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 at 9:12 PM
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.
