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title: Hardware Spec
description: Hardware Spec
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# Hardware Spec
## Acquire StudioDX is designed to support many different formats, very efficiently and can often support multiple videos being processed at the same time.
**HOWEVER,** it is always advisable to identify the client's playback requirements and match the hardware appropriately via a combination of best **CODECs**, bitrate of rendering and compare that to a hardware cost and specification. i.e. for top-end playout, you will need a player device more capable than one that is just decoding a single HD video on a single monitor.
Acquire partner with a number of hardware suppliers who can assist you in providing player technology to meet the demanding needs of constant playout in high profile installs, and you are also welcome to provide your own equipment as we aim to make the software as compatible as possible to 3rd party devices.
The below information is aimed at helping you understand what to look for when specifying the hardware you choose.
If you have any questions or need any help in choosing hardware, please contact our [**sales**](mailto:sales@acquiredigital.com) or [**support team**](mailto:support@acquiredigital.com) who can assist you.
although we advise you to always 'try before you buy'!
#### Operating System
Acquire StudioDX is designed to operate on **64 Bit Windows 10** (EOL) or preferably **Windows 11**. This allows us to support the widest range of hardware and also provides rapid security and support features your team or client can manage to ensure the highest security of your installation.
For 'devices' use of Windows, Microsoft provide specific version and features, and to ensure you have more control over the operating system, we recommend you install **Windows LTSC** versions rather than the usual user versions (Home, Pro). This allows images to be made, Windows features to be turned on/off and control the release of updates and patches silently.
There may be some other options you may wish to enable/disable in the operating system.
#### CPU / GPU
Some graphics cards support hardware decoding of specific video formats - the maths involved in decoding the compressed video is intensive and is best served using a GPU for this task which is faster at performing maths intensive calculations. Some of the more recent popular and efficient CODECs are supported which would be acceptable to use on high-profile display installs (e.g. h.265, AV1) - see [https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-decode-support-matrix](https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-decode-support-matrix) **for example**.
**However**, sometimes clients require the use of **CODECS** which are not supported by the GPU hardware (typically some of the less or non-compressed style videos), so it is the job of the CPU to process the files to be rendered. Thus, a faster CPU will be required in those cases. Although StudioDX will playback on most graphics cards, it is recommended to select a discrete graphics card rather than rely upon 'onboard' graphics for most installations.
You may wish to check with the computer supplied or Acquire Digital to advise on your specific use case, as **NVidia**, **AMD** and **Intel ARC** cards all have their own specialities.
In cases where multiple displays are to be synched, the cards are often supplied with four outputs, and some computers can also share card loads and increase the number of display outputs by adding more than one card into the system and synching them together
- **(e.g. Nvidia RTX Pro Sync card allows for up to 32 synched displays without tearing, and including Genlock support)**.
**CPUs**
As long as the CPU is multi-core, Acquire StudioDX will work efficiently. As above, the more complex the rendering requirement the faster the CPU required. Always leave some 'overhead' for any background tasks the computer is operating.
#### Hard drive
It is recommended to use fast Hard Drives for the player. This can often be a bottleneck, and solid state drives have become the norm over traditional mechanical drives.
Recently, rather than using the **SATA bus**, the drive of choice is the **NVMe drive forma**t which is much faster, and for extreme use (e,g, 8K content or multiple 4K content) it can be beneficial to use a device that allows for multiple drives connected via RAID 0, effectively striping the data across 2 or more drives to double the effective speed.
The fastest solid-state drives (SSDs) in 2026, specifically **PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives**, offer blistering speeds, with top-tier models like the Crucial T705 achieving read/write speeds over 14,000 MB/s. High-performance PCIe 4.0 drives often reach 7,000–7,500 MB/s, while portable SSDs (like the SanDisk Extreme) usually max out around 1,000–2,000 MB/s.
- **PCIe 5.0 SSDs:** 10,000 – 14,000+ MB/s (Fastest available, high heat)
- **PCIe 4.0 SSDs:** 5,000 – 7,500 MB/s (Standard for modern gaming/content creation)
- **PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs:** 2,000 – 3,500 MB/s (Good for budget builds)
- **SATA SSDs:** 500 – 560 MB/s (Best for upgrading old PCs)
- **Portable/External SSDs:** 1,000 – 3,800+ MB/s (USB-C/Thunderbolt)
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