Question First Desktop Build or Pre-Built For Gaming AND Music Production?? ~$2300ish

[karldlakata]

Looking to build or buy a pre-built desktop that can handle music production as well as gaming. Just ordered the Alienware AW3418DW 34" curved monitor, so I'll be using that. I don't have experience building but I'm not opposed to trying it. Feeling a little overwhelmed trying to satisfy the music production and gaming aspects of the hardware. Any help would be much appreciated!!!! Thanks

 

[Zoid]

Looking to build or buy a pre-built desktop that can handle music production as well as gaming. Just ordered the Alienware AW3418DW 34" curved monitor, so I'll be using that. I don't have experience building but I'm not opposed to trying it. Feeling a little overwhelmed trying to satisfy the music production and gaming aspects of the hardware. Any help would be much appreciated!!!! Thanks

Can you let us know the following:

1. What is your budget?
2. What country are you shopping in?
3. What are the games you most want to play?
4. What music production software do you use?
5. How large are your music libraries / how much storage do you want?

 

[karldlakata]

Can you let us know the following:

1. What is your budget?
2. What country are you shopping in?
3. What are the games you most want to play?
4. What music production software do you use?
5. How large are your music libraries / how much storage do you want?

Yes, my apologies!

Budget : $1800-$2700
Location : US (New York)
Games : FPS , RPG
Music Production : Ableton Live 10
Storage : 1-2 TB

Thanks!

 

[Zoid]

Yes, my apologies!

Budget : $1800-$2700
Location : US (New York)
Games : FPS , RPG
Music Production : Ableton Live 10
Storage : 1-2 TB

Thanks!

That's a very healthy budget. I put together a parts list at the top end of your price range as a kind of best-case scenario based on the assumption that you are a heavy Ableton user doing semi-professional music production. See my explanation below, as well as suggestions for downgrades if you want to save some money. Also, I do not know if you need any specific sound hardware inside the computer (like a high end sound card or specific connection interfaces), but here's a start.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($431.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X63 98.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA ATX AM4 Motherboard ($299.00 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($149.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($149.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($269.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card ($759.99 @ B&H)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A Digital ATX Mid Tower Case ($98.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($144.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $2784.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-07 17:10 EDT-0400

Explanation:
I chose the Ryzen 9 3900X because it's one of the best consumer productivity CPUs on the market and still offers very strong gaming performance. With 24 threads it will be able to keep up with massive Ableton sessions with tons of tracks and process lots of effects simultaneously.

The Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA motherboard is a great high-end board all around but the reason I chose it specifically is because it has 3 M.2 slots which takes me too...

Storage. The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro is a strong performer that doesn't totally break the bank. I chose to include 3 once again based on the assumption that you are using Ableton at a semi-professional level. The 2TB drive would be your main system drive and would include Windows, Ableton, and all your games. I chose 2TB because 1TB can fill up rather quickly if you're installing multiple large games alongside other programs. The other two 1TB drives are there to give you better sustained editing performance by splitting out your sample libraries and your audio recording / file caching spaces from your main system disk.

For memory I just aimed high at 64GB of RAM. As with the rest of this list, it might be a little overkill if you're just a hobbyist and not trying to run a professional studio. 16GB might be ok, 32GB would most likely be plenty, but regardless you're going to want fast RAM for loading samples in and out of memory, which is why I chose DDR4 3600.

The RTX 2080 Super will give you very good performance with your 1440p ultrawide, and the Phanteks P400A will give you strong cooling performance and is large enough to fit the monster GPU.

Finally, the Corsair RMx 850 is a very good power supply with plenty of wattage headroom for your high-end components.

If you want to lower price:
If your Ableton sessions are smaller and don't have Jacob Collier amounts of tracks in them and you want to conserve your budget, then a Ryzen 7 3700X would still be a very good CPU for music production.

You also don't have to spend that much on a fancy motherboard if you don't need the speed of 3 M.2 SSDs. You could replace the 2 extra drives with regular SATA SSDs instead, like the Crucial MX500, and save money on storage and a cheaper motherboard.

RAM could be lowered to 32GB, maybe to 16GB if you really don't use many tracks at once in Ableton.

GPU can be whatever you want, really. An RX 5700 XT would be enough to give you solid performance at 1440p ultrawide, or a 2070 Super would be another option if you didn't want to spring for the 2080 Super.

 

[Daso]

Funny, I'm in NYC and was looking for the same type of setup for music, gaming and some 3d work. I picked teh Ryze 9 to be sure that I could game and run multiple tracks and plug ins as well. Just ordered my parts from B&H and contemplating 34" Curved monitors. people here are super helpful (and know craploads more than I could even absorb). My build rang out at about $2,600 without monitor. I'm psyched to build it next week.