Design a PC/Server for ROON and HQ Player

[Miska]

21 hours ago, tboooe said:

@Miska what is your preferred mobo at the moment?  I dont intend to use Cuda.  The CPU will be i7-7700 for DSD512 and 2 channel convolution.

 

I am using Gigabyte Gaming G1 series boards because of their DAC-UP USB ports...

 

For example something like:

http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z270X-Gaming-5-rev-10#kf

 

Or smaller microATX size:

http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z270MX-Gaming-5-rev-10#kf

[Miska]

44 minutes ago, Bullwinkle said:

I have heard that several of the players have something similar: Asus has its "TrueVolt" and MSI calls it something like "USB Audio Power;" and I have wondered whether any of these are worth anything... but do not know.

 

At least some people used to tape USB connectors to disable the +5V line. But the older Gigabyte Gaming board I have seems to have BIOS configuration option for that, so easier for those cases. The option only applies to the DAC-UP port.

 

I have not checked which ASUS boards have it, I need to investigate more. I have one PRIME-series Z270 chipset ASUS board running on the fanless machine with i5-7600T CPU. It is connected to Holo Spring via USB3 at the moment.

 

Other than that, the Gigabyte Gaming and UltraDurable series have better electrolytic capacitors with longer MTBF. Good for machines that are running for long periods of time.

[Miska]

1 hour ago, tboooe said:

Thank you @Miska since this is a gaming mobo are you concerned at all about noise?  From my very limited understanding of gaming mobo dont they have more powerful graphics, soundcards, and LEDs which can of course increase noise?

 

Graphics is in the 7700 CPU, not on the mobo. It has audio on the mobo like most other boards too, but it is just better isolated with metal can and replaceable opamp. I don't need or use the onboard audio, so it doesn't matter. It can probably be disabled from BIOS configuration like many other onboard peripherals too. LEDs can be configured too. I usually leave the connector leds on in static mode (constant on).

 

Overall, Gigabyte has the fancier and better quality components in those gaming models.

 

Intention of the DAC-UP port is to reduce the noise for those particular ports (yellow connectors on Gigabyte mobos).

[Miska]

5 hours ago, Bullwinkle said:

Now that document interests me for the following reason. Although I haven't been here long I've tried to read deeply into a few threads where folks discuss hardware. I have not noticed CA denizens stressing a need for ECC memory (though my short time here means I may have missed it). Right out of the gate this FreeNAS document is making ECC sound like a necessity; NONE of the processor/chipset combos we've lately discussed here support ECC memory.

 

I wonder whether any CA denizens have strong beliefs about ECC.

 

I have not felt that I would have encountered so many memory errors in my audio computers that I would need ECC. Instead I just try to get high speed DDR4 with as low as possible CL.

 

I do have ECC on my development workstation, but that's just a Xeon E5 workstation purchased as-is with on-site warranty. Not something I built myself. But I would not necessarily buy it as machine just for running HQPlayer.

 

[Miska]

5 hours ago, Bullwinkle said:

 

I can believe this is true compared to ASUS and MSI. One of the reasons I went with a Supermicro z270 board was that they use Nichicon's highest endurance class of capacitors.

 

Supermicro is not really available here, so that's why I have not paid attention to it.

[Miska]

6 hours ago, volpone said:

 

Thank you Miska. I'm also interested in GB Mobo for a future powerful HQP / Roon server setup.

But, when using NAA ethernet connected client on a distinct and distant nanodevice like SBC (RPI, Cubox, MicroRendu ...), do you care much about isolation and "noisy" server HW ?

 

Yes, it doesn't matter in case NAA is used. But the machines in question are directly connected to DACs, so that's why I paid a bit more attention to that particular detail.

 

[Miska]

AMD has also launched some interesting new products...

 

http://hothardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-9-threadripper-cpu-lineup-41ghz-16-core-32-thread-beast

 

http://hothardware.com/news/amd-naples-zen-architecture-makes-epyc-debut-for-datacenter-market

 

[Miska]

53 minutes ago, leftside said:

i7-7700 Kaby Lake 1151

 

7700 or 7700K?

 

54 minutes ago, leftside said:

16GB Corsair DDR4 2666 (or would 32GB be preferable?)

 

I think 16 GB is enough for now, I have 32 on many machines, but they would be probably just as fine with 16.

 

If you use 8 GB modules, you have two DIMM slots free for later upgrade. Just make sure you add memory in pairs, because the CPU has dual-channel memory controller.

 

[Miska]

6 hours ago, leftside said:

I'm pretty sure it's the processor on the server. As mentioned, the xtr filters cripple it (I RDP into the PC from the laptop to view the CPU with Process Explorer). It's ok with spikes up to 60%, but is far happier in lower ranges.

 

It is always best to check per-core load graphs. For HyperThreaded CPUs, 50% total load is pretty much full load, because the second virtual core cannot really do real work. It just helps on speeding up context switches when there are many processes/threads running and CPU needs to wait for RAM.

 

Also when you use GPU, remember that stuttering may also happen if GPU load goes too high, even if CPU doesn't have much load. Because the GPU load is not visible in the CPU load figures.

[Miska]

It is always fun to watch Nvidia launch events:

 

 

 

[Miska]

5 hours ago, mvilla said:

which kind of chassis are you using here?

 

Fractal Design Node 605...

 

Btw, that ASUS PRIME mobo died on BIOS update and I couldn't find way to wake it up again, so I purchased another one, this time from MSI...

[Miska]

17 minutes ago, tboooe said:

Miska, you have made reference to owning several different mobos in this thread (Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, etc).  Do you have a favorite for absolute best sound quality?

 

So far, I've been preferring the Gigabyte gaming models with DAC-UP USB ports...

 

Those also have dual-BIOS in case BIOS update goes ruined.

 

[Miska]

I'm running Linux, never touched WS2012...

 

[Miska]

7 hours ago, rickca said:

Good point.  I suspect a lot of consumer motherboards (like my Gigabyte Z170x Ultra Gaming) use Intel I219-V which is not supported by Windows Server 2016.  

 

The Gigabyte gaming boards I have, have the Atheros/Qualcomm Killer Ethernet which is special in it's own way, by offloading lot of networking to a networking co-processor.

 

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Bullwinkle said:

Yes it is. You'd think that between them, Intel, Microsoft and the mobo companies could be more transparent about compatibility.

 

Only audiophiles are crazy enough to even try to run Server OS on non-server hardware. So that is completely out of their scope.

 

If you buy a 19" rack server from HPE/Dell/etc or a Xeon mobo, you likely get something that is certified to run Server OS. If you buy a gaming mobo with audio USB ports, you are expected to run multimedia oriented/optimized Desktop OS instead of a server one.

 

So for me, it is just completely logical.

[Miska]

33 minutes ago, Bullwinkle said:

 

Ooops, sorry. The X11SSM (without the -F at the end) will support it, but I don't see that for less than $200 (plus the added price tag for ECC memory), so I get any reluctance to go down the server board route.

 

Note that i7-7700T doesn't support ECC memory (or I believe other Socket 1151 parts either).

 

In Socket 2011-3 range there are ones with ECC support. But then it's at most Broadwell-E/EP.

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, ismewor said:

 

ECC memory only exist on Server class CPU specific and not MB socket.

So any Xeon CPU support ECC memory. 

 

How many Xeons have you seen for Socket 1151?

 

Besides, I wouldn't call Xeons "server class CPU", lot of E3's and E5's go to workstations. I have a Xeon E5 workstation myself. Not a server, but specifically a workstation, with ECC RAM.

 

Mac Pro (and maybe the iMac Pro) go into that category too.

[Miska]

23 hours ago, ismewor said:

Sure, Xeons class also work as workstations for sure.

I mean Xeons cpu support ECC memory.

socket 1151. Entry level Xeons E3 are 1151

 

OK, never paid much attention to E3 because it is practically same as i7...

 

[Miska]

2 hours ago, ismewor said:

dsd512 with -2 filter is what i been tested. however the hardest part is xtr filter. I'm not sure even with current i9 can anyone confirm?

 

Stereo DSD512 with non-2s xtr filter works for me, on my i7-6950X machine.

 

I don't have any i9 yet, so I don't know how it would work, but I'd expect i9-7900X to work as well, although it has smaller cache.

 

[Miska]

Lowest TDP CPU's that can handle DSD512 on my testing have been quad-core i5 T-series. I have two machines, i5-6600T and i5-7600T. Both have been able to do DSD512 with -2s filters. TDP is 35W. 7600T is completely fanless in a Streacom FC-10 case and 6600T is in adaptive fan (quiet) PSU + case and also has the RME HDSPe AIO card for inputs. Tested with HQPlayer Embedded...

[Miska]

57 minutes ago, volpone said:

Hi all,

1) Any experiences using HQPlayer with new Intel Coffee Lake I-8700 CPU - Z370MB (6cores, 12 threads) ? Any feedback from @miska ?
2) Any comparison VS AMD Ryzen R1700 (8 Cores, 16 Threads) , I8700 and R1700 are both 65 W TDP ?

Thank's 

 

I'm waiting to get my hands on 16-core variants of i9 and ThreadRipper.

[Miska]

Just now, volpone said:

So at the moment no feedback on coffee lake I8 CPU and HQP compatibility ?

 

I'm not expecting any issues...

[Miska]

I made some changes to my fanless server that is running HQPlayer Embedded and driving the Holo Spring DAC... Added RME HDSPe AIO for inputs. It has analog inputs (192/24 PCM), coaxial and optical S/PDIF and AES/EBU... The machine is more capable now!

 

[Miska]

Nice new graphics card, to follow Titan V. 10x - 20x more DP FP performance than old compromised P6000 and M6000.

 

A bit expensive maybe though...

 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12579/big-volta-comes-to-quadro-nvidia-announces-quadro-gv100

[Miska]

I have Noctua NH-D15 with fan speeds adjusted by motherboard, BIOS set to silent fan mode.