Operating system options and our recommendations

• Digital Tigers recommends Windows 11 for Stratosphere Pro Z series. Windows 11 supports the new Intel Thread Director feature built into Intel 12th Gen "Alder Lake" CPUs and the new Intel 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" CPUs, enabling Windows 11 to manage competing workloads more efficiently and more responsively to your priorities on these specific CPUs.
• Windows 10 does not and will not support Intel Thread Director. Additionally, testing shows that some software performs dramatically slower on Windows 10 with 12th Gen Intel CPUs, up to 5X slower in certain benchmarks.
• Digital Tigers recommends Stratosphere Pro R-series (with AMD Ryzen CPUs) and Stratosphere Pro X-series (with 11th Gen Intel CPUs) for customers preferring Windows 10.
• Free support is limited for Stratosphere Pro Z systems running Windows 10. Support for troubleshooting slow performance or upgrading to Windows 11 is charged at $75/hour.

The promise and price of new DDR5 memory

DDR5 is the first new universal memory architecture to reach desktop computers since the debut of DDR4 in 2014.

While DDR4 enabled higher density RAM (4X capacity per DIMM) and lower voltage RAM (less power and heat, primarily benefitting mobile), DDR5 targets higher memory bandwidth as its #1 goal. Memory bandwidth is the peak volume of data that can be accessed by the CPU per second, and increased memory bandwidth is critical to support the performance of multi-core CPUs. As CPUs increase their core count, the memory bandwidth per core is reduced unless the memory architecture is improved to keep pace through higher memory bandwidth.

How DDR5 improves effective memory bandwidth

DDR5 memory increases memory bandwidth through two strategies. First, “effective bandwidth” is improved by about 36%* by filling the memory pipeline more efficiently with data needed by the CPU, in effect filling a pipe of a given size with more water. A variety of architectural innovations collectively achieve this improvement.

Second, expanding the pipe size allows a higher peak volume of data flow to occur, measured in MegaTransfers per second (MT/s, or millions of effective cycles per second). The new baseline standard for DDR5 is 4800 MT/s, known as DDR5-4800. This is a 50% improvement over DDR4’s mainstream peak, 3200 MT/s or DDR4-3200.

According to Micron Technology, a leading memory manufacturer, the combined benefits deliver about an 87% improvement in effective memory bandwidth, moving from DDR4-3200 to DDR4-4800. In short, DDR5 nearly doubles effective memory bandwidth in its first iteration.

Effective Bandwidth: DDR5 vs DDR4

Above left: DDR5 efficiency improvements in serving required data, without increasing transfer frequency.

Above right: Combined DDR5 efficiency improvements + 50% increase in data transfer frequency = 87% higher effective bandwidth.

Additional DDR5 improvements

DDR5 also embeds error-correcting code (ECC) on the memory die, delivering ECC server memory accuracy to consumer memory DIMMs used in most desktop and laptop computers.

Additionally, DDR5 provides for another 4X improvement in future memory density per memory die and DIMM, enabling future DDR5 memory modules to store much more data in the same physical space. Also, voltage has again been reduced, improving power efficiency.

A computer built to support DDR5 memory has the foundation to benefit from future improvements in DDR5 implementations. Future DDR5 memory is expected to be faster and available in higher densities than the first generation of DDR5 memory, offering the potential for memory upgrades in the future that will not be available to systems built to support DDR4. Conversely, DDR4 has reached full maturity at current speeds and densities.

DDR5 cannot be installed in a computer designed for DDR4 memory, and DDR4 memory cannot be installed in a DDR5 system. Choosing a computer based on DDR5 memory is one way to “future proof” your investment.

*Source: Micron Technology

Understanding relative SSD performance

Digital Tigers has shipped systems with SSDs standard since 2009, and during these past 14 years we have offered only the industry's top-performing and most reliable SSDs. We offer multiple SSD models at different capacities to give customers a choice between top performance and top affordability, along with trusted models for proven reliability (i.e. Samsung).

Real-world SSD performance cannot be summarized accurately using manufacturer specs such as sequential transfer rate (MB/s) or I/O operations per second (IOPS). While those specs are broadly useful to identify ballpark expected performance, the relative performance of SSDs in similar performance categories can be determined only by running specialized performance tests. These tests simulate real-world performance through a blend of operations and a lot of random concurrent I/O operations reading or writing data blocks as small as 4 KB, which is a small fraction of a digital image or 4000 characters of text.

PC Mark 10 is popular computer performance benchmarking tool with component tests for various computer subsystems. It's favored by Tom's Hardware, one of the industry's top review websites for hardware. Using their public test results for PC Mark 10 - Full System Drive Benchmark, we have compiled the following table comparing relative performance of the very fast SSDs that we offer. Since drive capacity can be a performance factor (larger = faster), the scores below are for the 2TB versions of each SSD model, to avoid drive capacity affecting results..

The winner by a wide margin is the new Samsung 990 PRO series.

Projecting SSD reliability

SSDs are vastly more reliable than hard drives, in addition to being dramatically faster.

Samsung has dominated the SSD marketplace for more than 10 years and currently holds more than a 40% market share for enterprise SSDs. Samsung's market share is well earned, as Samsung SSDs have achieved an unmatched reliability record for the past 10+ years, during which its competitors delivered less consistent reliability.

We offer and recommend Samsung SSDs for the highest expected reliability, based on our shipping Samsung SSDs for 10+ years and observing Samsung's reliability record across the industry.

We also offer Crucial and Western Digital (WD_Black) SSDs, because they deliver excellent value and have been reliable in our more limited experience. Crucial is a division of Micron, one of the world's largest memory manufacturers and a top U.S. semiconductor company. We've shipped Crucial SATA SSDs as a value choice for about a decade, with no failures. We are shipping the new Crucial P5 Plus and P3 Plus NVMe SSDs for the first time in 2023, so we have no direct reliability data yet for this series or for Crucial NVMe SSDs..

Western Digital is a longtime U.S. leader for hard drive manufacturing that has made successful efforts in recent years to be a strong player in SSDs. We've shipped their WD_Black SN770 SSDs for about a year with zero failures. We started shipping the very fast SN850X in 2023 and have zero direct reliability data.

Internal bootable backup drive

• Introduced by Digital Tigers in 2005 to support high-reliability trading workstations, "bootable backup" provides peace of mind and data security by copying the contents of the primary system drive to a second internal hard drive, automatically keeping your data and Windows installation safe.
• If a secondary media storage drive is present, it can also be backed up to the same backup drive, as a separate backup partition.
• In event of drive failure or malware attack, the backup drive can instantly substitute for primary and secondary drives, through a simple change to the system BIOS "boot order" setting.
• By default Digital Tigers configuration, the backup schedule is daily at end of day, and you can change this schedule easily to meet your preference.
• Bootable backup enables you to keep working through major system problems. Later, the original system drive can be restored with the help of Digital Tigers Support.
• Unlike RAID, bootable backup is not immediately vulnerable to malware or data corruption. If a virus infects the primary system drive, or critical files are deleted, or the Windows installation is corrupted, the backup drive remains unaffected and available on the same day as a "snapshot" of the system in its working state at the end of the day before.
• Bootable backup has saved many Digital Tigers from critical system problems that might have wiped out irreplaceable files or forced a reinstallation of Windows. Highly recommended!

Backup Frequency Options and Benefits

• A daily backup schedule is standard, with the goal of minimizing data loss and recovery time in the event of a drive failure or system corruption.
• However, daily backups can inadvertently duplicate system problems. Archival backups can be a lifesaver if your system gets corrupted (such as from malware, random file corruption, accidental file deletions or even a Windows Update) and then the corrupted system drive is backed up at end of day before the problem is discovered or resolved.
• An archival backup enables you to boot your system in its exact state as it was at an earlier date, which could be as much as a month prior. For monthly archival backups, the median last backup is 15 days prior, which should be plenty of time to spot problems before the previous backup is overwritten.
• We recommend a monthly interval for the archival backup. However, we also offer weekly archival backup as an alternative.

Optimize Windows for Business Use, Privacy, Performance, Stability and Control

Digital Tigers now offers the option of a customized Windows experience, reflecting what we believe are the priorities of most business users. This optimization is far more important for Windows 10 than for prior Microsoft operating systems.

Optimize for Business Use: Remove Microsoft bloatware (games/consumer apps)

Windows 10 comes with dozens of consumer games and apps that do nothing for business users. We remove Candy Crush Saga, Xbox, Zune Music, Windows Phone, Bing News and much more, while providing a record of what's been uninstalled and how to reinstall any apps you want back. The removals streamline your desktop and Apps / Programs menus and promote a more professional desktop experience.

Privacy: Block Microsoft telemetry, disable Cortana, install ad-blockers, block Start menu ads

By default, Microsoft monitors your configuration and your activity on your computer and sends updates to its servers multiple times an hour, a practice known as telemetry, as part of its product feedback process. This monitoring includes your web browsing history using Microsoft browsers. We block most such monitoring. You can change this preference later if you prefer.

We also disable Cortana, the digital assistant component, reverting the search box to "Search Windows." This removes the conflation of desktop and web search inherent to Cortana, and stops the comprehensive tracking that Cortana conducts and sends to Microsoft (Cortana's Notebook). For Windows 10 Pro, disabling Cortana is handled via Group Policy. For Windows 10 Home, we add a Windows Registry key to disable it. You can reenable Cortana later if you prefer.

We install Chrome and Firefox web browsers, along with Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin ad blockers. The ad blockers improve your web browsing experience while speeding up page-load times and bolstering privacy and security. We set Chrome as the default browser, based on its popularity; you can change this preference.

We install VLC media player and make it the default media player, bypassing the tracking and ads inherent in Windows 10 Movies & TV. You can install any preferred media player and make it your default.

We also turn off Start menu ads ("suggestions," Windows Store apps you never downloaded, appearing as tiles in your Start menu) and targeted ads from third-party apps ("Let my apps use my advertising ID"). You can reverse these settings later if you prefer.

Performance: More system resources, faster browsing, fewer background processes

We change Windows Registry settings to allocate more system resources for graphical, user and desktop objects, doubling the number of application windows and financial trading indicators that can be displayed. These changes reduce the frequency of out-of-memory errors when there is available physical memory, and they reduce the probability that you will be prevented from opening new windows.

We install Chrome and Firefox web browsers, which have faster performance and also enable you to isolate demanding web applications in one browser while you use another browser for general use. Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin speed up web browsing by removing ads, which are often resource-intensive.

We disable the ability of most preinstalled apps to run in the background (Privacy > Background Apps setting), and we turn off non-essential items running at startup.

Blocking Microsoft telemetry and other tracking prevents occasional spikes in CPU, drive and network utilization, avoiding interference with your actual applications.

Stability and Control: Take control of Windows Update

We believe best practice for Windows Update calls for timely security updates and deferred feature updates. Timely security updates are important to protect the system from newly discovered vulnerabilities. Deferred feature updates are important because major new revisions to Windows 10 can cause system instability and application compatibility issues when first released.

Windows 10 Pro (highly recommended) enables us to set Windows feature updates to release on the slower Semi-Annual Channel, and then we use Group Policy to add an extra 180-day delay beyond this slower distribution channel. Without these configuration settings, Windows 10 Pro users would receive updates much closer to their first release. Unfortunately we can do none of these optimizations for Windows 10 Home, and so Windows 10 Home users get new feature updates immediately, with some risk of problems.

We also make changes to Windows to put you in control of when you install updates and when you restart your computer. With Windows 10, Microsoft has become very aggressive with updates, forcing computers to download updates and even forcing system reboots, disregarding alternative customer priorities. There is usually an opportunity to defer a number of hours, but after this modest concession, the system takes control and executes an update and reboot, which normally cannot be stopped. For Windows 10 Pro customers, we make changes to keep you in control of when updates are installed and when you reboot your computer. Certainly security updates are timely and important, but so is control of your time and your workspace, so we give that control back to you.

If you prefer to disable these controls or to get faster Windows feature updates, we can undo these preferences before or after purchase.

Learn more about NVIDIA AI apps

NVIDIA Broadcast

• AI-enhanced video streaming, video calls and video conference calls (Zoom meetings, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, etc.). Remove background noise; blur or replace webcam background; maintain eye contact with camera when looking at screen; center your face on camera even as you move or shift positions (face tracking).
• NVIDIA Broadcast supports OBS Studio, Streamlabs, XSplit Broadcaster, Twitch Studio, HuYa, DouYu, Bilibili, Discord, TeamSpeak, Skype, Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Meet, Bluejeans and more.
• Requires Windows 11 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 or higher graphics card, or NVIDIA RTX Ada or Ampere Generation. Consumes 1.5GB drive space.

NVIDIA ChatRTX

• Personal AI chatbot for private content (DOC/DOCX, PDF, XML, TXT files) and YouTube videos that you select. Analyze content and YouTube transcripts with the power of AI.
• Requires Windows 11 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or higher graphics card, or NVIDIA RTX Ada or Ampere Generation with 8GB+ VRAM. Consumes ~62GB drive space.

NVIDIA Broadcast: Eye Contact Feature

Microsoft Office options

• Purchasing any perpetual license of Office (Office 2019/2016/2010) avoids the recurring annual subscription fees of Office 365.
• Office 2019 is a minor revision to Office 2016 and is the final perpetual-license version of Office that Microsoft expects to offer. Going forward, Microsoft favors subscriptions (Office 365) over perpetual licenses.
• Many people prefer the interface of Office 2010 to Office 2016/2019, so we offer all versions.
• Office 2010 remains popular and is recommended for existing users of Office 2007 and Office 2010. It does not require an online Microsoft Account.
• Office 2016/2019 requires the creation of an online Microsoft Account during the installation process, or access to an existing Microsoft Account. We leave the installer and product key on the Windows desktop for the user to run and set up or access the required Microsoft Account.
• Office Standard licenses are issued via Microsoft Open License Program.
• LibreOffice has overtaken OpenOffice as the most actively developed open-source office suite.

• USB hubs provide additional easy-access USB ports and the convenience of desktop USB ports when the computer is on the floor.
• USB charging ports charge mobile devices faster than standard USB ports, delivering up to 2.1 amps per port compared to 0.9 amps for standard USB ports.
• PowerIQ technology communicates with your devices and determines the fastest possible charge for any device.
• AC adapter is for 110V power with Type A USA-style plug.
• 18-month warranty by manufacturer.