The author has summarized his experiences in https://www.hiendy.com/hififorum/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=124902&pid=2912736 translated below:
Disclaimer: This is just strictly FYI and does not represent my position. I believe it also differs from Roon Labs recommendations.
- The computer needs to be physically and electrically isolated from the audio equipment. Very important.
- CPU needs to be high speed. Turns off energy saving and hyperthreading in BIOS. Use Process Lasso to assign specific cores (2 and 3 only) to Roon processes, leave core 0 to OS.
- Optimize OS. On Windows Server 2016, install Fidelizer 8.3. Unplug display cable and monitor when playing music.
- User server grade PCI-E network card and run bridge mode direct to Roon endpoint, bypassing any network switch and router. Do not use motherboard LAN port.
- Use PCI-E SATA card with audio grade SATA cable. Install OS to SSD, music files to HDD. On Windows, set pagefile.sys to HDD.
- Use a high power power supply with low ripple noise. Prefer LPS.
- Must use PCI-E for network interface, SATA interface and USB interface. Avoid using motherboard peripherals and disable them in BIOS.
- Use audio grade LAN cable and power cord.
(Disabling of hyperthreading and point 2 are especially interesting to me from a software point of view. These probably reduce context switches. On the other hand, this is opposite to a different school of thought: some people believe in using the best possible CPU but underclock and undervolt it. I think a Roon server partner offers underclocked server products like this and got into a debate with Roon Labs. For point 3, I think it’s better off just running RoonServer without GUI, I think a reasonable amount of members here accept that not exercising the GPU is better.)