I've always built pcs instead of ordering them assembled. I therefore probably demand different things from my desktop then most.
In the dB department, I started with a very proper build case.
A Fractal design R4. Fractal Design. Padded door in the front , padded sides, for the ppl still using hds with moving parts, a seperate hd rack with every hd on rubber pads, 3 different speeds for the case fans to be able to set em on most quiet, build of thicker metal then most cases, big, so you can easily customize, rebuild, upgrade, etc.
For the first time in 2 decades, I didn't go for a hell of an expensive mobo. Got me a gigabyte board built on the h77 chipset. Now, for the ones building a production desktop,the on board video card is more then enough so you don't need to buy a graphic card. Also, for music production, you don't need a powerful graphic card at all. One of 40 bucks would do great, as long as you get a decent resolution out of it for the screens you wanna run.
I paired that with an I7 3770 that has 4 cores and transforms that into 8 multithreads, running at turbo speeds of 3.4mhz. The I7 comes with it's own integrated gpu, the hd4000, which is powerful enough for your music production software as well.
Then, for harddrives, I run ssds that at least get to speeds of 500 read/write. HDs are a big bottleneck to your system's speed if you still have those old harddisks. SSDs make a very big noticeable speed upgrade. So, now I'm runing an evo 840 250gb and a 120gb intel ssd from my old setup. I also have two 1tb drives, 7200rpm. Those are for data. 1 of the drives is to store the data, the other is to backup that data. Not in raid setup. Then I also backup my data to google drive once in a while. This assures me my data is safely backupped. If your data is not stored at 3 different places , it's not backed up.
Then to keep that data safe, I'm planning on running truecrypt and just encrypt all my drives. Then when you want to access the drives,you fill in the password once while running your session. Truecrypt passwords are virtually impossible to crack and it works way better then the alternatives like windows own bitlocker. Also, on the anti virus department, I am running avg, but that thing is so crap. You can check on the net what it let's pass through, it's scarry. So, gonna change that to f-secure, soon. There's a company that professionally test the security of anti virus software and you can find a list of what they let pass through and don't detect while it actually is a virus. Can't remember the exact website. If you are building a production desktop, you can also choose not to hook it up to the internet.
On the cpu i put a different coolblock, better coolpaste and a 120mm fan. 120mm fans have the advantage that they have to run at lower r.p.m. to get the same airflow as smaller fans, which means they're less noisy as well.
As psu, I also have a psu that can shut down it's fan if the temps are low enough, which also saves you some noise. I have the seasonic x750. That's a beast of psu. proper 500watt psus can outperform 1000wat crappy psus. Also, I love my psus to be modular. Saves you some cable clutter. Also , the cases of today, have the possibility to have all your cables run to the back so you have max airflow in your case.
Then for mem, I just grab 16gb of mem with low clock timings. 16gb because with all those vsts you run, or in my case reason with a shitload of instruments, can get your ram full. 16gb will enable you to run a lot!
Then I hook up my Echo Gina3g to it's pci-e card and hook up my krk 5 on their stands.
2 24 inch iiyama monitors, I do have a gtx 560 because i sometimes play games like battlefield 4, eve
Korg padkontrol, a500pro, remote zero sl, ewi, gmp8.300d, akg perception 120, sennheiser e608 to record my saxophone, a tascam us100 to hook up a technics turntable belt drive, just for sampling or listening to records
Oh , I also have an onkyo receiver with a 5 speaker setup, a centre speaker, two pillar front speakers with my tv in the middle, two normal speakers for the back speakers.
I think that's about it.
On a foot note, you can water cool or try to passively cool as much as possible if your pc is in the same room as where you record. Small fans of video cards can make a lot of noize, so that'd be the first, if all your other fans are 120mm. Also, your cpu fan, depending on the strain you put it under with producing. Mostly, you won't even hear the box cooler that the i series come with, i just like to upgrade to a better one with also a 120mm fan. You can passively cool your graphic card with the airflow in the case getting it cooled, or watercool it. Although, watercooling also requires a fan to cool the grille. Those can be 120mm again. Watercooling is fun, but to outperform a proper set up air cooling, you're gonna need to spend big bucks, otherwise it's just a waste of your time if you're not just doing it for the fun. Also, it comes with it's risks. You can also use the gpu from the motherboard, then you don't have a seperate fan cooling a gpu. As I mentioned, that integrated graphic card is more then enough to run your production stuff. It can also run HD movies, np.
