PC Build Spec Question (ROON with the Possibility of HQP DSD 512)

Audio Gear Talk
3

Hi @Mrmb,

Here’s a link to the parts in my current server. A few notes in relation to your proposed build:

  1. You are using the i7 7700k which is faster and hotter than the i7 7700 I’m using.

  2. I only used 8GB RAM as that is sufficient to run RoonServer and HQP under Windows 10. I also use CAM to monitor the temperatures. I don’t exceed 75% RAM usage and I think 8GB is enough for a purpose built server. 16 GB would certainly be sufficient.

  3. Roon doesn’t currently have a CUDA offload and so the graphics card will only be of use with HQP. The Roon devs haven’t announced any plans to implement CUDA capability but they are generally interested in ways of offloading DSP or upsampling workload from CPUs in order to afford a broader entry to users in relation to those features. There are other possibilities than CUDA, including OpenCL. Broadly speaking Jussi at HQP has no problem with writing heavy filters (well, 2 filters) in advance of commonly used current hardware and waiting for Moore’s law to catch up. Brian at Roon has a different approach and aims at offering advanced features to the broadest group of users.

  4. The take home from the above is choose a CUDA capable GPU and it will work with HQP and very probably with any co-processing feature adopted in future by Roon.

My build will happily run all Roon filters at resolutions up to and including PCM 768 and DSD 512. It will also run all HQP filters at the same resolutions EXCEPT the single pass xtr filters at DSD 512. I can run the 2s (double pass) variants of the xtr filters at DSD 512 using CUDA and that runs my four CPU cores at about 25-30% and my GTX 970 at 0-59%. I am also convolving a two channel room filter in either Roon or HQP at the same time.

Jussi posted here about the kind of machine that can run the single pass xtr filters at DSD 512. They’re i7-6950X ten core fire breathers and a bit out of my league.

So, to sum up, your proposed build will happily run anything currently in Roon or HQP up to and including DSD 512 except for the single pass xtr filters and I think you could downspec the RAM.

As to what sounds best. At the moment I’m listening to PCM 706.5/768 with HQP single pass xtr-mp filter and multicore DSP and CUDA disabled. It uses about 3% CPU but I think I am preferring it to DSD.

I may sign up for SETI at home.

EDIT: That Corsair case looks like sex on a stick. I want one …
I started off with an air cooler but eventually moved to the DeepCool Captain 120 AIO cooler which I was able to bolt on the front of the case with dual push/pull fans. I leave the case off and strap on a 6TB HDD to accompany my 1TB SSD for music storage.
I’m only able to use the Captain (which has a stupidly high cooler unit) because of the very nifty Corsair 600 PSU which is also in your proposed build.

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