Almost every computer is made of the same basic set of parts – Motherboard, CPU, RAM (Memory), Storage, Power Supply, Graphics Card, Cooling System and a Case. These parts are standard, though they may have different styles/specs to perform differently. Like how an electric guitar will always have pickups, an output jack, a bridge, etc., but the way they function and are set up may be slightly different from model to model.

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With a computer, most parts are replaceable and upgradable. This is not typically true for laptops, especially Apple laptops, but for desktops it is – so understanding how the different parts are compatible with one another is very important when looking at replacing or upgrading any of the components. A good video to understand this if you’re interested is BitWit’s computer compatibility video on YouTube – here. Apple computers typically aren’t upgradable - so keep that in mind while going through this chapter or making a purchase. In 2025, it is getting more and more common for computers to have components soldered on to their board (Ex: “Integrated memory”) to improve performance, but with the cost of upgradability/repairability. Keep this in mind when researching your machine.

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Motherboard

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The Motherboard is the “neural pathway” of the computer. All other parts connect to this. As such, it should be one of the primary considerations when building your computer, as it will be the limiting factor as to what you can do with it.

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Alternate name(s): Logic Board (mac)

Common Form Factors: ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ATX

Compatibility: CPU, Graphics Card, Power Supply, Storage, RAM, CPU Cooler, Case

Common Brands: Asus, MSI

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The motherboard is prone to ESD (electro-static discharge). Take care when handling a motherboard, and consider wearing an anti-static wrist strap to ground you while working on anything related to the motherboard. This will help prevent potentially damaging your motherboard, in a way that is often not covered by your warranty.

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Motherboards have deep naming conventions that can be quite overwhelming at first. However, here are a few videos that can help.

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AMD and Intel Chipset Names Explained​

Explaining Motherboard Chipsets

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What is a BIOS?

 

Motherboards usually come with their own built in software known as a “BIOS” or “Basic input/output system.” The BIOS is the first software to load when you power on a computer and can be thought of as a sort of middleman between the operating system and the hardware it runs on.

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Inside the BIOS, you can adjust hardware on a much deeper level than in an OS and enable options such as overclocking, setting memory speed, enable/disable RAID, change the boot drives, fan speeds, and more.

The BIOS can be an incredibly powerful tool to be familiar with in terms of optimization of your system, and I encourage you to check your motherboards manual to see find out how to access it (typically pressing a specific key on startup such as “delete” or a function key.)

 

CPU

 

The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is essentially the “brain” of the computer. This is where all the data gets manipulated and managed. All of the data that a computer needs to run gets calculated and is performed herein. CPU’s traditionally also get very hot and can potentially burn out if cooling is insufficient. CPU’s are typically where non-sample based synths and any sort of processing/effect plugins are utilized within your computer, as well as the actual running of your DAW and/or notation programs. If you are running sample modeled instruments, a powerful CPU is essential for the best performance.

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Alternate name(s): Processor

Physical Considerations: Chipsets, Core count, speed

Compatibility: Motherboard, Power Supply, Cooling

Common Brands: Intel, AMD

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CPU’s will often be described as having a certain amount of cores as well as a speed. A good way to understand the difference between these is think of a worker at a desk with a stack of tasks. The clock speed is how fast the worker can get through the stack, the amount of cores is how many people you have working at desks. For music production, typically faster clock speed is preferred - it will help reduce latency and since music needs to be as “real time” as possible, a faster clock speed will help maintain that. The benefit to having more cores is you can typically load more plugins/run more programs simultaneously. So consider your typical use case when figuring out which CPU is best for your needs. Here is a very informative video demonstrating CPU performance with a DAW.

CPUs can also potentially contain “on board graphics” which mean you may not necessarily need to purchase a graphics card (though doing so will likely give you much better visual performance).

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CPU’s are very fragile and should be handled with the utmost care. The underside of a CPU often has many tiny pins. If a single one of these pins gets broken or bent, it can be very hard or impossible to fix as well as being expensive to replace.

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Overclocking a CPU

When you overclock a CPU, you are boosting it’s clock speed above what it is designated as by the factory. So think of the desk worker from the analogy above. We give him some caffeine and he can go through his stack even faster than normal, but too much caffeine and he suffers serious issues. So overclocking can lead to improved performance, but if you were unsure as to what exactly you are doing I would advise against it. Overclocking your CPU boosts its temperature, and if your system cooling is sub-par or if you boost the voltages going into the CPU too high, you risk instability and/or frying your system. Another side effect of overclocking is your cooling fans may be louder as they are working harder to cool the CPU, which is just another thing to consider if you are considering overclocking a PC in your studio. Overclocking can usually be done inside the BIOS (if your chip supports it).

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Graphics Card

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A graphics card is the “visual processor” of the computer. It is similar to the part of the brain that interprets the visual data from your eyeballs, and outputs an image that we can see and understand. It interprets and outputs the visual data from your computer. The full unit is typically what we refer to as a graphics card. If you were to open it up, it often has its own board with a chip on it. The chip that processes graphics on the graphics card is the GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit.

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Alternate name(s): GPU (often referred to as, though technically incorrect)

Physical Considerations: GPU series, VRAM amount, Cooling method, Physical Size

Compatibility: Motherboard, Power Supply, Case

Common Brands: NVidia, AMD, Intel

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Earlier it was mentioned that some CPUs have built in graphics capability, even if yours does, a graphics card may be beneficial if you are working with video games, video editing/rendering, or any visual heavy medium such as 4k footage. Also some plugins, such as Izotope’s or anything that is reactive and/or heavily visual, can surprisingly require more graphics processing power than one might think. Though, you likely don’t need a powerful one unless you plan to do work in VR or Games. That being said, if you DO purchase a graphics card make sure that when you connect your display that you use the output on the graphics card and not the one built into the motherboard - a very common mistake for first time builders.

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In the world of graphics cards, Intel Arc is the new player on the block. With that, there comes a slight risk but knowing intel’s reputation as a brand these are worth keeping an eye on.

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External GPU’s (eGPU’s)

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In 2025, computers are so fast and powerful (thanks thunderbolt 3!) that external GPU’s are becoming more and more of viable as options. External GPU’s are graphics cards that run outside of your machines case, similar to external hard drives. These can be a great way to “upgrade” your device if you find your graphics card is a bottle neck without needing to do a full replacement (if your graphics card can not be physically replaced or upgraded for whatever reason, such as on a laptop) but it is important to note that this is entirely dependent upon the speed of your ports. This was not possible on older machines, and it’s typically recommend thunderbolt 3/USB-C with 40 gigabits per second transfer rate)

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Power Supply

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The Power Supply Unit (PSU, or Power Supply for short) supplies electricity to all of your components.

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Alternate name(s): PSU, Power Supply Unit, Power

Physical Considerations: Wattage – Peak and continuous, Efficiency

Common Form Factors: size: AT/ATX/ATX12V/SFF

Format: Hard-wired, modular, hybrid

Connectors: PCIE connectors – 8, 6, 6+2

Compatibility: Motherboard, Graphics Card, Case

Common Brands: Seagate, Corsair

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The power supply, though not “sexy”, is one of the most important parts of your build. Getting a good power supply can help protect your system from instability, crashes or resets that can be hard to diagnose, improve efficiency of the electricity used (for a greener build and cheaper monthly electric bill), and keep fan noise down. PSUs also tend to retain their value and (if you have enough wattage and the compatibility is correct) can even be reused if you upgrade your system to more powerful and power-hungry parts in the future.

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With the power supply, the primary consideration will be what wattage you need to run your system. Typically, it is advised to get at least 100w greater than you think you need (you can use PCPartPicker.com to help calculate that for you), but even more if you plan on overclocking anything. Getting a power supply with more wattage than you need not only helps maintain stability, but can reduce fan noise and heat generated due to power consumption being a lower percentage of the total capable load.

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When looking at power supplies, be sure to consider peak vs. continuous wattage. You will usually want to put greater emphasis on continuous wattage, as that is what it will run at most often. Peak wattage is what it is capable of when a component of the build has a quick spike, such as a graphics card when you initially boot up a graphics heavy game, that will not sustain over a long period of time.

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You will often see little graphics on the advertisement or boxes of PSUs designating it as “80+ certified”. This is an efficiency rating, and 80+ are the most efficient ones on the market. A power supply works by converting the AC power of your home outlets into a DC current your system can use. In this conversion process, some of the energy is lost. Getting a more efficient PSU will help reduce heat and fan noise, as well as being a greener option and reducing your monthly electric build. You will see ratings such as 80+, 80+ bronze, 80+silver, 80+gold, 80+platinum, and 80+titanium. This list is ranked least efficient to most efficient of the 80+ certifications (Not the least efficient possible. Again 80+ is the most efficient it can be and 80+ bronze is a perfectly valid and useable PSU).

The other major consideration is the connectors on the PSU. You may find a hard wired PSU that has all of the connection cables built in, a modular PSU which has a collection of cables you can choose to use or not use (great choice for a clean and efficient build!) or a hybrid of the two with some cables, such as the 24-pin, hardwired and the additional cables modular. Regardless, make sure your PSU has the correct pin type and amount for your graphics card, be it 8pin or 6pin. Some PSUs have a 6+2 pin power cable that provides you with the option of either a 6 or an 8-pin card. Graphics cards can require 2x 8 or 2x 6 pin (rather than just one 6 or 8 pin), so just make sure to verify your specs line up.

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Though the power cables of a modular PSU may look exactly the same as other power cables of another modular PSU, they are NOT compatible, swappable, or interchangeable. ONLY use the power cables that came included with your power supply.

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Storage (Disk)

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Storage (oftentimes incorrectly referred to as memory) is the “long term memory” on your computer. This is where the Operating System, as well as any files are stored and saved. Anything you are not actively using (like old photos, videos, or games that are not running) are kept in storage. When you are not running a session, it will typically be saved in storage as well. After RAM, storage is the second most common upgrade composers make, often swapping HDDs for SSDs to increase speed and performance.

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Alternate name(s): Drive, Disk,

Common Form Factors: There are many form factors for storage - which will be explained below. Generally the three main kinds are: Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), Solid State Drives (SSDs), and Hybrid Solid State Drives (HSSDs)

Compatibility: Case, Motherboard, Power Supply

Common Brands: Seagate, WD, Samsung

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If you are experiencing a slow computer on one that used to be fast, it is likely your computer’s storage is nearing capacity. You can resolve this by adding an additional drive or removing data (and possibly storing on an external drive)

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Drive Form Factors in Depth:

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Storage can be internal or external. Internal storage is housed within the case of your computer. Both internal and external come in the same 3 forms listed above. However, external storage can be slower than some forms of internal. The connection (SATA, Thunderbolt, etc) and the form factor will be determining that. Many people typically (and incorrectly) assume an SSD is the best option for all things as it is the fastest, however, understanding the different types of drives can help you make an informed decision and not waste money on things you don’t necessarily need.

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Hard Disk Drives are composed of a spinning disk that physically stores the data. These are typically slower than SSDs, but also cheaper. HDDs are great for long term storage of items such as photos, videos, documents and personal data. HDDs also contain moving parts, and are more likely to break or fail over time. HDDs are typically housed in drive bays inside the computer case. When choosing an HDD, make sure to consider its speed. Speed is labeled by it’s RPM (revolutions per minute). A high er read speed will be a faster drive. For loading samples and sessions, a speed of at least 7200rpm is essential. For long-term storage, a slower speed will do.

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Solid State Drives come in three forms (internally). They can be a 1.8 inch or 2.5 inch thick SATA drive, which transfers data to the motherboard over SATA cables. The third form factor is an M.2 drive. M.2’s can be SATA or NVMe (Non-volatile Memory), and they are plugged directly into the motherboard via a pre-designated M.2 drive, or an PCIe expansion card. NVMe is (in the year 2021) about 6x faster than SATA, and if your motherboard does not natively support it, you may be able to incorporate M.2 NVMe drives via a PCIe expansion card.

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An M.2 NVMe SSD is the fastest drive currently. This is the best place to store anything that needs to be accessed quickly, like your operating system or your sample libraries. SSDs however, due to their expensiveness, are not the best option for longterm storage. They are much more expensive than HDDs, and have a limited number of write cycles that can be performed before it starts to degrade. This means that storing samples on it is a good idea, but constantly writing new data and erasing it (like backups to an SSD) are less optimal.

Externally, SSDs are less varied. There is not much of an external standard for SSDs, however. They difference between external SSDs is oftentimes how they connect to the internals of the computer.

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💡Some people build their own external SSD’s and save a few dollars by buying a chassis for an M.2 SSD. I would not recommend this, as the cost to performance ratio is not much different than buying a standard “off the shelf” external SSD.   However, if for example your laptop dies - this is typically an easy way to be able to access all of your data for a fraction of the cost that a repair center would charge you.

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Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD) have a small amount of SSD storage on them, with the bulk portion of the drive behind HDD. Typically these are used in budget builds to have a speedy OS boot up, with cheap HDD storage capacity. There is also a great benefit to hybrid drives being that it is one drive as opposed to multiple - so in the context of an older laptop that has a removable hard drive, this may be agood replacement to help speed up boot times.

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If you are building a computer for music production, many users also have a combination of HDDs and SSDs - you don’t need to just stick with one, and choosing your storage drives based on your needs may better than just going with an SSD by default.

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With any of these, failure is inevitable. A good back up system is essential to preventing any data loss. I will be looking at this soon in an upcoming post.

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💡HDD’s are the main reason we have “reset” buttons on our cases. If the computer freezes up or if there is a technical problem, the reset button restarts the computer without cutting power to the hard drives. This can help extend the life of the drives as well as prevent against data loss/corruption.

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💡If using drives in a server or NAS configuration, make sure to consider buying server grade gear. This is discussed further in the server gear section, but essentially all those spinning disks sitting next to each other requires them to be a higher quality to prevent physical wear and tear on the drives.

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Memory (RAM)

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Random Access Memory, (RAM/Memory for short) is similar to the “working memory” of your mind. This is where active information is stored. It is like a giant white board, which only has a limited amount of space to work on. When composing, typically the initial portion of your samples are stored here. Upgrading your RAM is one of the most common and easy upgrades you can do to increase your computer’s capability.

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Alternate name(s): Memory

Physical Considerations: Size (amount of GB), Processing Speed (in MGhz) and DDR Generation (3/4/5)

Compatibility: Motherboard, CPU Cooler* (The Physical height of your RAM may cause issues with your CPU cooler’s fan)

Common Brands: Corsair, Crucial

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RAM is where composers’ computers most often tend to differentiate from standard/gaming computers. A standard or gaming computer may get by fine with 8 or 16 gigs of RAM. A composer may be need 256gb on computer, and may be running multiple computers connected together to increase the amount of RAM they have access to. This is really a niche thing in the computer industry, most non-composer computer users will assume this is incredibly overkill for their builds.

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💡What is “Integrated Memory”

In 2020, Apple came out with their M1 series machines. A common term you will hear when reading about them is “integrated memory”. This is a hardware architecture where the RAM is directly built into the CPU and they cannot be separated. This can be an absolute powerhouse in terms of performance, but you get locked into what you buy at the point of purchase, and can not be upgraded in the future.

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Ram Speed, XMP and Multi Channel/Placement

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RAM’s speed is measured in gigahertz. The higher the gigahertz, the faster the RAM is. However, it is important to make sure your MOBO is capable of the faster RAM, and if you do buy faster RAM kits, make sure to enable XMP in the BIOs, otherwise you may not be getting the full speed you paid for.

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Another consideration when installing RAM is if your motherboard is dual or quad channel. Similar to the amount of CPU Cores, this is about bandwidth. More channels typically means higher bandwidth - think of it like traffic. A busy highway with two lanes of traffic will move slower than the same highway with four. If you are filling all of your motherboard’s DRAM slots, this is less of an issue. But if you are only using some of them, make sure you are installing them in the motherboard’s specified order. This is because if the MoBo is dual or quad channel, installing the RAM across 2-4 different channels grants it greater bandwidth than just utilizing a single channel, which will grant you additional speed.

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Lastly, be sure your motherboard supports your RAM at the speed you intend to run it. My motherboard for example supports 256 gb of RAM but not

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Case

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The case is the physical box that holds all of your components in place. Everything attaches inside of the case, and the case determines how much physical space is actually taken up by the unit itself.

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Alternate name(s): Chasis, housing,

Physical Considerations: Graphics card dimensions, Cooling, Drive Bays, Cable Management, Front Panel Connectors

Common Form Factors: Full Tower, Mid Tower, Mini Tower, mini-ITX

Compatibility: MoBo, Storage, GPU, Cooling

Common Brands:

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The case is by far the component of your build with the most options to chose from. Outside of the “required” compatibility specs for your build, there are many aesthetic choices and extra features that you may run into such as built in RGB lighting, glass side panels, hot swappable hard drive bays, a “tool-less” design (being able to access and perform maintenance without the need of tools), colors, shapes, etc. For the most part however, the case is easily the most “universal” of the components of your build.

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Though cases are standardized in terms of compatibility, the main thing to be aware of is its size. You want to make sure the case you get is compatible with the motherboard size you chose. From there, you also want to make sure the cooling solution you chose fits in the case (CPU fan height), as well as the graphics card (length). A larger, more spacious case also has the added benefit of providing more physical space to work in when wiring everything up, but this is not a necessity – just something that can be helpful for first time builders.

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Other things to look at in case choices (outside of aesthetics) include how many drive bays are included. Depending on the case they may be hot swappable and/or provide the ability to add more drive bays should you need to expand. Some cases have better cable management options than others – this will help make and maintain a clean looking build, but will also make it much easier to make repairs and upgrades in the future. In addition, depending on how many fans you plan to run you may or may not need a larger case. Lastly, look at what kind of front panel connectors your case contains and if that is enough to suit your needs. Front panel connectors make it easier to access often-used ports such as USB or a headphone jack.

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💡If your case has more USB connectors than your motherboard has headings, don’t sweat. You can get an internal USB hub that can provide additional headers. Just be aware that there are active and passive hubs, and some bus-powered devices may not work without an active hub due to the amount of power it requires

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Cooling

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Cooling is used as a “catch all” term here for your CPU cooling and system fans. These work in conjunction with one another to maintain a stable system temperature and make sure nothing overheats.

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Alternate name(s): CPU Cooler, Fans

Physical Considerations: Physical Dimensions, RPM, “Power”, Fan Profiles

Common Form Factors: Air, Water (hard line/soft line)

Compatibility: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Case, PSU

Common Brands: Noctua, Corsair,

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Cpu cooling:

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The CPU is one of the most important things to keep cool – as it also is the component that gets the hottest. A CPU cooler attaches directly to the CPU (with a little bit of thermal paste which helps heat transfer) and is usually either a large fan or a block that contains flowing water running through it.

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If it is a vessel with water flowing through it, it is considered to be “water-cooled”. Water cooling can be an all in one device, which will contain a water block that comes attached to a radiator that you mount to the case (with fans attached to that), or it can be a complex system where you buy all the components separately and route the water through various components of your case (such as water cooling both your graphics card and your CPU). Water cooling, even just an AIO water cooler, can be beneficial in the studio as it is traditionally quieter than a fan-based cooler.

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Regardless of if you are water-cooling your system or not, the general concept of cooling is the heat from the CPU gets carried to a radiator. In a computer, the radiator is a bunch of thin tubes within an enclosure that the water runs through and in which fans are attached. The fans push/pull air through, cooling the water before it returns to the CPU to take more heat. In an air cooled system, there is no water, but the radiator is attached directly to the CPU with heatsinks to transfer the heat to the Radiators come in various lengths and thicknesses, but in general the larger the capacity (longer length, larger thickness) the “better” the performance - though mileage may vary according to other factors.

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Case Fans:

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Even with a CPU cooler, be it a large air pushing fan or a water cooled system, case fans are essential as they provide additional air to the system. Fans can be attached to the radiators in a water cooled system, or directly to the case in an air cooled one. These fans will provide additional cool airflow over the rest of your build, such as your graphics cards and RAM, in addition to removing hot air and pulling in cool air for your CPU.

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💡Be sure to check the orientation of your fans when you are installing them. Depending on which direction you mount it, the fans may be pulling in air or pushing it out. Generally, you want to have a balance of in and out (in from bottom right of motherboard and out towards top left) to insure optimized performance. There are some specific situations where you would intentionally want either a positive or negative airflow, but that is beyond the scope of this manual.

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Purchasing fans for your build can be a little confusing, and to the unaware, they can get quite deep. Many first time builders default to just getting whatever is cheap or looks cool, but there are some specs and terms to be aware of that can optimize your build. But what’s nice about fans is they are super easy to swap out and upgrade, and oftentimes are only limited by the available space in your system, rather than “generational” compatibility issues. Remembering that air is considered a fluid can help you visualize which each of these specs do and why they are important. Ultimately, the idea is to push as much cool air through your system and hot air out, at as quiet a volume as possible, so maximum power is not necessarily the best option as that can produce more noise. If you are housing your computer in a separate server room than your composing, this is less of a problem.

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Diameter – the 2 most common fan sizes are 120mm and 140mm but there exists larger and smaller variations as well. Larger diameters = bigger fans = more airflow, but you want to make sure you are not constrained by the size of your case and/or GPU when selecting a size. This will also affect the distance between screw holes.

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Thickness – Usually measured in mm, fan thickness

RPM – RPM or revolutions per minute how many times the fan completes a full cycle per 60 seconds, aka how fast the fan can go

Airflow – Airflow is usually measured in CFM, or cubic feet per minute. The higher the number, the more air is pushed through the fan.

Regardless of which method you use to cool yourself, be sure to utilize and clean out your case’s dust filters every so often. More dust build up increases CPU temps which affects performance as well as increases the general noise level of the system.

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OS (Operating System)

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The Operating System (OS) is a collection of software that manages hardware resources.

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Alternate name(s): OS, Operating System, Distro (Linux only)

Compatibility: CPU, RAM, Storage, Graphics Card

Common OS’s: Windows, MacOS, Linux*

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For the most part, Windows and Linux are compatible with “most” hardware. Instead of being a physical restraint like previous components of the build, these operating systems have minimum performance requirements that most of the parts you will buy in “current year” will meet (ex, 32gb of storage, 1gb RAM and 1 ghz CPU for windows).

To build a computer with MacOS rather than buying is a little trickier. There is a very select group of hardware that it will run on. If you are interested in this, look up “Hackintosh” builds (hackintosh is what one calls a home-built mac computer). If you really want to get it right, make sure to follow along with what is known as a “golden build”: these are hackintoshes that generally are considered to work flawlessly as a regular mac computer with no known performance issues.

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If you haven’t heard of Linux before, it is an open source operating system. It can be incredibly customizable and light on system resources. One of the best uses for Linux (at least in my opinion) is installing it on older computers with outdated hardware to give it a longer life due to the lower amount of resources some Linux distros (like a version) need to operate.

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💡Linux is technically not an “OS” but for the sake of this discussion we will consider it so (more on this later)

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Expansion Cards

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Expansion cards plug into your motherboard’s PCIe slots, granting additional hardware resources to your computer. Your graphics card is technically an expansion card, but you can have expansion cards granting you extra ports, be a capture card, an audio interface, etc.

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Alternate name(s): Peripheral Component Interconnect express (PCIe) cards,

Physical Considerations: Physical dimensions, case slots,

Compatibility: Generation, Lanes, and other specs depending on the card

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PCIe cards have a set amount of lanes required to run, designated as x1, x4, x8, or x16. This is the amount of bandwidth required to send and transmit the data from the card. Each lane has 2 wires: one that sends data and one that receives it. So think of it like a highway – the more lanes, the more data that can be sent/received simultaneously (aka bandwidth). Also, more lanes require more physical space, so oftentimes motherboards will have a combination of different PCIe slots. You can put a “smaller” PCIe card in a larger slot, but the reverse is not true. So a x4 card can fit in a x4, x8, or x16 slot, but an x16 card can only use an x16 slot.

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Some useful PCIe cards in the music studio are ones that add additional ports, such as more USB ports, grant new ports not previously available on your system (such as introducing USB-C ports to your set up), 10 gig Ethernet, a graphics card, connections for additional NVMe SSDs, etc.

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From a less “Pure hardware” based point of view, other useful cards include cards such as Universal Audio’s Audio Accelerator which allows you to run UAD’s DSP plugins on this card, or RME’s PCIe audio interface which allows you to interface with MADI equipped devices. There are tons of potential options and new things are always coming out, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the potential of PCIe.

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Peripherals

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Peripherals are extra components you attach to the computer to give it additional features. Typically, these are input devices (such as a mouse or keyboard) or output devices (such as a monitor or a printer). Generally, unless you are a specialist with something really particular, you don’t need to worry too much about these (i.e. a mechanical keyboard won’t make much of a difference in a music studio over a membrane keyboard). However, some things like USB hubs can absolutely affect how you work, so understanding the options is important.

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With a USB hub, there are 2 main kinds: active and passive. A passive USB hub just plugs into your computer and whatever power is sent over that port is used to power anything you plug into the hub as well. So things that require less power such as an iLok or a keyboard can be fine over a passive hub. An active hub requires an additional power plug to provide full power to all of its ports. Some midi keyboards will not work in a passive USB hub due to the amount of power they require. Another example is external storage drives – if you have multiple large drives being powered from a passive hub, you may experience interruptions and/or they may not even connect because they don’t have enough power.

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As a rule of thumb, anything that requires significant amount of power to operate should be used either directly into the computer or with an active hub. Reserve passive hubs for less resource heavy items such as a mouse, keyboard, or licensing devices.

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💡Most peripherals you connect to your computer work instantly without having to install additional software, sometimes this is not the case. Drivers are specialized pieces of software that translates data between your hardware and your operating system. Drivers tell your operating system how to access and utilize the hardware you’ve installed in your system. Operating systems typically have a huge library of drivers pre-installed that allow you to plug in almost anything and it will work. If you are having issues connecting a new device to your computer, a possible solution may be to download or update the driver for it. I’ve seen this happen most often with midi controllers - and you can usually find their drivers on the manufacturer’s website

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Some peripherals come with extra features that can be useful for a film composer: Ex: sniper mode on mouse, scrolling help, macro keys, etc. Trackball mouses for example might have a programmable hot key that can be set differently for each daw, and some composers may use a program like auto-hot key or keyboard maestro in addition to a secondary keyboard designated just for this purpose to create macros.

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Example build formats

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There are 2 main ways to set up a scoring rig: An all-in-one workstation or a workstation + server.

An all-in-one setup is exactly as it sounds: Picture, samples, the session, and anything else that is needed to write your music is all housed inside of one computer. Traditionally, these types of setups were rarer, but have become much more common in recent times thanks to more powerful computers and improvements in hardware architecture (like the M series macs for example). Benefits of this approach include everything is all in one machine, which means there are less fail points, but you can max out your resources faster.

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A workstation and server set up is two or more separate computers. The workstation is where the composing (or “Work”) takes place, and the server houses your sample libraries and/or other data that is needed to write, work, or whatever. You can have dedicated servers which are designed and optimized specifically for one purpose and only used for that, or non-dedicated servers that serve that secondary function, but also others in addition to that. For example, a game composer may have a secondary computer that is “totally beefin’” for his VEP sessions, but also acts as a gaming machine to catch up with the latest games. With this sort of set up, you theoretically can continually add additional resources, but the more computers you add the more points of failure exist. An additional benefit of this approach however, is you can have a mac for your workstation and a windows machine on your server, allowing you access to both operating systems in case you should ever need to use one or the other for different purposes (again, working in games this can be very useful).