What is best hardware for minimum latency, maximum performace ?

MACs are expensive PCs from the hardware perspective, but honestly Linux. But not really great support for it so moving on...

First thing to ask is whether you want an internal PCI interface which will probably be great for performance, or external for max flexibility.. Decide what bus you are wanting to opt for. From there you can narrow down your interfaces...

3 drives will be a better option. E.g. System drive (SSD 256GB is sufficient), Samples (audio content) drive (Hybrid 1-2GB is a good choice), Music Projects drive (1-2GB hybrid or regular HDD 7200rpm). From my experience this setup gives me the best performance despite outdated CPU. YMMV.
Focusrite Scarlett serves well as an audio interface. I bet there will be plenty recommendations on audio card, though.   

When I last checked a PCI card always gave slightly better latency than USB/Firewire, so I'd look there. Also, I'd suggest going with one of the guys who specialize in audio PC's rather than a Dell...http://www.studiocat.com or http://www.adkproaudio.com come to mind. They're both forum members and good folks to work with.
 
Dean

 RME, Lynx are two that still have products using the PCI bus.

I think your specs with Windows 10 will be a good system -  but consider the throughput of the entire system is important when you use terms like minimum and maximum.  i7 is meaningful, but theres a fairly large spread between low cost i7 and the fastest i7 CPU.  Same goes for RAM - theres a very wide spectrum for throughput, and latency. We don't know your track count for recording at the same time, nor your track count when mixing, or what other VST tools you might want to be using.  What are you trying to accomplish?
 
I agree with gustabo - the latest MOTU AVB line is rock solid - and a disclaimer of sorts - in my application.  I record with multiple MOTU's.  I decided that I would try using the entire home as the recording office for a while - and AVB makes this possible for me with my CAT5 home infrastructure.   Drums sound particularly good, recorded in my living room. This part of the hardware is equally important when in comes to those two words, minimum and maximum.  Latency is not an issue for performance monitoring when you let this part of the hardware do the heavy lifting. While I do not know about Apollo and RME or others that folks give accolades towards, I can't imagine that they don't have queue monitoring or unit linking in spades.  
 
Best regards,
 
Lance        

I have an EMU 1212m.. It cost a fraction of the price of big name audio interfaces and it is a kick ass audio interface with on board DSP that can be used as vst and has an internal zero latency mixer with reverb for tracking. It's big brother is the 1616m. Both PCI express based. The 1616m has a breakout box with qulity mic amps and muliple I/O, ASAT in and out along with monitoring knob and headphone output. It is funny how we rarely hear about the EMU series.. I had my 1212m for a number of years, it works flawlessly and sounds great 24 bit 192k... THis is not an add by the way, it is just good sense... It is just a kick ass system... 

The Emu cards were great when they were released.
I measured the 1820m's average noise-floor at -118dB
That's world-class territory... and extremely rare for a $500 unit.
Problem with getting one today is lack of up-to-date drivers.
Unfortunately, Creative let the product line die.
 
 

IF you look at a laptop, I would REALLY encourage you to look for one with 2 hard drives, and hopefully have the primary drive SSD, though you could always upgrade that independently pretty cheaply.
 
I DO agree though that you get far more bang for the buck with a desktop computer, than a laptop.
 
I hope you have a lot of fun with your new adventures with a nice shiny new super powerful computer.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 
 

Whatever Jim Roseberry says, listen!
I started out on a Dell and then bought one of Jim's systems a few years back and it has performed wonderfully.
It was like stepping up to the big leagues. Designed by a musician, for musicians.
I used an M-Audio FW410 and more recently the Roland Octacapture. Both performed exceptionally well with the system.
 
I can't say enough great things about Jim! 

+1 for anything Jim Roseberry says.  I had one of those 1212m cards that has no drivers now.
 
Aside: I've built all my own PCs for over 30 years, except one: an HP off the shelf of Best Buy.  Big mistake, as the power supply was undersized and there was no way to physically mount or connect additional hard drives (and it probably would have overloaded the power supply anyway).  Clearly they stripped down everything to the minimum cost for them and never expected anyone to open the case.  So, it was a good PC for my parents, but not for a DAW.  I don't know if the Dell that you are considering has such limitations, but please check it out.  If you build your own, it's going to be a lot easier to modify in the future.

+1 on Konrad's drive advice.

• For boot drive, SSD is nice (system boots faster, apps open faster).
• For projects/audio, go with a conventional HD.
• Disk-streaming sample libraries is where SSD really shines.  For heavy polyphony situations, you'll need multiple SSDs.  ie: We have a few clients who regularly need 2000 simultaneous voices of disk-streaming polyphony. Multiple SSDs is the only way to achieve this level of performance.  Note:  This is an extreme example... where the client is scoring for video games (doing huge orchestral mock-ups). 

 

Jim Roseberry
 
There's no DAW related benefit to using Xeon CPUs.
You'll pay significantly more... for a significantly slower clock speed. 

I plan to upgrade my PC  to the newest generation Intel CPU and I was thinking about getting Xeon Skylake when it'll be available. Xeons are in the same price range with i5. So besides prices and clock speed, is there any reason why Xeon can be a bad choice for a DAW and some video editing?