first c.a.p.s. build requirements

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

hi

i know i am asking to much question here in this forum, but i can't help it, sorry.

 

when building your first caps system, you have to think about alot of thing that will make a difference in performence in your system. and because every system is not the same, you can't really pinpoint a list or build guid for everyone.

 

however, there are things that you have take in concideration when building one of these. i my case, a beginner audiophile, or rather a good audio lover have been playing my music through the 3.5 mm jack of my laptop. ( i know )

now, by buying a dac and replacing it, i would get a more clear and better sound of my laptop.

 

But when build a new system, caps, i'm going to use a dedicated usb port for the dac, and no spinning hard drives and no fan noise, and ultimately a linear psu. All these thngs are steps to make my system better. (the cost goes up).

 

So bascly my question is going to be: where would i start? known the fact the i come from a 3.5mm laptop jack. what benefits or elements should i implment in my system to APPRECIATE my system? or is a intel NUC or brix system just good enough?

and by that i mean, is the linear psu really a must at the beginning?

 

 

thank you

[Harpy]

I don't think a linear psu is must starting out. You could get a basic system built and add it later. Just moving to a USB DAC would reap a lot a rewards. If it were me, I would use a 4th generation Intel I3 on a Mini ITX mother board that runs off a power brick. The newer generation CPU's use less watts and run cooler.

[DaQi]

A USB DAC is a must for your next step. Lots of great relatively low cost options which will be a big step forward. Then to free up your current laptop and allow you to play music independently of the laptop a CAPS would be a great choice. NUC is good if built up from a kit and in a fanless case but the CAPS motherboards have been chosen specifically for audio properties whereas a NUC is more of an all round computer which is great in an HTPC solution. Lots of other options but those are probably the simpler ones. Also a Mac Mini which although quiet is not fanless. You can always go back and add the linear or battery power supply later to the CAPS or NUC.

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

ok, so the dac is certain that i am going to buy, and than i wanted to purchase a hdplex h1 case with the following components.

a gigabyte ga-B85N as motherboard, GIGABYTE - Moederbord - Socket 1150 - GA-B85N (rev. 1.1) , wich has a dedicated usb port for a dac, is it a good motherboard?

 

for cpu i'm going with pentium or celeron

and for storage a msata card with 30 gb and 4 gb of ram

 

i think i am going to go with windows 7 and jriver, but thre are no apps on the microsoft app store (for windows 8.1 RT) to remote jriver. olny IOS? so i have to get a ipad?

 

what do you suggest?

[DaQi]

I would suggest going with a slightly larger MSATA card as the 30gb is a bit tight to get the operating system into. The price difference to go to 64gb is minimal and you will then have a bit extra space to spare.

 

Do you already have a surface and that is why you are looking at the Microsoft app store? Jremote on the iPad is brilliant and the price of an iPad versus a surface is not much different. I am not aware of any remote controllers that would run in Windows RT. Not sure if JRiver would run on Windows RT but my suspicion is likely not. If you make the move to Windows then you could run JRiver on the tablet itself and control the server version on the music server. Alternately, there is a web interface to JRiver. I only tried it once and as I have JRemote never bothered again.

 

Don't know enough about that motherboard to comment. Keep in mind with those CPUs advanced audio functions like real-time transcoding, room correction, etc. will strain them and they may not be able to keep up. Basic playback should be fine though.

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

i have my chord chordette now, and it sounds amazing, BUT, the sound of the laptop drives me crazy. an noise mostly.

 

now, my next step was to build the caps, but i saw a intel nuc with thunderblt connection, i am interested i must say. what do you think is best for me? a hifi/htpc usage, no hires streaming, just cd rips in wav.

 

i was going to take the DC3217BY model, but couldn't fnd any fanless cases for it.

 

what do you guys think? the caps build that i mentiond or the intel nuc? in think the nuc is going to be cheaper too.

 

 

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

ok, nvm guys, i stepped down from the NUC idea, the dedicates usb port for dac on my chosen motherboard was the selling point for me. and the nice case from hdplex.

 

so i am going for a caps build, i will post my setup proces and pictures here.

[Harpy]

Good luck with your build.