Currently the most powerful z890 workstation money can buy. Based around the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, and 192GB of RAM. Ideal for large orchestral templates, and multiple instances of powerful soft synths like u-He Diva.
CORE COMPONENTS: Changing any of these will compromise performance and stability
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Is currently the king of single core performance when it comes to track count both for midi VST, and audio tracks, even at buffer sizes as low as 128. We prefere the unlocked “k” or special “ks” versions as these processors have been pre-trimmed by Intel to run at higher frequencies and have better stability. Also they give you the option to further tweak additional settings in the BIOS to improve stability, and archive low DPC latency.
COOLER: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360 is an oversized liquid cooler that will guarantee silent operations under heavy CPU loads.
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS TUF Gaming Z890-PLUS WiFi is currently the only motherboard that supports 5 PCIe for expansion cards like internal audio interfaces, UAD cards and, and network cards. Despite being marketed as a gaming motherboard, it has all the features and specs to be the foundation of your digital audio workstation.
RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR5 RAM 192GB (4x48GB) is currently the only 192GB set of RAM tested by Asus, and guaranteed to work with the Asus TUF Gaming Z890-Plus WiFi motherboard.
IMPORTANT: We have also tested different BIOS versions for ASUS TUF Gaming Z890-PLUS WiFi, and the only ones that are stable with 192GB of RAM are the 1206 and the 1805. We suggest updating the motherboard BIOS to version 1805 using EZ Flash and following this guide from Asus website (All links point to Asus official website).
RECOMMENDED COMPONENTS: Changing any of these could compromise performance and stability
GRAPHICS CARD: AMD Radeon PRO WX 3200 is one of the best bang for your buck professional graphic cards that you can buy. It can run up to four 4k monitors, and it has AMD Pro series drivers that are stable and bloatware free compared to gaming graphic cards. You won’t be able to play videogames with this card, but if you care about PC performance and low DPC latency, you should keep your digital audio workstation dedicated to audio production.
AUDIO INTERFACE: RME HDSPe RayDAT or RME HDSPe MADI are two of the best internal PCIe audio cards that you can have on Windows. These cards are only the audio brain of your workstation. They are meant to be paired with external ADAT or MADI converters. We choose them because RME drivers are the best you can have on Windows, and have extreme low latency of around 2ms in input, and 3ms in output. When it comes to Windows based digital audio workstations, RME is the only brand we recommend. If you don’t need a lot on ins and outs, an all in one valid alternative is the Babyface Pro FS or the Fireface UCX II.
OS DRIVE: SAMSUNG SSD 9100 PRO 1TB is probably the fastest Gen 5 NVMe drive you can buy. Our digital audio workstation are dedicate to one task and one task only, so for us a 1TB drive is plenty of space for Windows, Nuendo, and all the additional plugins. If you intend to use your PC for various tasks beside music production, perhaps the 2TB version might be better suited for you.
SAMPLES DRIVE: WD_BLACK 8TB SN850X is the champion of 8TB Gen 4 drives when it comes to random read speeds, which is the main parameter to keep in consideration when choosing a drive for sample libraries for Kontakt, or other samplers. If you don’t need that much space, the 4TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO SSD is even faster at random read speeds than the WD.
PROJECTS DRIVE: SAMSUNG 990 PRO SSD 1TB or the 2TB version will be more than enough to store current projects, before moving them to a back-up drive once archived. We don’t use a project drive on our local audio workstations, because we have a data server hosting and synchronizing all our projects, but we do use them on workstation used by remote collaborators.
SUGGESTED COMPONENTS: Changing any of these will not compromise performance and stability
RACK CASE: Rosewill RSV-L4500U is a 4U server case big enough to create a massive airflow, with 3 fans in the front, capable of housing the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360 cooler in the middle, and all the hardware plus two additional 80mm fans in the back. The secret to a quiet PC is really multiple fans running at low speed. We prefer rack cases because all of our audio workstations live in a machine room in server racks, but if you prefer a more traditional Tower PC case placed closer to you, the Fractal Design Define 7 XL Silent Modular will provide room for all your hardware and internal noise dampening panels.