I cannot speak for Mac, as I’ve only used Windows all my years for computer use and music production use.
If you only need more storage space for FL Studio, you could just get a new hard drive or bigger SSD, and save a lot of money if your computer is still running fine.
If you’re experiencing heavy underruns (your computer can’t keep up), then upgrading to a new computer is your next option.
I did a computer build many years ago of my current music production computer.
In terms of performance, a desktop CPU will always perform much better than an equivalent laptop CPU (probably about 20-25% faster in real-world usage).
For music production, the most important thing is your CPU, as a video card is not used very often to help ease the load. There’s two main brands of CPUs on the Windows side: Intel and AMD.
I personally use Intel, which has been awesome for me. They also have the fastest single thread speed for CPUs, which is what you need for music production.
In terms of what model of CPU, it comes down to price you can afford, but most CPUs from Intel (even low-end ones) are double as powerful as my current music production computer CPU which is a i7-7700k.
As of today, Intel offers:
- i9-13900k (super powerful, expensive, and probably overkill)
- i7-13700k (probably the sweet spot, and you wouldn’t have to upgrade for years to come)
- i5-13600k (would be sufficient for todays standards)
- i5-13400 (would also be good for today, and more affordable)
- i3-13100 (can work for music production, but restricts yourself in the long-term.. you’d have to upgrade sooner, which costs more money than buying at least an i5 from today).
Here’s an awesome page to help you determine. You can look at the overall score, but search for Single Thread Rating.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5008vs4993vs4994vs5170vs2874/Intel-i5-13600K-vs-Intel-i5-13500-vs-Intel-i5-13400-vs-Intel-i3-13100-vs-Intel-i7-7700K
At the moment, computers are running pretty hot, and you need adequate cooling (CPU Cooler), so I’m personally waiting a little bit longer to see how computers play out to upgrade my personal music studio computer.
This is just the CPU we discussed here.
There’s a lot more to a computer, like what motherboard to buy for music production, how much ram for music production (at least 16GB), etc..
If you’re wondering should I buy a pre-built computer for music production, you are buying convenience.. you may get the nice CPU I mention above, but the components inside may be of lower quality than building a computer for music production with your own parts.
In short, if you just need more storage space, upgrade to a bigger hard drive!
Buying a new music production computer is not something you should rush into, as you want to buy a good one.. which will last you AT LEAST 5-7 YEARS.. which means you don’t have to transfer over files and set yourself on a new computer too often.
Your money goes further, as well as your time.
My current music computer I shared above was built in 2017, and is still running pretty strong, allowing me to create over 34 FL Studio Courses with beats that are pretty big in size with how many VSTs I can open.
Buying a computer is very complicated actually, it’s not just a simple “buy a computer at best buy”.
If you just need more space, I’d say that’s your easiest route for the time being.
Once you advance, and your computer can’t handle your projects, then it’s time to upgrade. 🙂
