Let's talk computer hardware.
"Minimum Requirements"
You'll see around the interwebs a few different listings of "minimum system requirements" to play Audition Online. As with any game, these are to be taken as loose suggestions since there isn't a good way to define the minimum experience for all users.The Redbana website lists:
Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows XP / 2000 / Vista / 7
CPU: Pentium 3 - 550
RAM: 128 MB
HDD: 2GB
VGA: NVIDIA RIVA TNT 32 MByte
Recommended Specification:
OS: Windows XP/ 2000 / Vista / 7
CPU: Pentium 3 - 1 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
HDD: 4GB or more
VGA: NVIDIA Gforce 2 32 MByte
OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
which is pretty grossly inaccurate, to say the least. If you try playing Audition on a Pentium 3 550 it probably won't even open unless you wait an hour...(now I know someone is going to correct me with like "omg liar I have a Pentium 2 with 1MB of RAM and I can open it in 45 minutes!!!11!") but you get my point. It's not the ideal experience.
The requirements listed on the AuditionSEA website are a little more specific
Processor: Pentium 3 @ 1 GHz
Memory: 256 MB
Hard Drive: 1 GB Free
Video Memory: ATI Radeon 7000/nVidia GeForce
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
Keyboard & Mouse
CD/DVD Rom Drive
But I think the most accurate listing is from the Korean Audition website (makes sense that they'd have the best information!)
To be honest though, I think these are all really undershooting for a real enjoyable, playable experience in Audition.
Personally this is my recommendation as a minimum (get 60 frames/sec, with potential to have more)
(Please note that these are desktop specs, notebook/laptop specs are slightly different but you can follow the same ideas.)
Processor: Dual-core (Athlon II or Core Duo) @ 2.0GHz+
Memory: 1GB+
Hard Drive: You need slightly more than 4 GB for the game itself.
Video Card: Any modern NVIDIA PCI-E card
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Operating System: Windows 7
Processor (CPU)
Audition framerates are very CPU dependent. (For this reason, using integrated graphics actually hurts your performance in 2 ways: you have less graphics power AND you are allocating processor power to graphics.) Audition is mostly single threaded, so using Intel processors would be more effective because of their vastly superior single threaded performance. Check this site for CPU benchmarks on single threaded performance and you'll see that it's dominated heavily by Intel processors.
If you are doing a new computer build, or looking to buy a new computer, you can reach the maximum framerate (200 fps on official servers) with an Intel Core i3 processor (confirmed) or probably even an overclocked Pentium (like the Pentium anniversary G3258- confirmed) as long as you have a dedicated video card. If you prefer AMD processors, you can still get 180+ fps on their FX processors or 160+ on Phenom II without overclocking them. I don't have data for APU performance, but it should be comparable. (These figures are all assuming you have a dedicated video card.)
If you have an older computer, you'll probably do fine as long as you have a dedicated video card. I ran Audition with an Intel Pentium 4 processor and a Radeon 3650 AGP and could still hit 100 fps alone and 40+ in a full room, albeit with some difficulty. (For comparison, the 3650 AGP is so old, it loses to the modern Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics in terms of performance.) If you do not have a dedicated graphics card, you can still get 60 fps (or whatever your monitor refresh rate is) on the Core i3/i5 series processors and their integrated video for sure.
Memory (RAM)
You don't need fancy RAM for Audition. You can run Audition fine with 1GB, though you may get some stuttering in game while it loads certain dance files and sound files. To be safe, I would aim for 4GB+, with a recommendation of 6GB+ (4GB for the game files, 2GB left over for general use) if you want to run Audition from a RAM disk to eliminate this stutter. The RAM speed doesn't matter as much as actual hard drive speed; if you run a RAM disk on even the slowest RAM it'll still be much much faster than your mechanical hard drive.
Hard Drive (HDD or SSD)
The game takes up around 4.2GB as of the time of writing.
Ideally, run Audition from a solid state drive (SSD). This would eliminate any space lag or stutters caused by file reads. Any SSD would be plenty fast. However, this may not be an option for mobile users (laptops/netbooks) which only have 1 drive bay available, and also for those who do not wish to make another large (~$60 USD) purchase.
If you aren't going the SSD route, look for the following characteristics in a mechanical/traditional hard drive- SATA 2 or 3, 7200+ rpm, and a decent cache for the capacity. Anecdotally Audition will actually run better on smaller capacity drives, so don't bother getting a huge 3TB drive to play Audition unless you need the space for other things.
Video Card (GPU)
I have NOTHING against ATI/AMD, but the cold hard truth is that Audition runs better on NVIDIA.
It doesn't take that much to run Audition, it's 1024x768 resolution with really low resolution textures. I'm almost sure that an older card like the 8600GT will max out the 3d detail settings with no issue, so you can pretty much buy any "modern" NVIDIA card.
I have a few recommendations for budget (used) gaming cards that are worth a certain price range, but you don't need to follow these and these are purely my opinion:
As of November 2014: Please keep in mind that prices change over time. Do a little research to avoid paying more than you have to.
<$20: 8000GT series, 9000GT/X series
$20-35: GTX 260, 270, 275, etc.
$40-50: GTX 460, 470, etc, 550 Ti
$50-70: GTX 560 Ti, 650, 650 Ti
beyond that, you should really look at which other games you're playing because you can play Audition on really old and inexpensive GPUs.
Sound Card
You don't need to buy a separate dedicated sound card. The one integrated on your motherboard (usually Realtek) is more than enough. My only comment in this section is that if you use a USB headset/speakers , it'll likely use that sound card so the sound "timing" might be different from if you had just plugged a headset/speakers into the 3.5mm jack. Also programs such as Razer Surround that give virtual 7.1 surround sound or certain USB headset equalizers/drivers will actually delay the audio from Audition which will change the timing.
Operating System
You will get the highest framerates in Windows 7 if you are using a modern processor (not a single core).
Solo room framerates from my own experience-
Intel Core i7-720QM + ATI Mobility Radeon 5730 - 100 fps in Windows XP 64 bit, 160 fps in Windows 7 64 bit
Intel Core i5-4670k + GTX 770 - 200 fps in Windows 7 64 bit, 165 fps in Windows 8 and 8.1
If you like Windows 8, by all means use it! It's a great operating system, just not for Audition.
If you like Windows XP, you're also awesome but Windows isn't even supporting it so... -sadface-
I have not used Windows 10, but it's still in the works. We'll have to see!
Budget Audition Build
Out of curiosity I built a computer specifically for Audition.
PCPartPicker List: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Leebyn/saved/Tnvscf
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (Purchased For $54.99)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (Purchased For $79.99) Memory: Kingston Fury Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Sandisk Extreme II 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $59.99)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT WH ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $29.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $29.99)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $9.99)
Other: EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 (Purchased For $30.00)
Total: $294.94
These are all new parts aside from the GTX 260 which I acquired over about 2 months of sales and promos and bundles.
Keep in mind you will need to pay for an operating system (see if your school or university has discounts or free ones), and peripherals (monitor, mouse, keyboard, audio, etc.)
But for <$300 dollars of computer hardware, this setup runs at 195+ fps in a solo room and 165-170 in a full 6 person room. Not bad.
Conclusion
You do NOT need an expensive computer to run Audition anymore. This game is old. Hopefully this will help somebody out there.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or corrections~
