

- Building a home studio computer upgrade#
- Building a home studio computer pro#
- Building a home studio computer software#
- Building a home studio computer Pc#
Normally fan noise is just an annoyance more than anything, but while recording, you don't want your CPU fan(s) revving up in the middle of a killer vocal performance and boosting the noise floor. As your CPU heats up as a result of intense processing, the CPU fan(s) will kick into overdrive mode to help cool it down. Since your PC’s CPU and RAM do the heavy lifting when it comes to processing audio, you can save hundreds of dollars by opting for a budget-friendly graphics card option.įan noise is a significant concern when building a PC, especially if you plan to record audio in the same space that your computer is situated.
Building a home studio computer Pc#
If you want to play current AAA games on your PC with maxed out graphics settings, it makes sense to buy a quality graphics card, but it’s not necessary for music production. I have no problem running massive Ableton sessions on my PC, in spite of my meek little GeForce GT 710. Luckily, you don’t need a top-of-the-line graphics card to produce music, and this very odd situation has proved it. I have my eyes set on an RTX 3080 because I like gaming, but between NVIDIA’s inability to meet demand, BitCoin miners purchasing as many graphics cards as they can, and scalpers buying out inventory online using bots within seconds, it’s currently near-impossible to get your hands on one without paying 2x MSRP on eBay. You’re probably wondering why I didn’t allocate more of my budget to a graphics card, and the truth is that budget has little to do with it. The oddity here is that my PC currently includes a $55 MSI Gaming GeForce GT 710 2GB GDRR3 graphics card. For just a little over $1,700, I was able to put together a workhorse PC with an Intel Core i9-10850K, 64 GB of DDR4-3600 RAM, and a Corsair H100i liquid cooler.
Building a home studio computer pro#
I recently built this new PC because my 9-year-old MacBook Pro finally kicked the can.

You Don’t Need an Expensive Graphics Card As the video points out, higher amounts of RAM can lead to reduced render times it doesn't usually take more than a few minutes to render a song, but this is still something to keep in mind.Ģ. The following video provides a great comparison between the performance capabilities of different amounts of RAM.
Building a home studio computer upgrade#
With some extra RAM in your pocket, you won't have to worry about a RAM upgrade until years down the road.
Building a home studio computer software#
For example, if you want to run Discord, Spotify, Ableton, and YouTube at the same time, without your computer slowing down in a noticeable way, you should invest in RAM.Īs a future-proof option, you may want to bite the bullet and go for 64GB of RAM software developers tend to create increasingly taxing software over time. 128GB of RAM and up is a bit excessive you likely don't need that much.įor music production, you can scrape by with 16GB of RAM, but I truly believe it's worth holding off on building a PC and scrounging up the extra cash for 32GB of RAM you'll experience significantly better multi-tasking performance. Common amounts of RAM include 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. Generally, you want to buy as much RAM as you can afford without your wife finding out. CPUs tend to provide diminishing returns as you start looking at pricier options. Comparatively, you can pick up an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, that’s still going to perform exceptionally well, for close to $500. Buying a super expensive CPU like an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X will deliver amazing results, but it costs almost $4,000. When it comes to choosing a CPU, you need to weigh performance against cost. CPU-heavy DAW sessions will run smoothly and you'll be able to run multiple programs at once. These two components work hand in hand to create a fast and responsive user experience. Ideally, you want a computer with a fast CPU and lots of RAM. A bigger trunk (more RAM) will allow you to move more stuff to point B each trip, further cutting down on the time it takes you to move all this stuff. Upgrading the engine (CPU) will get you to point B faster, but you'll still need to make multiple trips. If you're trying to move a bunch of stuff from point A to point B, you want a car with a fast engine and a big trunk.Ī car with a slow engine and small trunk will require you to make many trips to move all your stuff from point A to point B, and you're not going to get there too quickly either. Your PC’s central processing unit (CPU) is like a car's engine, while its random access memory (RAM) is like the trunk of a car.
