I agree with Matt. "White box" machines are typically much easier to upgrade when necessary. Focusrite Scarlett is a nice low-latency sound solution and beats dealing with on-board Realtek and USB-MIDI cables from China. Both Intel and AMD are fine CPUs for music/sound. For Intel, i5 is minimum, but the sweet spot for Intel CPUs is always ONE BELOW the "Top bin" for price/performance. I am glad I went for the i7.

These days 16GB of RAM (and 64-bit Windows) is standard practice. An SSD boot drive and Fast SATA data drive is a good idea (OS and CRITICAL programs only on the SSD makes for fast backup/restores.) I use EaseUS and schedule a backup every night while I sleep.

Win 10 makes sense, as Win7 will EVENTUALLY be dropped from support, and that can happen more quickly than you realize. A fresh install is ALWAYS more stable than an upgrade in-place, so better just to bite the bullet and start with it if you are getting a new machine.

"Barebones" machines on eBay have served me well, and you can pick your MOMO, Power Supply, Case, USB ports etc. I do as much on USB 3 as possible, but a few PCIe slots are still advisable.

Last edited by PhillyJazz; 01/14/16 10:11 AM.
Jan - 12 Core AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
32GB DDR4
Win 10 64-bit
Samsung m.2 SSD Boot drive,other SSD internal and USB drives.
MOTO 2
Ketron SD4,SD1000
Yamaha RX-v381amp
VB-Audio virtual cables