The Hesse-based company Zed Up was recently commissioned to build and optimize a complete PC for a DJ so that it is suitable for the lowest possible latency audio production. This PC is now apparently also being offered to other customers, so that the changes and optimizations made in this special case are known.
Quiet hardware, optimized software
With regard to the hardware, an Intel Core i7-14700K is installed in the special computer. There is also a Noctua NH-D15 and a soundproof Fractal Design Define 7 Compact with passive power supply and Noctua case fans. This should keep the operating noise within limits. A graphics card is not provided because the corresponding tools do not use it. But there is a lot of memory: We're talking about 64 GiByte DDR5-5600 RAM and two M.2 SSDs with a total of 3 TB of memory. Apart from the missing graphics card, the entire system is probably not all that unusual, if you ignore the high price of 2,500 euros.
The software is more surprising. According to Zed Up, to optimize latency, the E-cores, the C-states and all controllers that are not absolutely necessary – such as the sound card – are switched off. This is apparently intended to keep latency as low as possible, as there are fewer delays in the CPU. For this reason, it is also recommended to avoid an internet connection. This also explains why a faster processor is not installed. In this scenario, Intel's top models would allegedly have problems due to thermal hotspots.
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Unfortunately, Zed Up has not published concrete measured values for the overall latency achieved and the fluctuations involved for the specially designed audio PC. Apparently these are at least measurable – apparently all changes were checked with the LatencyMon tool. However, such extreme optimization would probably only be an option for professional use. If the PC is also to be used for other tasks, the changes made will of course limit flexibility and maximum performance.
Quelle: Zed Up (Audio PC)