For 300 bucks? That's really cutting it short.
Tbh, a lot of ppl go over the top on specs, but those usually give you benefits.
Faster CPUs for faster calculations,everything will run faster and less wait times.
SSDs over moving parts disks, faster load, access , read and write times. Makes programs and your OS run faster.
More ram, will make you able to load more of your vsts , instruments, into the ram instead of hitting your max ram value. Which will result in slowness as well.
CPU, Harddisk, Ram is a bit the important parts. Then you need a motherboard to plug those in. You want a motherboard that runs that stuff smoothly, instead of always giving you problems.
A psu , to power all that stuff, a case, fans to cool that stuff, monitor, keyboard, mouse.
Minimum that you could spend on new stuff (which I absolutely wouldn't go for):
CPU: 70 to 100 bucks
Harddisk: 40 bucks
Ram: 40 to 50 bucks
PSU: 40 bucks
Motherboard: 70 bucks
Case: 25 bucks
Using the standard cool block and fans if you buy a cpu that includes them would save you some bucks, having a case with fans does too.
Downsides:
Small fans make noise. Cheap cases are crap, fall apart, make more noise, makes building your pc more of a hassle. Cheap CPU =slower. Cheap motherboards have a risk of giving your problems (research em. You can get decent mobos for 70 bucks nowadays. You need one with a graphical output if you're not gonna buy a graphical card. Which will save you money. Otherwise, you'll have a graphic card for 40 bucks). Harddisk, get a 7200 rpm disk at least. PSU, check if it can handle the watt requirement of all the products in there. There's handy websites that calculate that. If you go this cheap on a PSU, get more Wattage.
As you see, your 300 bucks is way on the low side. Might be worth checking into second hand. Maybe from a reseller that'll also give you a guarantee.
Also, this is the most basic stuff, you might want a midi keyboard, A/I and monitor speakers with this.
If you know what you're doing, if you know what stuff to avoid and where not to cut short and where you can easily cut short, you can get yourself a pc for 300 bucks. Monitor probably not included.
I just don't have the patience anymore for the lower end stuff. But I'm spoiled. If your on a budget and you want to make music with the bare minimum, you could do this.
