Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
1
Just for fun, I wanted to see what kind of Roon server I could put together for $3999. Naturally I turned to Titan Computers. I chose the Desktop versions, and scrolled down until I came to the W522, “Workstation PC for Heavy Calculations”. Xeon Silver processor, Quadro T400 video card. I selected the “high-performance silent 120mm fans with Anti-Vibration fan mounts”, an additional $75. I bumped up the RAM to 128 GB, another $200 – why not? No operating system – I’ll try ROCK, and if that doesn’t work, just use Ubuntu with Roon Server. The disks are OK – a 1 TB system disk and 4 TB spinning 7200 rpm Seagate Enterprise for the music. Just in case I want to rip a CD on it, I added a DVD writer, another $40.
I was tempted by the “Wood crate with truck/freight delivery” option, but decided the $495 was too much for that.
Xeons are still not good Roon CPUs unless you want to run 24 parallel zones. Single core comparison to the i7-1185G7 in the NUC11TNHi7 which Roon currently recommends for 12K+ albums with ROCK:
Yes, this, it can’t be stressed enough. Roon, for the most part and for majority of use cases is a single core constrained thing. You want really fast single core performance. The nice thing about Xenon though, and there are a couple fast single core Xenon’s, is the ECC memory.
Otherwise, nice system indeed. With 128GB of memory I’d imagine most DBs would sit completely in memory nicely Should be ultra quick.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
4
Well, if I switch to a W361 with an Intel i9-14200 KS 3.2 GHz processor, I can get the cost down a bit, which means I can upgrade the video card to an A2000 and add a liquid cooler for the CPU. Still only $3804.
Video cards should not be considered if you are truly trying to spec a high end PC as a RoonServer. Now, if this machine is doing double duty as a RoonServer and HQPlayer PC, then go ahead, but, you need to use an NVidia Cuda capable graphics card (and not a Quadro). A high end CPU wiht something like a 4090ti GPU, should be able to crush 1024 DSD with heavy modulators and filters.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
6
Oooh, 1024 DSD. I hear it’s coming .
I don’t think I really understand graphics cards. Don’t the Quadro cards have Cuda cores? Well, I can’t do a 4090Ti and still stay under $4K, but I can do a 4070Ti Super 16 GB card for $3974.
I’ve recently got me a new workstation (not for Roon usage though), from a less boutique maker. With 64GB of RAM, same T400, fastest i9 that was available, 1+2 TB SSD M.2 drives and a BD writer it all came to $2100. And if it breaks Lenovo will come out and fix it on site.
It’s not technically a silent PC, but with no moving parts (unless I am ripping something) I haven’t managed to get it to make any reasonably audible noise. I would imagine it would make a decent Roon core…
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
10
Ah, but the game is, what could you build for $3999 that could run Roon server?
I’m thinking about getting a Titan. Just wondering if it beats my NUC10 i7 with 64GB RAM. I have a collection of around 1,000,000 titles
I’m grateful for every hint
The amount of RAM has no influence on the speed of RoonOS. However, for the million tracks you probably have to add memory to the Titan. I don’t think you need 64 but 32 are well possible. If you don’t have enough RAM, it will crash, so this would be obvious (but it won’t get slower because of it)
It’s never been torn down to say what it is, I think that’s just a guess. I thought the original models didn’t run with turbo active in Bios to help maintain thermals but I may have read that wrong . Titan may well be the same and could be less than the published spec if no turbo. But still likely a healthy single core speed.
I’m relying on @Mikael_Ollars who seemed to state it as a fact. In any case, I don’t think there’s doubt that it’s 13th gen NUC, though, so it will be faster than a 10i5.
Whether a NUC of any form is a wise choice for a 1mil library is a different question though. I’d go with „get the fastest desktop machine with lots of RAM you can afford“. The price of a Titan buys you a mighty machine (not for the hifi rack, but no need to. Edit: Though a Mac Mini would fit).
The supposed Titan CPU has a single-thread Passmark of 3,482:
It has. I am not guessing, it is based on a photograph from someone showing the innards of a Titan with a faulty SATA-cable.
Said photo also happened to show the product number of the mainboard, which is hard to refute.
This thread:
Even Danny (Roon CEO) confirms the type by showing pics of his pre-prod Titan here:
Yeah it’s just a standard board in a fancy coat. Not sure it’s worth 3500 for a case. Can buy the barebones nuc for £360. Cost price of that will be considerably less, even with ram and m2 drive I bet cost isn’t £400. Laughing all the way to the bank.
Should be ultra quick.
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