, that's a bit unreasonable

 

Let me modify:

1) I fully agree that OP's current audio interface is more than sufficient. My point is that if the plan is to put that amount of money into building a dream PC, there is no need to be skimping when it comes to the AI, especially if audio production is the main target.

2) For VE, I see the point of a powerful GPU, but even 16 GB VRAM is well above and beyond the specs needed to run the latest Premiere for example. Unless OP is planning to do everything in 8K. I also do my own video editing (albeit not dozens of video tracks, with subdivided audio, and nested timelines with heavy visual FX). So to me, the main objective in this thread is a gaming rig. AP and VE 2nd.

 

Yeah don't worry, you're totally right. That's why I came to this forum. I have very little knowledge on hardware and after some of your answers I'm realizing that I don't even need this beast of a PC for music production and casual gaming. So it's a good advice, maybe I'll go for a slightly weaker video card and save that money for the RME.

 

i would choose Intel latest cpu. i dislike AMD. my whole life i been having intel supported computer.