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The RME Reference PC - Hardware recommendations The RME Reference PC standard version has a very practical and nicely designed case, a fast AMD Thunderbird processor, a motherboard with 5 PCI-slots, 128 MB RAM, an IBM hard disk with 20 MByte constant data transfer rate, an unbelievable 50x CD-ROM drive with Hi-Fi like digital output, and a dual monitor graphics card. All this does certainly cost a lot of money, doesn't it? It doesn't. The complete system including 19" monitor, keyboard, mouse and pre-installed Windows Millennium (ME) costs around DM 3000 (German price, around 1500 US$). This is probably more than you would pay at your local discounter - but it will run fast, reliably and with outstanding performance - but without unpleasant surprises. The Case
The user is thrilled by a temperature controlled 330 watt Enermax power supply, screw-less mounting of CD-ROM and hard drives. The complete plastic enclosure damps the internal PC noise, lowering the audible operating noise.
The Motherboard
The CPU
Currently the 1 GHz Thunderbird offers the best value for
money, thus is the ideal processor for the Asus A7V133 motherboard. Fitted
with PC133 2-2-2 memory this dream team satisfies even the most critical
user. The Hard Disk Modern hard drives have become so unbelievable fast, even cheaper models are sufficient for the majority of multitrack recordings. Nevertheless we still recommend a top model: The DTLA-307030 Deskstar 75GXP from IBM with ATA100 interface, average data transfer rate 20,7 MByte per second (c't 16/2000). This hard disk raises only an eye-brow when performing 96kHz/24bit multitrack recordings. Further specs: 30 GByte, 7200 RPM, 2MByte cache, average current consumption and thus no critical temperature reaction. Very quiet. SCSI? Never... The CD-ROM Drive More or less by accident we ran into the ASUS CDS-500. Briefly: a dream came true. This is definitively the most perfect CD-ROM drive we ever tested. And we tested a few... For us simply the Hammerfall among CD-ROM drives! The differences in comparison to many other drives are:
The Graphics Card
The RME Reference PC - Professional The professional version differs from the standard version in a couple of points. When you work with audio, you usually need a CD writer, lots of space for projects (including a backup possibility) and lots of memory. Voilà... The CD Writer
Our new reference: the Teac CD-W512E! Already announced in mid 2000 it now hits the market 6 months later. The good news: it comes with 3 MB internal memory and Burn-Proof* (don't get fooled from Teac's website or the packaging - it's both true!). Besides 12x write CD-R, 10x write CD-RW and 32x read CD-ROM it also grabs audio with bit-accuracy and up to 24x. Compared to the Plextor 12/10/32A the Teac offers an UDMA2 interface, handles the wait command correctly and has a much shorter read-in time (CD content). Operating noise is very low under all conditions. The writer comes bundled with the latest Nero 5.0, a powerful, professional writer software, which excited us already after the first minutes of usage. *Even when the internal cache runs empty (Buffer Underrun) and Windows freezes for minutes the writer will continue with highest precision at the exact sector where it stopped. Thus this device can guarantee to finish the CD-ROM writing and to produce a valid CD, no matter what you do with your PC while in the writing process. A must have for professionals. The Hard Drives The professional version contains already 2 IBM 30GB drives. In addition, there is another (empty) exchangeable frame below the CD drive behind a lid, which can be supplied with a hard drive at any time in order to move data from or to the computer. The Memory 128MB is pretty nice to start with. Using many tracks, or a RAM sampler like the LM4, requires significantly more. Therefore the Pro-version is equipped with 256MB PC133 2-2-2 RAM, for 133MHz memory clock at lowest wait states. This gives 25% more memory throughput than usual PC133 modules (3-3-3 or 2-3-3). The modules used even pass the famous memory test of the German magazine c't (ctspd: no error). 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. Retail source All RME Reference PCs are available completely assembled and pre-installed. Tillmann Computer in Hannover are assembling the systems strictly according to our instructions and test them prior to shipment. Even the drivers for all RME cards and DIGICheck are preinstalled. Note that RME digital cards are only available through authorized dealers, thus not included in these computer systems. Prices - Standard, parts as described above, incl. mouse, keyboard
and Windows ME: 2600 DM incl. VAT Copyright © Matthias Carstens, 2000/2001. |
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