Windows vs Apple
A windows setup has two advantages:
- according to DAW benchmark results Windows 7 was more performant than OSX at that time
- Digichecks fantastic global record light weight recording application is only available for Windows not OSX
And I assume this will more or less still be the case.

Windows is better scalable and you can get the components that you want at a better price.
Apple sells comodity HW to high prices and if you go to the custom shop then prices go like crazy.
On a Windows PC you can replace all components if you want.

Thunderbolt or USB
Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 will both work nicely.
I personally had never the opportunity to upgrade to thunderbolt, but got the RTL latency values from a forum member.

The advantage of the USB driver is:
- with one driver you can access nearly all new RME devices from your DAW
- USB 3 is available on every system

The special advantage of the thunderbolt driver is:
- still supports the pitch function which is not available anymore with the new MADIface USB driver (because of the new transfer mode being used)

When using USB you have an additional flexibility:
- connect it via USB2 and then you can access the 1st 30 I/O ports like with the UFX (all excluding MADI)

UFX+ infos and about RTL of different RME solutions

Here the RTL values from my blog article about the UFX+, as you can see, they are all excellent:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … 8-RME-UFX/

Advantages USB3 IMHO
There is nothing wrong or worse if you use USB. USB3 has even the cheaper cables.
You can use an up to 5m USB3 cable if you take a quality cable from Lindy with 3x shielding.
This gives you potentially higher flexibility in the positioning of the recording interface around your PC
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07F6WHVLH?ref … E_DDE_dt_1
I am not sure whether thunderbolt really can support 5m connections.
But one for sure, prices are higher and on top of the cable you need a TB3 to TB2/TB1 converter which costs on top.

My Xeon based system as example
To give you a few examples how a Xeon E5-1650v3/v4 based system can perform:
- I could drive 2x UFX+ and ADI-2 Pro FS BE on one system safely without issues
- even projects with 400 tracks with 2 VST per track with ASIO buffersize of 32 @44.1 and 64@96 kHz (pure playback) work without audio drops)

Own little benchmark with Cubase
Here the URL of my personal little benchmark (not that I really require 400 tracks, but I needed something for benchmarking): https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … cks-de-en/

Interested in MADI / Octamic XTC integration ?
Advantages of MADI and how to set it up, UFX+ and 2 XTC connected.
Information about the advantages of the XTC as AUX device in TM FX (like a channel strip)
XTC setup can be stored digitally in the UFX+ if its integrated as AUX device.
See this blog article: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … Cber-MADI/

How I use the 2nd UFX+ in my guitar rig ?
An example for RME / TM FX flexibility, routing and everything:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … arren-Rig/

The setup in detail:
My Xeon based system which changed over time, if you are interested to find some good working components, feel free to have a look. Everything is there including USB3.1 extensions or 10TB internal Backup disk: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … mponenten/

Proactively: any potential USB issues and how to solve
Although I have a nice C612 Intel chipset, in some situations there are side effects introduced by other USB devices.
Shall you have issues with USB in any way (happened to me when I added too many USB add-on adapters, like Bluetooth, etc) then I would proactively suggest to isolate the UFX+ fully behind a Sonnet card with FL1100 USB3 chip behind it, this chipset has been tested by RME, see manual. Here the URL of the card, under Win10 no additional driver is needed, shall work out of the box: https://www.sonnettech.com/product/alle … 4port.html

MSI - driver advantage of Sonnet card with FL1100 USB3 controller
Advantage of the Sonnet cards driver is that it works MSI (message signalled interrupt) based, which works better even under higher load / interrupt load: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_S … Interrupts

ADI-2 Pro FS
The ADI-2 Pro can nicely enhance the sound and your setup, I can only highly recommend it to you to integrate it into your solution if your budget allows for it. Here another blog article from me how nicely the ADI-2 Pro FS integrates into an RME environment: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … our-Setup/
Another nice upgrade is on the way in the next 2 weeks MC told, stay tuned.

My complete setup
My setup is to have for recording purposes the two UFX+ and the ADI-2 Pro FS BE at my PC.
For mobile applications 2 Octamic XTC (via MADI).
One UFX+ for my guitar rack to emulate a parallel effect loop for my marshall and more.
One UFX+ as main interface and via AES the ADI-2 Pro FS BE.
From the PC which I also use as audio player I have a TOSLINK to an ADI-2 DAC in front of an high-end HiFi.
This is a blog article about my very nice versatile setup, without any open wish, enjoy: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … her-EN-DE/

You might like also the part that an ADI-2 DAC can perform all D/A conversion in front of your HiFi and with an TOSLINK switcher which has also a remote control you can connect up to 4 devices via ADAT or optical SPDIF to your ADI-2 DAC which performs D/A conversion in best quality (TV, BluRay, UFX+ (player), still 1 free).

Another good thing .. MusicBee is a nice music player that supports ASIO, which can be enhanced by MusicBee Remote, which is an add-on that you can install addditionally. Then its possible to control the playback of a playlist using your Android tablet or smartphone.

All in all, very round excellent sounding solution(s) with RME

Start with one UFX+ and your solution can grow.
ADI-2 Pro FS a big win.
The ARC USB is also a good addition.

Have fun!