Separate Audio Hard Drive: If you can afford it a drive reserved just for audio will make things much easier on you. Only audio files are to be stored on this second drive.

Keep Your Drives Clean: Keep the junk off of your hard drive. Any excess programs will slow your system resources that could be used for things like plug ins and more tracks. Check your task bar and see what programs are running in the background such as your anti-virus or messenger service.

Minimize: Turn off as many things as you can although make sure you are not connected to the Internet when disabling your anti-virus.

Back Up: Always back your computer up on a regular basis. Make this a habit like clockwork or else your hard drive will crash at the worst time possible. Don't ask me how I know this.

Defrag: Defragging your computer once a week will speed everything up. Your files tend to get jumbled up when stored on your hard drive and defragging tends to sort things out for you.

Format: I like to format my hard drives a least once a year although I probably do so a couple times a year. Things slow down as time goes by and formatting is on e of the best speed recovers I have found. A new clean drive always seems to speed up a lot.

Number Of Plugins: Plugins are one of the most taxing things you can do to your computer. When you are recording always use as few as possible turning off anything that is not vital. Add them back in during playback if you need them.

Number Of Tracks: Likewise watch the number of tracks you are using. The more tracks you use the harder your computer has to work. Only use as many as you have to have. You probably do not need 17 back up harmony parts.

Recording your own audio on your personal computer is one of the most rewarding things I have ever used my personal computer for. It is an exciting time when for a few hundred dollars you can rival the sound of the major studios of old. If you follow these tips and use your head you will be recording audio better than ever before.