The RME Reference PC - Hardware recommendations
The RME Reference PC Intel - Standard (1/2003)
»Technical Information
Index
The RME Reference PC Intel Standard consists of an elegant
chassis with a sliding door, a fast Intel Pentium 4 processor, a motherboard
with DDR memory interface, 512 MB RAM, IDE hard-drive with a constant data
transfer rate higher than 20 MByte, up-to-date 52-times CD-RW burner and
a dual monitor graphics card.
Last year's Reference PC PRO has become the 'Standard' PC of this year,
except for RAMBUS memory, which is replaced by fast DDR memory.
The Case
This server case from Chieftec is available in several
appealing colors, and turned out to be the DAW solution:
 Excellent
manufacturing quality. Stable and nice lockable
handle to remove the side panel. Internal drive cages can be removed
easily without a screw driver.
Four 5 1/4" slots, two 3.5" slots. Space for four (!) internal
hard-drives.
The chassis is equipped with the proven Enermax
power supply, 350 Watts 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 Disk
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 drives with 7200 rpm, 2 MB or 8 MB cache. Minimum
storage size these days is 40 GByte. Data transfer rates of more than 25
MByte/s are reached. In short: no problem.
The CD Writer
The TEAC CD-W552E continues our positive experience
with TEAC drives in former Reference PCs. As member of the current 52x generation,
this number is valid for reading audio CD (average 40x), reading CD-ROM
and writing CD-Rs! CD-RW are written at fast 24x. Unchanged are the fast
and compatible UDMA2 interface, the digital audio output, the internal memroy
of 2 MByte, and the integrated Buffer Underrun prevention, which guarantees
a valid CD even after an interruption of the burning process. As software
we recommend the current Nero 5.5, a powerful and professional writer software,
bundled with several interesting tools.
The Graphics Card
 The
Matrox G450/550 Dual Head with 32MB memory, capable of feeding up to 2 monitors
and TV, had no competition so far. Meanwhile, there are some alternatives
available (various Geforce- and Radeon-based cards). But as our popular
tool DIGICheck uncovers, Matrox cards still offer the best DAW-performance.
Additionally they do without a fan, so there is no reason for us to recommend
anything else.
You don't need a second monitor? Everyone who has worked in 'stereo' for
at least 1 hour knows it better. A second monitor is no luxury, but actually
worth every single penny. Considering the cost for a complete system (computer,
RME DIGI card and software cost around 2500 EUR, another 350 EUR for a 19"
monitor is not that much more. Even when it is required later or when you
intend to use an additional monitor that you already own, the Matrox Dual
Head will be the basis for flexibility and sensibility.
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.
© 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.
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