Advice for PC or build

[pron022020]

So I am working on building up a home studio. Currently I work off a Windows laptop that is a few years old and it does its job pretty well but I need a permanent PC for the studio. I've done some research but haven't come up with anything very recent or that fits my situation.
For some background, I hardly ever use virtual instruments but I do use a lot of plug-ins. This computer would be used for tracking, mixing, and probably mastering.
I have never taken apart or built a computer before, so I don't know if I should venture into the building game? I snagged this from an old thread that somebody built.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M6NzGG
The flip side of the coin is if there is a PC that is built by a major company out there that works for Protools specs out of the box. Haven't seen much mentioned about that.

Budget:
Up to $1400 or so
Thinking 32 gb of ram, Intel i7 processor?, 1 tb ssd

[junkgear]

Building a PC these days isn't all that difficult, although if you have never done it before, there is still areas where you can order the wrong part or mess something up, so you might not want to start with a system that is more than just something to play with.

As far as pre-built audio computers go, the only one that comes to mind is the Sweetwater Creation Station. Specs are slightly lower than what you could get if you built one, but I would take a look at the processor and other components they are using, and you can use that info to buy something similar. These are systems that they build for DAW use.

[ChuckS]

The HP Z2, Z6 and Z8 boxes have a pretty good discount going now:
https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/mlp/bu...s/workstations
You have to hunt around for the customizable versions.

Here's Avid's 2022.12 list (scroll down to supported windows PCs):
https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...m-Requirements

You can probably do a little better putting together something yourself. PCs aren't as mysterious as the used to be - things are pretty much standardized these days. If you don't want to go that route, Sweetwater (Creation Station) and HP are good choices.

[The Weed]

or guitardom's www.pro-tools-pc.com.

[pron022020]

Thanks for all of the advice. I now have narrowed it down to either buying Sweetwater's creation station or building my own. I'm leaning towards building my own I think, but it is quite daunting. What do you guys think about the link I posted in my OP?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by pron022020

What do you guys think about the link I posted in my OP?

It's a mishmash of old technology. Why would you build any computer nowadays with SATA storage? M.2 drives are not much more than SATA SSDs and I'd be trying to get everything on PCIe/NVMe M.2 drives. And get modern/current gen PCIe4 based M.2 drives on a suitable CPU... like find something using an i5 or i7 Raptor Lake? That should be the start of your thought process and expand from there.

And even that motherboard has 3 x M.2 slots on it, so stuff 3 x M.2 2TB drives there.... but if you only need 1TB (nobody ever does).. then start with just one 2TB M.2 boot/system drive and put everything on that and some external HDD for backup/archive. But now that Intel has finally pulled it's head out of a dark place you might as well be using what they have finally delivered and be using a modern PCIe 4 system that gets you into a new world of faster everything.

[pron022020]

Alright, good to know. The only hurdle I am having is since I have never done this before, I don't really know what is best for me when it comes to components. Isn't there a compatibility website out there, as well as maybe some parts lists somebody has done before?

[ChuckS]

If you have some time, read some of the i7 builds thread at the top of this forum. It’s been going on for quite some time. There’s some system builds in there that may be of some help. Someone should train an AI with that thread. Skip to the posts starting from last year.

[JoelG]

Originally Posted by pron022020

Isn't there a compatibility website out there

PCPartsPicker is a good start, it also shows the pricing for popular online retailers so you can find deals.

https://pcpartpicker.com/

Joel

[albee1952]

Just wanted to stick my own 2 cents in: I totally agree with Darryl's recommendation for all M.2 drives. I also see no reason to buy any spinning drives(WD Blue) these days unless you are putting them into NAS service(in which case, you would go for spinners built for that purpose, such as WD Red). I also would double the RAM to 32GB. I would also think long and hard about moving to an i9. Having said all that, the Creation Station's can be a solid solution as long as you don't under-spec it

Consider: You could spend $1400 or $2000 on a PC, depending on specs. But you might out-grow the $1400 one in 3-4 years, while the more expensive one serves you for 8-10 years. So that cheap one cost you $350 per year, and the more expensive one actually costs you less than $250 a year. Something to think about