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We will get into the PC aspect of hardware first. Below are requirements we feel are necessary for flawless, skipless recording on the home PC.
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Processor - Get as close to the current fastest CPU possible. Intel and AMD will be much different as far as performance vs Ghz. For example I have an AMD 900Mhz processor that beats the crap out of a P4 1.6Ghz, after much testing, I have decided that AMD makes the better product, and they are much cheaper since you are not paying for that "Intel" name. Therefore, all my PC's run AMD processor ranging from the XP 1800+ to the Quad Cores.
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RAM - At least 2GB but preferable more, 4GB of RAM is Windows XP's capacity and is what I recommend. I have had terrible luck with Corsair, but great performance from Kingston or Crucial.
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Board - Make sure your motherboard supports the bus speeds of your cpu and ram. A lot of companies like Dell and Gateway sell you a computer that claims certain FSB (Front Side Bus) speeds, but I think there is some trickery going on there. Even my 400Mhz FSB PCs outperform any major brand name pc I have ever used. I build all my own computers and buy all my parts at Tiger Direct. I have a contact person there who would love to help out as many of you as possible, The number to call to get him directly is 1-888-232-8064, tell him Eric VanLandingham sent you and he'll treat you well.
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Hard drive - Obviously a 10GB drive won't cut it in this scenario, so get a 500GB drive, or better yet a couple of them and create a SATA300 RAID pair if you have the know how. Make sure the drives seek time is as low as you can find and also make sure it's rpm is 7200 or above. I prefer Maxtor drives.
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Try to use SATA RAID 1, this way you never lose your data, even if one of the drives fails.
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If not recording multiple tracks at once, then any soundcard is pretty much fine. As long as it has an input then you are good. But if you need to do some multitracking with simultaneous track recording, you will need a card to handle multiple inputs. I have purchased and use the M-Audio Delta 1010LT along side two Presonus Firepods, all three boast 10 in and 10 out, perfect for home or professional studio recording.If you want to go the USB interface route which for now gives you only two inputs, there are tons of them available at Zzounds.
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Good speaker system, you NEED a good speaker system for you pc WITH a subwoofer. How else will you mix down to a great sound that will work on other high quality systems? No 2 speaker cheapies in this world. If you have a LCD monitor with built in 1/2" tweaties,unplug them and get some real speakers.
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Decent but not high dollar video card, no 3D gaming happening here, but you also don't want your PC to lock up when dragging a pattern across the screen in Beatcraft. I have a 128MB ATI in my studio pc that barely cuts it. I have always been an NVIDIA guy, but thought I'd try ATI again to see if they have improved. Well, not so much.
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Stay away from wireless mouse/keyboards on a recording pc, they can create noise in your recordings.
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Use startup Control Panel to make sure nothing major is running in the background taking up large amounts of your CPU and RAM.
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NO LAPTOPS! So many people think they are going to produce the next big selling CD with a USB interface and a laptop, it just ain't gonna happen people, if you want studio results you need to do things right. Laptops are fine for recording live performances which take only a couple or a few channels of input, but that's it. If you invite me to your recording studio to lay down some tracks and you introduce me to your bad ass studio laptop, I will be leaving.
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