The RME Reference PC: Hardware recommendations

The RME Reference PC - Hardware recommendations
The RME Reference PC Intel - Professional (1/2003)

The RME Reference PC Intel Professional consists of an exceptional 19" case, a fast Intel Pentium 4 processor, a motherboard with DDR memory interface, 512 MB RAM, hard-drives with a constant data transfer rate higher than 25 MByte, fast but silent 52-times DVD/CD-ROM drive, up-to-date 52-times CD-RW burner, additional RAID and a triple monitor graphics card.

The Case

Usual 19" cases are hardly appropriate for audio - inflexible, too big and much too expensive. Mostly only two hard-drives and one CD-ROM can be fitted - that's it. The RME Reference Case however provides ideal DAW conditions at a depth of only 48 cm / 1.6 ft:

2 internal hard-disks, 4 insert slots 5 1/4" (also useable for further internal hard-drives), plus 1 insert slot 3.5" (floppy etc.) at the front
Enough space even for bigger (dual-) motherboards
Lockable doors made from massive metal
Status LEDs, visual / acoustic fan supervision

This case will again be equipped with the proven Enermax power supply, the latest 350 Watts server model with ball-bearing dual fans and manual fan pre-setting. Thus the convincing power reserves are provided at minimal noise disturbance.

The Motherboard

Gigabyte's GA-8PE667 Ultra is an outstanding, fully feature packed motherboard at best price/performance ratio. Intel's 845PE chipset supports the latest P4 processors with Hyper Threading technology. 6 PCI slots, 3 DIMM slots for up to 2GB PC2700 DDR RAM and an integrated ATA-100 IDE controller provide a good basis for every DAW. Furthermore the Gigabyte shines with the latest Promise ATA133 RAID controller, 4 x USB 2.0, 100 Mbit LAN and a blaster-compatible soundcard - directly on-board!

The 845PE's extended interrupt controller (APIC) allows to use 24 interrupts (instead of 15) - and XP indeed makes use of those. So there will be no interrupt sharing any longer when using a lot of devices.

The CPU

The latest CPUs with 512 kB cache (Northwood) are made in 0.13µ technology, reach considerably higher clock rates, provide incredible performance and even need less current at the same time. The chip-sets are fully developed, DDR memory is fast and inexpensive. And nearly all software packages are P4-optimized.

The best value for money at the moment is the 2.53 GHz model. The performance difference compared to the 2.0 GHz is not only clearly noticeable beacause of the faster CPU clock, but also because the FSB (Front Side Bus) is working with 533 MHz instead of 400 MHz.

The Memory

In times of intense multi-tracking and virtual samplers, 128 MByte are by far not sufficient, there should at least be 512 MByte. Unfortunately the industry has settled for timing parameters 2.5-3-3 (often written as 2533) for the PC2700 needed here. Memory of 2.0-3-3 (2033) exists, but is in most cases not available from your local dealer. Although the faster memory is the optimum for this DAW, the performance improvement in real world DAW usage is very small.

The Hard Disks

Modern hard drives have become so unbelievable fast, even cheaper models are sufficient for the majority of multitrack recordings. Also the choice of manufacturer is no longer critical. Western Digital and Maxtor both offer very fast driver with 7200 rpm and 8 MB cache, at more than 80 GByte space. For the applications a drive with 40 GByte and 2 MByte cache (still very fast) is used. Data transfer rates of more than 30 MByte/s are reached. In short: hi-end performance without headaches.

The DVD/CD-ROM Drive

Because of the included burner, grabbing (Digital Audio Extraction) and fastest read-in of CD-ROMs is already available. An additional CD-ROM allows for on-the-fly copying and DVD playback. Besides the well established Toshiba SD-M 1612 we also use the TEAC DV-516E, offering 16x DVD and 48x CD-ROM operation at lowest noise levels.

The CD Writer

Plextor's PlexWriter Premium finally offers diagnosis capabilities many have waited for. Especially intersting for DAW applications is Q-Check, a quality analysis of the burned CD: C1, C2, Track and Focus errors are detected. But even a simple feature like SilentMode, which allows to set the speed and noise level of the drive, can be seen as useful addition. The driver also offers 8 MB internal memory, Burn-Proof, 52x CD-R write, 32x CD-RW write, 52x CD-ROM read and bit-accurate grabbing at up to 40x speed. Nothing left to ask for...

The Graphics Card

Working on such a power-machine, and intensively using all our tools like MeterBridge and DIGICheck, you'll want to have a third monitor. Fortunately there is the Matrox Parhelia, and provides best DAW performance (as usual). Support for three monitors, or two monitors and one TV output, makes the Parhelia the all-in-one weapon of the DAW-world - no competition.

competitive product now comes from Matrox themselves: the new Matrox Millennium P750 offers the same 3 monitor operation, but does not have a fan, and is less expensive! Tests coming up soon...

Please note: Although we have set up and tested everything ourselves, we can still make mistakes. We would like to clarify that all information included in this Tech Info is both our subjective opinion and subject to permanent change. This Tech Info is not to be understood as a do-it-yourself instruction, any request on this behalf can not be responded to and will be deleted immediately.

RME is not selling computers and will not be. In case you want to avoid buying and assembling of all the parts our German based customers can get in touch with:

Retail Source

All RME Reference PCs are available completely assembled and pre-installed. Tillmann Computer Systeme in Hannover are assembling the systems strictly according to our instructions and test them prior to shipment.

Direct contact click here.

Copyright © Matthias Carstens, 2003.

All entries in this Tech Infopaper have been thoroughly checked, however no guarantee for correctness can be given. RME cannot be held responsible for any misleading or incorrect information provided throughout this manual. Lending or copying any part or the complete document or its contents is only possible with the written permission from RME.

Home News Audio Converters Sound Cards MADI Series DIGICheck Mic Preamps
Accessories Support RME Newsgroup Company Info Purchasing Downloads Links