Can the workhorse PC stand in another room?
If yes, you can pick any off the shelf PC with good specs but it depends mostly on what filter you would like to use.
An i7 7700k with 16 GB RAM should give you almost all options except for the non -2 xtr filters.
8 Gig of RAM runs RoonServer and HQP fine for me. I can upsample to DSD 512 with all filters (except non 2s xtr) with an i7 7700. I have found the CUDA graphics GTX 970 doesn’t make a difference to what I can actually do in HQP, it just lowers CPU a bit, so I’d suggest just an i7 to start with and add CUDA later if wanted.
I suppose I’d like to future proof this a bit and would like to be able to manage all the upsampling available currently. (I’m the sport of guy where it would always be at the back of my head that better sound is only a click away if only my PC had the grunt.
The PC will go in another room.
I wondering if a fan will have a negative effect on sound, should I go for water cooled.
I’m looking at a gaming computer site here in Dublin that seem to offer a lot of options to build a PC.
I think I saw mentioned somewhere about 8 cores (which I presume is an advance on quad core) but really don’t know any more.
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I suppose my question is if you could build a no holds barred system for HQP, what spec would it have?
A fan won’t affect the sound if its in another room but I’d suggest an AIO (All in One) fluid cooling solution because they keep your CPU happier. I used the DeepCool Captain with push-pull fans on the radiator but there are others you can get, especially in a large form factor case.
I like the i7 7700 for a server rather than the 7700K because the relatively lower power consumption and heat make it less of an issue to keep on for extended periods. I don’t believe there is anything anyone can do in HQP with a 7700K that can’t be done equally capably with a 7700.
Save some $ by getting only 8G RAM (you can add more if you ever want to) and no graphics card (unless you’re going to use it for games). Spend those saved $ on SSD music storage.
You only need 8GB of RAM to run Windows 10, Roon and HQP (takes about 6 GB) so if you can downgrade to save $ there then I would. RAM above 8GB gives no performance improvement.
Similarly I prefer to store music on separate drives to Windows and the Roon Core, so I’d keep the 256 GB SSD (even go down to 128 GB if they’ll let you) as the C: drive and get a 1 or 2 TB SSD for the music files.
I would choose the 460W PSU Liquid Cooled chassis, unless going for the Dual SLI cards.
I believe only NVIDIA support CUDA so that rules out the AMD Radeon video options. The included GTX 1080 is a better CUDA GPU than I’ve got so you will definitely be able to do DSD512 closed form and DSD512 xtr 2s with it.
What I don’t know is whether any of the more expensive NVIDIA options would enable you to do DSD512 with xtr (non 2s) filters. My guess is that moving from 8GB to 11 GB GDDR5X wouldn’t make that difference.
Dual SLI CUDA with a 6 core 8700 ? I just don’t know. It might but the only way to know for sure would be to try it out.
What I can say, however, is that the sonic difference between DSD512 xtr 2s and DSD512 xtr would not be worth an extra 550 quid imo (you’d have to upgrade the PSU also with twin GPU). I’d spend that money on more SSD music storage, physical room treatment or Home Audio Fidelity custom built room EQ files to convolve in HQP.
Yeah, I have done. I’ve never had a NAS and cant think of a reason to add a further computer when the music server can do it. Internal is easy to copy to as a network shared folder from my desktop computer where I rip and neater than USB.
What a beast for a seemingly fair price
I would have chosen that exact same config you did
And the TPD is “only” 65 Watt, same as the i7 6700 in my former roon-HQP workhorse.
My current Lampizator SuperKomputer has an i7 6700K with TPD 91 Watts and runs rather hot
When will you get your new “toy”?
I’m curious about the temperatures you will see with that watercooling
I have a kind of good experience now on this subject.
Regarding your purchase, the GPU 1080 with the Intel i7 8700 is good but you will not be able run DSD512 and all non 2s filters. Also be careful from Alienware fan noise issue.
I build recently a desktop and I can run everything HQPlayer is capable of. Super PC.
First no need for a GPU CUDA as the processor I got the Intel X i9 7980XE ($2000 processor). The 18 cores in the processor can do all calculation without the need for any GPU.
I am running water cooling. The PC is super silent sitting on my desk connected to my Chord Dave and up scaling to DSD 512 using Poly-sync-xtr-mp. With the WA5 Woo audio and Focal Utopia, there is nothing left but the music.
So, as your purchase might be a good choice, keep an eye on fan fan noise; and if there is still a chance check a similar PC like mine. You need around $4000 in total as a budget.