Article: Computer Audiophile Pocket Server C.A.P.S. v3 Carbon

[4est]

Don't get me wrong. You and I are coming at this from the same perspective. What I meant by potential overkill was having each rail completely isolated a la Paul Hynes's unit. I'm probably going to try to adapt a linear power supply Jaehong Lee offers for the Oppo 93/103 player. It supplies 5V, 5V and +/-15V (the first 2 powering the Oppo's digital stages while the second powers the analogue board). I have to believe this can be readily adapted to drive a USB board, SSD and main motherboard, respectively.

 

Makes sense to me!

[StreamFan]

I just finished building my CAPS v3 and installing windows. Everything is as expected thus far except the video performance. I'm thinking it has to be a driver issue.. It's not that it doesnt play HD video, but it lags significantly on just the windows 8 GUI

 

I'm using the Intel dn2800mt

4GB crucial ddr3 (1 stick)

32GB Crucial Msata drive

Current Resolution is 1920x1080

If I lower the resolution to 1368x7XX it gets a little better

 

Intel doesn't appear to have a windows 8 driver for this video, only windows 7 which is what I had to install. I'm wondering is anyone has this problem with windwos 7 too? Updated to latest bios aswell

 

Any help is appreciated

 

Try How to optimize Windows 8 on old hardware | PCWorld. For Win 7 on Atom chips, it helps to disable Aero, set background to color with no pictures, fix swap file size, and disable unneeded services.

[StreamFan]

I understand that CAPS doesn't include video in the requirements, but there was a call for improvements for different needs, so haven't seen any mention of fanless video cards, such as EAH6450 Fanless Video Card, which work well for 1080p video to monitor. They do work silently. A headless music server is very useful, but can be useful to to have it connected to monitor for visuals or selections or whatever, especially now that JRiver has HD TRacks built in, surfing and having the video card offload that work is good. cheers, SF

[AjCrisci]

I understand that CAPS doesn't include video in the requirements, but there was a call for improvements for different needs, so haven't seen any mention of fanless video cards, such as EAH6450 Fanless Video Card, which work well for 1080p video to monitor. They do work silently. A headless music server is very useful, but can be useful to to have it connected to monitor for visuals or selections or whatever, especially now that JRiver has HD TRacks built in, surfing and having the video card offload that work is good. cheers, SF

 

 

StreamFan, thanks for the pointer. I am actually looking for a way to stream the few concert concerts I have. Im not necessarily looking to make this thing an HTPC at all, but this looks great. Two things though; I assume it would be ok, but think there will be power problems? also how that work w/ 32 bit windows (5 total GB of memory [4 gm RAM + 1 GB graphics card])?

 

Thanks

[The Computer Audiophile]

I just finished building my CAPS v3 and installing windows. Everything is as expected thus far except the video performance. I'm thinking it has to be a driver issue.. It's not that it doesnt play HD video, but it lags significantly on just the windows 8 GUI

 

I'm using the Intel dn2800mt

4GB crucial ddr3 (1 stick)

32GB Crucial Msata drive

Current Resolution is 1920x1080

If I lower the resolution to 1368x7XX it gets a little better

 

Intel doesn't appear to have a windows 8 driver for this video, only windows 7 which is what I had to install. I'm wondering is anyone has this problem with windwos 7 too? Updated to latest bios aswell

 

Any help is appreciated

 

Hi Tubefan - As this is a little different from the CAPS design it may be a bit tougher to troubleshoot. Are you using 32 or 64 bit OS?

[copacetic]

I just finished building my CAPS v3 and installing windows. Everything is as expected thus far except the video performance. I'm thinking it has to be a driver issue.. It's not that it doesnt play HD video, but it lags significantly on just the windows 8 GUI

 

I'm using the Intel dn2800mt

4GB crucial ddr3 (1 stick)

32GB Crucial Msata drive

Current Resolution is 1920x1080

If I lower the resolution to 1368x7XX it gets a little better

 

Intel doesn't appear to have a windows 8 driver for this video, only windows 7 which is what I had to install. I'm wondering is anyone has this problem with windwos 7 too? Updated to latest bios aswell

 

Any help is appreciated

 

I'd be interested whether Streamfans' advice helped to provide any solution to the video issue you report.

I'm not quite clear though...are you successfully playing HD video or not?

 

This HDPLEX case:

HDPLEX H3 Series

Looks like it would make a gorgeous (albeit expensive) CAPS case, but I can't find it in the EU at all.

Does anyone know where I might order one in the UK/EU?

 

I'd love to get the Red Wine Audio power solution, but it makes the whole package too expensive (for me anyway).

If anyone here tackles the OpenUPS approach, maybe they could post an 'idiots guide' on how it's done, in a similar spirit to the C.A.P.S guide itself?, It would be a valuable addition IMO.

 

BTW thanks for all your hard work on the C.A.P.S Chris, hugely appreciated!

[StreamFan]

StreamFan, thanks for the pointer. I am actually looking for a way to stream the few concert concerts I have. Im not necessarily looking to make this thing an HTPC at all, but this looks great. Two things though; I assume it would be ok, but think there will be power problems? also how that work w/ 32 bit windows (5 total GB of memory [4 gm RAM + 1 GB graphics card])?

 

Thanks

 

Hi, The graphic card memory is managed by the card, and so is not part of the OS memory, and doesn't count against the 32bit 4GB limit. Also, IE 9/Chrome/FF now use the CPU power of video cards to offset CPU cycles, meaning the main CPU isn't doing the drawing for browsing, so it does help in that regard. Also, the card will draw more power, which goes against the CAPS requirements. See these test results, Power, Temperature, And Noise Benchmarks : AMD Radeon HD 6450 Review: Caicos Cometh. There are other similar fanless cards. Search Amazon.

The card would likely require a 100w power supply instead of 60w per the spec, which can be had for $25.

I have not added a fanless graphics card to an Atom processor board. Someone else, perhaps Small Green Computer can confirm if this particular board takes it. But for other boards with available PCIexpress slot, it works great.

[StreamFan]

Chris, I just wanted to mention in particular that, to me, the most important parts of your CAPS design are: Bit perfect playback, headless JRiver service via remote JPad, NAS centric, and USB research on SOtM tX-USBexp card. Silent parts are critical as well, but I had silent parts before but without knowledge of clean USB, remote control, or a BitPerfect path and therefore was lacking. Other parts may come and go, but these core aspects actually fundamentally changed and liberated my digital experience and increased my enjoyment of digital audio fidelity. No other place has made it clear how to achieve this result, end to end, which seams important to the success of digital HIFI. So thank you most sincerely for that. Cheers, SF

[copacetic]

Please ignore my question re' EU availability of the HDPLEX cases.

I didn't look closely enough at the HDPLEX site, and managed to miss that they have a "fulfilment centre" in Germany.

Prices seem to be the same USD as the US.

 

 

Does anyone here plan to attempt the OpenUPS approach to power supply?

[copacetic]

I've just sent a (somewhat lengthy) e-mail to Mini-Box asking for them to post a 'dummies guide to OpenUPS for C.A.P.S' here on C.A.

A simple 'suggested configuration' with parts list/instructions would make OpenUPS much more approachable to simple folk like myself.

I have a huge 36V electric bicycle battery that I think would power a C.A.P.S for ages, but without instructions I'm probably more likely to fry something than power anything, so finger crossed for some help eh?

[redscouser]

Copacetic,

Try Streacom FC5 EVO Full Aluminium Low Profile Fanless Chassis for the same case design but made by Streacom.

[wappinghigh]

Hey Reds.. thanks for the link. That's a great site. Cheers..

[tyree91]

Is it possible to use a SOtM tX-USB PCI Card in the Carbon, as I alreasy have one?

[Ben-M]

Is it possible to use a SOtM tX-USB PCI Card in the Carbon, as I alreasy have one?

 

It'll just function with USB 2.0, but since we never really approach the bandwidth limits I'm sure it'll function just fine. But yeah, the mobo is just an updated version of the C.A.P.S. v2, so it'll take the PCI. Anybody know otherwise?

 

And yeah, I posted this back on page 2, but it never got any attention, so maybe someone could chime in?

 

 

I was wondering if there's any way to make an Aurender S10 style system where you have 2 HDDs in raid (for data security) and then one ~128Gb SSD with the OS on it and then have the queued playlist from JRMC mirrored onto the SSD when playing? I really think that would be a nice approach. I know you can just play from RAM and get a similar, if not better, effect, but I was really wondering if there's a way to mimic that setup?

 

I thought that I had recently found something like that that could be set up between an SSD and HDD, like the SSD would copy the most frequently used files from the HDD to run them faster? I'm sure Crucial bundled this with their M4 drives, if you bought that version.

 

Also, I've been wondering for a long time what the display on the front of the old C.A.P.S. v2 OrigenAE M10 case can display? Does it only say "Welcome to HTPC", or can it for example scroll song name or other meta data?

[ejn1]

I don't believe the DN2800mt has a PCI slot..., just one PCI-E slot. Not sure if they make PCI-E to PCI adaptors...

[AjCrisci]

Hi, The graphic card memory is managed by the card, and so is not part of the OS memory, and doesn't count against the 32bit 4GB limit. Also, IE 9/Chrome/FF now use the CPU power of video cards to offset CPU cycles, meaning the main CPU isn't doing the drawing for browsing, so it does help in that regard. Also, the card will draw more power, which goes against the CAPS requirements. See these test results, Power, Temperature, And Noise Benchmarks : AMD Radeon HD 6450 Review: Caicos Cometh. There are other similar fanless cards. Search Amazon.

The card would likely require a 100w power supply instead of 60w per the spec, which can be had for $25.

I have not added a fanless graphics card to an Atom processor board. Someone else, perhaps Small Green Computer can confirm if this particular board takes it. But for other boards with available PCIexpress slot, it works great.

 

 

Thanks for the info. I think I am going to just stick to 'the recipe' for now. I usually get smaked inthe face by technology if I try and engineer something by myself (lots of unused electrical/computer componets stacking up in a bin in the cloest collecting dust).

[extracampine]

This looks great Chris! May I ask why you haven't tested the firewire card with a firewire DAC? Would be very interested to hear the result!

[The Computer Audiophile]

This looks great Chris! May I ask why you haven't tested the firewire card with a firewire DAC? Would be very interested to hear the result!

Don't have a FireWire DAC here :~)

[wappinghigh]

Chris regarding storage *on* the server, obviously SSD is the way to go. Do you think it would be possible to plug and play an SSD some how? A lot of folks libraries would be well under 1TB... Alternatively how would the carbon handle running 2* 512 SSD drives 24/7 And which ones would you recommend? Cheers.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris regarding storage *on* the server, obviously SSD is the way to go. Do you think it would be possible to plug and play an SSD some how? A lot of folks libraries would be well under 1TB... Alternatively how would the carbon handle running 2* 512 SSD drives 24/7 And which ones would you recommend? Cheers.

Two 512 SSDs would work fine. I recommend the Samsung 840 Pro Series of drives. Keep in mind your chance of failure is double if you make one large 1TB drive from the two 512 drives.

[dlbeck]

Chris - when will you post the Windows 8 customizations and tweaks?

 

Thanks Chris.

 

David

[wappinghigh]

Chris, or anyone else. What's the point of filtering SSD's with the SOTM filter card? If you are powering the CAPS and consequently motherboard and SSD (which has no spinning parts) all by battery..all clean power, what exactly are you "filtering" with this card? Cheers

[ted_b]

Wap,

powering the motherboard via the dc plug does not insure that the motherboard will then send clean power to its peripherals. In fact, it is this precise issue that has me wondering what can be done to separately power everything in the design. For example, I have a massive Hynes linear power supply sending good clean power to the mobo (in my CAPS v2=) but the SOtM, a well-filtered design in an of itself, clearly benefits from its own dedicated external power (battery pack, iFi, etc). So, it goes to reason that the motherboard is not passing this clean Hynesian power along...so I am not really sure how much benefit the Hynes (or any dc-plugged external power source) is providing...if in fact the SSD and whatever else are getting this dirty mobo power too.

[wappinghigh]

Well exactly Ted. I agree. So maybe that's the point of the SOTM filter? I don't know. As you said in your original q/ it didn't seem to help your own CAPS much. So what exactly is it "filtering"? Power from the MB? Or is it noise from a spinning HDD? In which case it would be zero use with a SDD.. Get my question?

[ted_b]

Well, it's not like it was ineffective. For me, and my setup it almost did too much..lkind of constricted the dynamics and the soundstage. For others, they've said it is a no-brainer (esp at $65). I think it is very dependent on power quality, SSD model, etc. But it's a very low risk investment.