Design a PC/Server for ROON and HQ Player

[sydlow]

This is my build, designed to run headless Roon server + HG Player. Its fanless.

Streacom FC5 Alpha Fanless Case

Gigibyte GA-H170N-WIFI

6th Gen Intel Core i7-6700 Processor;

Streacom ZeroFlex 240;

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2400MHz ;

Samsung 850 Evo 250Gb M.2 SSD; Samsung 850 Evo 2Tb SSD;

TP Link PCIe GbE Fiber Network Card w/ Open SFP - yup fiber - Merging Nadac via FMC & SNP transreceivers.

Windows 10 Pro 64Bit OEM;

 

Thanks mate - awesome specs for a Roon+HQP machine.

Building one right now!

[sydlow]

Hi everyone - has anyone built a Roon/HQP player with a mobo that features "clean USB"?

Specifically, example boards like:

 

GIGABYTE USB DAC-UP

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1151 - GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 (rev. 1.0)

MSI USB Audio Power Pro

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170I-GAMING-PRO-AC.html

Asus TrueVolt USB

http://www.asus.com/US/Motherboards/MAXIMUS-VIII-IMPACT/

[sydlow]

Just finished a build. Thought I'd share:

- Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 selected because it's the smallest mobo with "USB DAC-UP" feature promising lower noise from PC to DAC on two USB ports. You can also turn off power to these ports if your DAC doesn't need it.

- Intel 6700

- 16GB RAM

- Streacom case

- Streacom Zeroflex PSU (internal)

 

It's running Roon Server and HQP just fine into a Auralic Vega as DSD128.

CPU cores running at under 15% load.

Very sweet box. Gorgeous sound coming out of the Vega.

[sydlow]

...HQplayer upsampling to DSD512

 

Just curious which DAC you're sending the DSD512 to.

[sydlow]

Dev: I do not have a DAC that does DSD512. I was just suggesting a fan less box...

 

Can HQP dummy-upsample to DSD512 without being connected to a DAC just to see what load it generates?

[sydlow]

Don't know. Maybe Miska can answer. Dev asked if there is any option to go fanless, and I suggested HDPlex H5. You can have all the processor power you need (or available today) is an i7 6700K at 4.0 GHz, and based on others experiences it can up sample to DSD512. As of power supplies; I think there is HDPlex 300W LPS, and then there are few Teradaks LPS's going up to 600W. So everything remains fanless, and you have the required processing power.

 

Oh - I thought you had built a server with those specs.

[sydlow]

Yes, I have a server built with;

 

Intel Core i7-6700 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Processor

Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TD ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

HDPlex H5 case

and HDPlex 300 W LPS.

 

So if you have HQPlayer on it can you just set it to see if it will upsample to DSD512 and advise the CPU load?

[sydlow]

Now there's a blog post about my most recent server build:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/blogs/miska/building-new-server-multichannel-processing-702/

That link isn't working

[sydlow]

With which CPU?

 

Whether or not I'd need 1060 or 1080 to do everything to 24M stereo on the T&A DSD8 with 6700k? It affects which case I could use, etc.

 

6700 non-K works fine for me, without any video card.

[sydlow]

Thanks. That's very interesting. With poly-sinc (not 2s)? And with ASDM7 and AMSDM7 ?

Yes. 30-40% CPU

[sydlow]

Have you tried upsampling DSD256 to 512?

 

No. my source is all PCM

[sydlow]

Does anyone have any advice as to which of these two is best as the only drive on a PC/Server for Roon and HQPlayer?

 

Neither. Don't use M.2 format SSD, go for standard SATA. That way you can power it easily with an external 5V linear PS or Battery rather than via the motherboard to reduce the noise.

[sydlow]

I use NVMe (M.2) because those are much faster than any SATA.

 

IMO, there's really not much to talk about noise in regards to the M.2 SSD compared to all the other noise sources. If you want to reduce noise, it is much easier and better go for NAA based on some small ARM CPU.

@EuroDriver and I had a good play with a variety of components when testing the T+A

As I was using the drive for boot and apps only, not data, speed wasn't an issue.

And the PC lots of other optimisations to remove noise.

The SSD was the last optimisation

[sydlow]

But as Miska says, this is playing to an NAA, which is isolated by fibre, and with optimised power supply. The power to the server is the other side of an isolation transformer. So I'm more interested in processing/streaming performance for this purpose

 

Ah OK - I thought it was for DSD512 to the T+A

[sydlow]

Well it is, but via the NAA. Thanks anyway.

 

What spec is the Windows NAA box going to be?

[sydlow]

... Ive been waiting to see if it would become possible to use the microRendu at 512 with the T&A8.

I think many are waiting to see if that becomes possible, but looks pretty unlikely for quite a while

[sydlow]

...

I just ordered a Streacom FC10 Alpha fanless case.

...

As for power, I'm thinking of an external Teradak 600W linear supply...

 

I have a Fanless Streacom case too. The FC9. Other components are:

Intel Core i7-6700

Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5

and

I use the Uptone LPS. Powers the motherboard with the Pico PSU and the SSD separately via the two power outs.

 

[sydlow]

...

is anyone out there using an ASUS Z170M-PLUS motherboard

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Similar setup here. But using a Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5

[sydlow]

No, I'm using W10.

And using the FC-9 case with the HT4 Riser with this Mobo.

[sydlow]

I use 6700 without k.

me too

[sydlow]

Streacom cases

[sydlow]

I have two.

FC9 and FC5

[sydlow]

I hope i7 7700 will give those few percent that's missing to handle this latest modulator that have hiccups with 192k and dsd files...

Redbook to DSD512 stresses the CPU to 30-40% on my rig. No GPU.