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Building a music production PC that will last 10 years #857592 07/14/25 09:48 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Feb 2023 Posts: 34 Q QuestionAsker OP Enthusiast
OP QuestionAsker Enthusiast Q Joined: Feb 2023 Posts: 34	My 14 year old Hackintosh that I built in 2011 just died recently, because of dust (oops... lesson learned). Up until dust fried the motherboard it was still running like a champ, even in 2025, for normal everyday tasks. So I’m looking to build another PC for music production, that will last me another 10-15 years. I’m OK with going a bit overkill on it, as that’s what I did with my 2011 Hackitosh (to make it future-proof). I’ve been researching a lot of music production PC builds and taking notes, but looking for advice here to make sure I do it right. Thanks in advance for any suggestions or insights. ----------------------- What PC Will Be Used For • Music Production (Ableton): Using both VSTs and recording live instruments. • Work / Productivity: CAD + lots of Brave browser tabs open across 2-3 windows, random programs, etc • Light gaming: Not really important, but sometimes I do like to try out flight simulators sometimes, etc, just for fun. I don’t really game but would be cool to have the option from time to time. Budget • ~$2000, though I can try to increase if need be. I’m located in the U.S. Special Considerations • Low Noise: Trying to keep it as silent as possible, as I’ll be recording voice / instruments in the same room as the computer. • Temperature: I’m in Southern California, doesn’t get too hot, but room can get up to 80F-85F sometimes (26C–30C) • Dust: Lots of dust where I live. Room has a coat of dust after just 1-2 days. Parts List So Far • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950x – (I hear for Ableton this is a good choice) • CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 – (to keep noise levels down) • Case Fans: Replace with Noctua – (to make case even quieter) • PSU: Seasonic Prime GX-1000 – (I hear for low EMF / electronic noise this is a good choice) • OS: Windows 10 – (bare bones, very lightweight version) Accessories • Dust Cover – (to protect from dust when computer is off) • Dust Filters – (to place over air inlets if need be) • Ferrite Chokes – (To minimize EMF interferance, especially via power cable to external GPU. I’m still learning about these, but they’re cheap to try out. Even if they don’t work, won’t hurt) Parts I’m Still Trying to Figure Out: • Motherboard – (trying to get one without onboard wifi/bluetooth... going to try to have it connected by ethernet only. To cut down on EMFs, and personal preference) • Case – (wondering which will be quietest, while allowing for high airflow?) • GPU – (I know GPUs are crazy expensive now. But looking for something somewhat decent for light gaming, and quiet as well) • RAM (128gb) – (which brand will be best? Also – 2 x 64gb?, Or 4 x 32gb?) • Hard Drives • Anything else missing? – (Open to suggestions) Parts I Have • 2 x Samsung Monitors • Keyboard / Mouse • Audio Interface (Focusrite 2i2)

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857593 07/14/25 11:04 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 7,582 Sacramento, California dcuny Veteran
dcuny Veteran Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 7,582 Sacramento, California	I'm sure it's not 10 years future-proof, or even 2 years future proof, but I picked a mini PC to replace my old computer. There were a couple factors involved in the selection: It had a small form factor. I was getting tired of having a behemoth underneath my desk. It's really quiet, which is good for recording. But during the summer months, the AC is grinding away, which sort of makes that point moot. I chose to go with NVME sticks instead of a hard drive, because I was tired of worrying if the hard drive was about to crash whenever it started making noise. It's powerful enough to run games - my daughter bought her own after trying out games on mine. Memory instead of hard drives leads to a very quiet machine, but it's not a cheap way to go. These mini PCs are always coming out with better, faster versions, and they aren't like a desktop computer where you can just swap the CPU out. If I really cared about GPUs, I'd have probably gotten one which can run an external video card, which would somewhat have future proofed it for me. The use of NVME instead of hard drives was probably biggest change, because it results in a really quiet machine. Maybe not what you want, but you might look at some of the upper-end mini-PCs for giggles anyway. I found RobTech's reviews particularly helpful. -- David Cuny My virtual singer development blog Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857647 07/15/25 02:09 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Apr 2009 Posts: 10,341 Middlesex, NC Guitarhacker Veteran
Guitarhacker Veteran Joined: Apr 2009 Posts: 10,341 Middlesex, NC	Several of my computers including one I built myself in 2008 is still totally functional. I could probably install a new 64 bit is and keep it running. I originally installed Windows 7 pro 32 bit due to how stable it was. The problem is technology is moving forward so quickly anything you build or buy today is antiquated in less than 2 years. With that in mind, rather than doing the upgrade to the old build, I simply purchased a rehabbed Dell from the Amazon rehab store. It was loaded with W10 and halfway decent specs for somewhere around $400. It's what I'm using now and it's doing a good job with very few problems. It came with a wireless mouse and keyboard. I use a HDTV for the monitor. It's set up for music recording but also has access to the Internet. My studio is on a farm so talk about dust? And spiders? Yep. I reckon I need to bring my portable air compressor to the studio and blow out the computers. You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857648 07/15/25 02:19 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Apr 2017 Posts: 1,813 Sillie Con Valley, California Mike Halloran Expert
Mike Halloran Expert Joined: Apr 2017 Posts: 1,813 Sillie Con Valley, California	An ARM based PC may have a chance. Count on any Intel based PC made now to be obsolete before then. This has nothing to do with whether or not the hardware will last—with any decent cooling system, that should be easy to achieve. BIAB 2024 Audiophile Mac 24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857660 07/15/25 05:16 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: May 2000 Posts: 22,165 Mi., USA rharv Veteran
rharv Veteran Joined: May 2000 Posts: 22,165 Mi., USA	W10 is out of support in October. Why not W11? I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857682 07/16/25 05:02 AM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK Gordon Scott Veteran
Gordon Scott Veteran Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK	FWIW, I wouldn't worry so much as others here about "obsolete" or about "Windows out of support". Over 10 years, both of those are likely, but on the whole, so what? There are still industrial PCs based on Intel Core and AMD Ryzen CPUs and chipsets and the companies buying those boards will not be too worried about the above. As a for instance, A client I work with has only in the last 4 or 5 years stopped using Windows 3.11. Admittedly the "embedded" version. Just because a Windows version goes "out of support" it definitely doesn't mean that it will stop working. I'm of the opinion that Microsoft actually sometimes do release some security fixes after the official support ends, though much less often. I still have an old laptop with Win2k; Until recently I used to also have Win7, Win8.1 and Win10 machines because I used them all to verify that software I'd written for hardware I've designed still works as it should. Where things can now get tricky is with the recent CPU vs Windows constraints (TPM 2.0). Where changing CPU relative to Windows version has caused issues. I like to think that should be going away as TPM 2.0 appears on all motherboards, but that's only my opinion. If you buy a PC which comes with a Windows version, the two will work together for the foreseeable future. Few application providers will not support current CPUs for quite a few years yet, but there's always a risk of some new game-changer coming along, as did 64-bit or VST3, but usually things actually don't change as fast as we often think. Marketing is hype-driven. They want to panic people into buying new earlier than they need. I don't blame them for that, but neither will I be suckered by it. Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years Gordon Scott #857702 07/16/25 09:15 AM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,465 J justanoldmuso Veteran
justanoldmuso Veteran J Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,465	i think qasker needs to give more info. particularly performance needs...eg... ..max anticipated track counts in a song ..max number of plugins anticipated and any heavy pc resource useage ones. i dont need a savage beast cos i only do max 40 tracks in a song and use only the low pc resource usege dx plugins and the ones i detailed in the pg tips forum. im extremely happy with my new system and it only cost a few hundred bucks..heck of a deal. also one of the lowest dpc,s for a pc in the market.. for any lurkers read my tips in pg tips forum re buying a pc for music production....loads of info. no need to spend big bucks these days. om Last edited by justanoldmuso; 07/16/25 09:19 AM. my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..) https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs (90 songs created useing bb/rb) (lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857721 07/16/25 04:08 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Nov 2008 Posts: 2,661 DC Ron Veteran
DC Ron Veteran Joined: Nov 2008 Posts: 2,661	Here's a different approach... Since your service life is 10 years, get a professionally assembled hardware DAW. Select the latest generation processor and twice as much memory as you need. Divide the cost by 10 to get your annual cost. $200-300/year (less than $1/day) for your music hardware backbone is manageable for many music enthusiasts. My studiocat.com DAW purchased in 2017 lasted 8 years, and was still going REALLY strong until Windows 10 end of life spooked me into upgrading to a Windows 11 DAW... DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One StudioCat DAW dual screen Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years DC Ron #857751 Yesterday at 02:58 AM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK Gordon Scott Veteran
Gordon Scott Veteran Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK	Originally Posted by DC Ron still going REALLY strong until Windows 10 end of life spooked me into upgrading to a Windows 11 DAW... Indeed ... part of my point above. Quite a few people keep their main music PC separate from the Internet, completely eliminating the malware threats. Unfortunately some companies require their software to "check in" occasionally to verify licences, which rather cobbles that principle. A decent firewall and strict adherence to only trusted sites should serve pretty well. A VPN might be an option, though I've not personally tried one for that purpose. Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years Gordon Scott #857753 Yesterday at 04:34 AM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,465 J justanoldmuso Veteran
justanoldmuso Veteran J Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,465	Gordon. i simply refuse to buy anything that means i have to keep my music production pc on the net. as ive said many times on here i will never put a production pc on the net. fyi Gordon...and thanks for suggesting i look at mini pc's. i completely underestimated them. for the princely sum of 500 buckeroons or i guess a few hundred quid gbp i now have two. .. ..one for the net (fanless)... ..one for music production. i'm a happy boy. i thought i knew tech haveing spent many years in tech but you got one up on me..kudos. DCRon. custom built option. yep. but many people dont wanna spend the extra money. in my tips i suggest this option for people who hate learning tech. frankly tho' to run a modern project studio a user must understand tech imho. otherwise frustration will result. another nice option to check out is 'off lease ' beasts like hp z series and lenovo or dell. ive seen em around a few hundred bucks. for lurkers i posted several links in tips forum to custom builders includeing studiocat. if i won the lottery i would prolly blow 3k on one of those all silent rack mounted beasts.... but i just cant justify....and i just dont need one due to my modest track number needs. for lurkers heres a link.... https://silentpc.com/daw/ anyhoo my ry7 m.2 ssd mini does all i would ever want. i'm a happy pig. will do over 200 tracks says rb testing. track genning is blink of an eye. love it. but obviously might not be suitable for some users that might wanna run a ton of tracks and resource hogging plugins. 'hey man i wanna run 200 tracks with 5 plugins on each track'...lol. maybe the big production houses with big orchestral sessions will need a very high end pc tho'. happiness to all. om Last edited by justanoldmuso; Yesterday at 04:43 AM. my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..) https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs (90 songs created useing bb/rb) (lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years justanoldmuso #857759 Yesterday at 05:09 AM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK Gordon Scott Veteran
Gordon Scott Veteran Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK	Originally Posted by justanoldmuso fyi Gordon...and thanks for suggesting i look at mini pc's. i completely underestimated them. for the princely sum of 500 buckeroons or i guess a few hundred quid gbp i now have two. .. ..one for the net (fanless)... ..one for music production. i'm a happy boy. i thought i knew tech haveing spent many years in tech but you got one up on me..kudos. I should say here that I was mostly talking about mini-ITX PCs, rather than mini-PCs. Mini-ITX tends, I think, to be built more with industrial use in mind and should(!) be quite robust. They also allow me to arrange my own cooling. That's partly as my office gets very warm. Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857785 Yesterday at 11:03 AM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Apr 2017 Posts: 1,813 Sillie Con Valley, California Mike Halloran Expert
Mike Halloran Expert Joined: Apr 2017 Posts: 1,813 Sillie Con Valley, California	Quote A client I work with has only in the last 4 or 5 years stopped using Windows 3.11 An NDA prevents me from naming the major medical systems and military hardware still running 3.11. I did ask an admiral why ... was using it to control ... on the ... His answer, "When the system goes down. it can be rebooted and functional in less than 10 seconds." Oh. When I'm in a new doctor's office or clinic, I'll take a peak at the system up and running to see if those apps are still in use. Visiting a friend at a major medical hospital, I was able to confirm it still being in use. We were the first to bring TCP/IP to Windows, something Microsoft never did till Win95. I'm the tall guy in the back right of center. About Us BIAB 2024 Audiophile Mac 24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years Mike Halloran #857787 Yesterday at 01:38 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 7,582 Sacramento, California dcuny Veteran
dcuny Veteran Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 7,582 Sacramento, California	Originally Posted by Mike Halloran I'm the tall guy in the back right of center. You must have eyes like a hawk! -- David Cuny My virtual singer development blog Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years Mike Halloran #857790 Yesterday at 03:03 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK Gordon Scott Veteran
Gordon Scott Veteran Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,481 Hampshire, UK	Originally Posted by Mike Halloran [ An NDA prevents me from naming the major medical systems and military hardware still running 3.11. I did ask an admiral why ... was using it to control ... on the ... His answer, "When the system goes down. it can be rebooted and functional in less than 10 seconds." Oh. Aye; My client mostly stopped using 3.11 because their customers were asking "why are you still using this?". There were a couple of minor software niggles, but not as many as were needed for the change to Win10/11. Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years Gordon Scott #857796 Yesterday at 04:14 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,465 J justanoldmuso Veteran
justanoldmuso Veteran J Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,465	Gordon. one min i pc builder i keep track of are... geekom. seen some pretty positive reviews re music production. frankly i didnt plump for the beastiest processors this time around due to watts used. i feel the ry7 is a decent compromise. if the op wants an el cheapo beast ive always liked the off lease refurbs. look at this beast for a daft price under 200 buckies. 150 quid thereabouts. with money saved could use for nice interface/mics/spkrs etc etc. https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Precisi...b93e-67d2be61a261&pd_rd_i=B095FVJVK8 ps i looked at the industrial pc's but am darn happy with my chosen mini. what amazes me is how many people dont really assess their needs before buying a music production pc. particularly assessing dpc. so they get high latency. om Last edited by justanoldmuso; Yesterday at 04:16 PM. my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..) https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs (90 songs created useing bb/rb) (lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)

Re: Building a music production PC that will last 10 years QuestionAsker #857814 Yesterday at 09:35 PM Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Apr 2016 Posts: 6,960 Cooran Queensland Australia rayc Veteran
rayc Veteran Joined: Apr 2016 Posts: 6,960 Cooran Queensland Australia	Do as Gordon suggests other have done, (& I continue to do), by buying a comp, setting it up for recording and then taking it off line from then on. I was running an XP DAW for well over a decade and only changed when I required an updated interface, (various reasons), and all of the units available & in my price range required W7 to run. I still have the XP & old interface - both running as well - and use it as a back up as well as to open & export tracks from old Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.3 "Bundle" discs. Oh, and you could always run Linux with Reaper and use whatever comp. you want so long as the interface is compatible. Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe

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