Over the past several years, processing power has increased while the demands of audio work haven’t. While, with laptops, its better to go mid to high end, you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on a good desktop.
- Quad-core CPU’s are ideally recommended.
- Dual-core CPU’s at good clock speeds (3.0-3.5+ GHz) is fine.
- For desktops, an i3 made in the past few years is plenty.
- An i7 is way overkill for a desktop (DAW’s aren’t THAT demanding)
- For a laptop, you may want an i5 or i7.
- A solid state drive is very strongly recommended.
- 8-16 GB of RAM is ideal. Beyond that is superflous.
- Integrated graphics should be more than plenty.
- Monitor resolution should be at least 1080p (preferably higher)
- A quiet PC is preferred. This is a good guide