Desktop for Reaper, Rx and other tools.
 

I'm looking at this HP model as a Christmas present to me, from me. :)

I'm going to go with dual monitors (I have them at work). I think this will be a good replacement for our old HP with 4 GB memory with an AMD A4-3400 APU.

I rarely record with the computer though.

It'll probably be a bit of a pain transferring my plug-ins from the old machine to the new, but I have a couple of external hard drives to make it easier.

My budget is between $700 to $950 if anyone has other suggestions.

This Acer has worked out perfectly for me.....https://www.microcenter.com/product/...f-sww9fWUZth6E

I have not used a Windows PC since 2000 so no help on that specific machine or a PC comparison

BUT gotta ask
Is switching to an Apple Mac Mini out of the question ? If not I would seriously consider the Mac Mini...
Because Starting @ $700 the M1 chip mini will run exponential circles around the intel i5.-i7 is said to out perform the i9 as well,,, performance wise for both audio and video applications . Given you can factory upgrade the SSD to 1 TB and still be just above $1k

And with Apples October Event happening tomorrow the 18th (if they announce an M1X chip set for the Mini ) the M1's may go on sale

If I had not purchased a new iMac last December I would getting a mac Mini

That's an excellent suggestion. Add an decent quality external SSD and you've got a much more powerful computer than any PC of equivalent cost.
Of course, there's a learning curve in moving to a Mac, but that's not impossible to manage and is just a matter of getting used to things being done a bit differently.

I have to agree with these folks. Apple’s new M1 (and likely new reiteration due in today’s announcement) are extremely efficient chips that are going to stand out for long term use.

In general, Apple computers are more expensive initially, but they last so long their cost is more than recouped. I expect these M1 machines will be exactly the same, if not even more durable for the long haul.

(Also, the only thing tricky about Mac versus PC is they are more intuitive and more often than not, when you get hung up trying to do something it’s because you’re overthinking, in pc user mode…when it’s almost always so much simpler on a Mac. My two pennies… )

Lots of RAM and big SSD, but that processor speed seems a little slow. (2.9G)

What's a good speed Mike?

3.2G - 3.4G seems to be the norm these days.

Ok, thanks Mike.

For recording and mixing I wouldn't worry about your candidate's CPU myself. 10th Gen I5, 6 cores/12 threads. Measuring CPUs by their speed alone is somewhat outdated. Recording isn't very CPU intensive at all, mixing with lots of plugins can start to need some CPU power, but my old (2600K, that's old) 4 core/8 thread I7 is still chugging along fine for mixing and mastering with my plugins. Recording with lots of realtime effects and or virtual instruments is another matter, but just a 10% raw cpu speed difference isn't likely to be critical.

You say you're looking for dual displays, looking at that HP's spec sheet I'm not encouraged by what I see. One HDMI one VGA. You can run dual displays on that, but VGA is going to limit resolution to HD tops. That may be what your current monitor is, but in the service life of one of my PCs I'd wonder about what I'll be connecting to it down the line. There's one USB C which can be used with a adapter for display, but you might want that down the line for something too.

12 megs RAM is OK, nothing to write home about. It'll take up to 32 (good, probably easy to upgrade) Oddly it's two slots are filled with an 8 and a 4 gig DIMM. A minor quibble. in any upgrade you're likely to "throw out" the 4 gig DIMM and maybe the 8 too. Upgrading or replacing hard drives would probably be easy too, but 1 TB is still a goodly amount for audio work.

On Mac vs Windows. How many decades have I been sitting on the sidelines there cheering and booing both sides!

I record on Mac, mix and master on Windows. This may be based on what I 'grew up with" and accumulated familiarity with. Most other "objective" preferences have elements of this. Apple pricing, limited product choices, and increasingly limited ability to do incremental upgrades or repairs are not ideal. At this century has rolled on, I also I've often seen intervals when Apple has shown lax concern with its conventional computer line.

However, right now, there is real, objective, interest and applause for Apple Silicon, Apple's own proprietary chips that may be a real advance for those things needing longer battery life and or greater performance. As far as recording audio goes those are not my biggest concerns/needs, but there are many users out there where those two things are very important.

For what little I know for a quick search Reaper works on Apple Silicon. Plug ins may be hit and miss, even now.

I won't steer you either way. I myself came to a fork in the road and took it with Macs and Windows. I have the last generation Intel Mac Mini for sometimes heavily VI dependent VIs. After a few frustrating but non-critical bugs in the first year or so after it came out, it's been great for me. I have an ancient Mac Mini in my studio running ProTools used for pure recording of instruments in the room. I've gotten good service out of it. My Windows PC, where I do all my mixing and mastering is just as old as that old Mac Mini.

My only thought on that processor speed was that it may be an older model with that speed.
My current recording PC is 3.0, with 8G RAM, and I have no issues with mixing as many as 40 tracks at one time, but I will typically only have a couple of virtual instruments running - I will render the rest to audio after tracking. And I usually have 3-4 reverb tracks running (instruments, drums, lead vocals, backing vocals).

TBMan...late to this post, but for you and anyone else in the market for an audio production PC (or for anything else really), I highly recommend the used/refurbished Dell Optiplex machines off of Amazon.

They are business models and usually off lease and are AMAZING DEALS! I just picked up another myself: i5-6500, 3.2Ghz, 4-core, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, with a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro for $292.11 (including tax). Just add your wireless keyboard/mouse, monitor(s) of choice, and audio interface.

Plus, with Amazon Prime, they are "backed by the 90-day Amazon Renewed Guarantee." Hope this helps yall save some money!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082WKDP6F...roduct_details

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...AC_SL1366_.jpg

If you want to get in cheap, that will work for basic audio editing. But note that that processor is 6th generation; current Intel chips are at 11th gen, and are significantly faster. Personally, I'd rather spend a bit more to get a more recent system. Refurbished definitely saves you money either way, although I don't have any data on reliability of refurb computers.

Do note, that machines off lease have been used/abused for a good period of time before you receive it. We got a bunch of them donated for the school I work at (hey, couldn't beat free!) and a fair number met their demise with catastrophic hardware failures like power supply or disk failure. Many are still going strong, but YMMV.

And since lots of folks do video too, if you are making videos, go for latest gen, upper tier processors (i7, Ryzen 9) and at least 32GB RAM. I big HDD is also recommended for large video files, alongside an SSD for the system (e.g. 256GB SSD with 1TB HDD).

I bought an HP 12g memory, 3.7 AMD. $620, 512 ss drive plus I bought a 24" curved monitor so I'll be running dual monitors.

We use those as workstations at my office, but with the old fashioned hard drives. Good machines.

I picked up this one today, and I will be setting it up Christmas day:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-desk...?skuId=6477682