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Running Win OS purely in RAM


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Since I have a Merging NADAC it is not possible to use Windows Server. My Chinese is also nonexistent, so perhaps somebody can give a detailed explanation how to install Windows 10 in Ram.

 

This is not the easiest tweak to do because it's fairly technical. I think that Peter St phasure.com may have something close to being able to purchase. lmitche explanation is the best I've seen regarding iSCSI (see the iSCSI boot thread).

Custom room treatments for headphone users.

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Since I have a Merging NADAC it is not possible to use Windows Server. My Chinese is also nonexistent, so perhaps somebody can give a detailed explanation how to install Windows 10 in Ram.

 

Hi Stephan,

 

It is virtually impossible to do yourself because of the super lengthy process to follow with so many errors to make. With my own guide, made for myself, it takes me 11 hours in a row to create one OS to boot from RAM. And this is after doing it 7 or 8 times or so.

So what I did is create a ready disk for those who like to have it - with 5 OSes on it. One is for servicing the others, four can work from disk or boot from RAM. There's one Windows 8 Pro and 3 different Windows 10 Pro installs. Each of them can operate in normal fashion or in so-called Minimized OS Mode, which is the XXHighEnd term for tearing down the whole of the OS except for what's needed for audio. Because all can be changed in real time back and forth, each OS can run in 4 very differently sounding modes, while each OS itself sounds different from the other. Not counting the Servicing OS for playback, that's 16 different OSes.

That's all. ;)

 

 

XXHighEnd Boot Menu 01.png

 

 

The OS to boot into can be set over an RDC connection (so the audio PC can be headless) and happens in advance of shutting down. So what you so by means of the software created for it (see screenshot above), is "Reboot into Windows 10 10586.0 RAM Version, please". And 90 seconds or so later you're up and running, RDC connected again.

 

And if you want one, we ship them since a couple of weeks already.

 

When Future Windows 10 versions come about which sound better or radically different (and they all do so far) and they are under the same Microsoft Windows 10 licensing scheme then I'll spend the 11 hours again, upload it for download and all of you can add it to the boot menu in really 60 seconds after download (see New button).

 

Regards,

Peter

email when needed : sales phasure com

Lush^3-e      Lush^2      Blaxius^2.5      Ethernet^3     HDMI^2     XLR^2

XXHighEnd (developer)

Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer)

Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer)

Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier)

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Peter, I am interested in this. So based on your above post what is it that I can buy from you? Is this something i can install into a PC I already have???

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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tboooe, Yes.

 

Replace your OS Disk in there with this one (you can install anything in each of the OSes in there).

Optimally you should have a removable bay for it (connected to eSata to your Zuma ?). Not 100% necessary but if you have that, you can remove the (our) Disk which was used to copy to RAM and boot from there, to next remove the Disk. Now there's nothing left in/connected your Audio playing PC expect a LAN cable, assumed you have the music connected elsewhere (that should be your Control PC, I'd say).

 

Peter

Lush^3-e      Lush^2      Blaxius^2.5      Ethernet^3     HDMI^2     XLR^2

XXHighEnd (developer)

Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer)

Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer)

Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier)

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tboooe, Yes.

 

Replace your OS Disk in there with this one (you can install anything in each of the OSes in there).

Optimally you should have a removable bay for it (connected to eSata to your Zuma ?). Not 100% necessary but if you have that, you can remove the (our) Disk which was used to copy to RAM and boot from there, to next remove the Disk. Now there's nothing left in/connected your Audio playing PC expect a LAN cable, assumed you have the music connected elsewhere (that should be your Control PC, I'd say).

 

Peter

 

Perfect, I will PM you with some additional questions.

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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I spent some time last week, and over the weekend, figuring out how to run Server 2012 R2 out of ram. I think you can run any windows OS out of ram, but I'm using server for listening to music.

 

I'm writing a blog with instructions, I will probably post the blog in a day or two. I think its fairly straightforward, with the blog, to get this working.

 

I did it using Windows 7, but I expect 8 or 10 would also work. It kind of assumes you have a couple of OS's, one for listening, and one to use to do the installation. If you listen with 8 or 10, it should work with one OS.

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I spent some time last week, and over the weekend, figuring out how to run Server 2012 R2 out of ram. I think you can run any windows OS out of ram, but I'm using server for listening to music.

 

I'm writing a blog with instructions, I will probably post the blog in a day or two. I think its fairly straightforward, with the blog, to get this working.

 

I did it using Windows 7, but I expect 8 or 10 would also work. It kind of assumes you have a couple of OS's, one for listening, and one to use to do the installation. If you listen with 8 or 10, it should work with one OS.

 

Awesome, thank you! I look forward to your writeup. So to be clear, will your method allow the hard drive to be removed once the OS is moved to RAM?

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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I love this kind of thing - it reminds me of the time when I was a teen nerd learning C on the Amiga A500 and it would take ages to compile and link, because I had to swap floppy disks for the two steps, so... I hacked the whole programs into RAMDisk and then my learn-dev-test cycle became extremely short, making it fun again.

 

If you can manage both the OS and then your Audio programs and audio files for playback completely in RAM, then there's a good chance you don't need any swap space so that the HDD/SDD is unnecessary.

 

One more item onto my DIY Experimentation list!

Dedicated Line DSD/DXD | Audirvana+ | iFi iDSD Nano | SET Tube Amp | Totem Mites

Surround: VLC | M-Audio FastTrack Pro | Mac Opt | Panasonic SA-HE100 | Logitech Z623

DIY: SET Tube Amp | Low-Noise Linear Regulated Power Supply | USB, Power, Speaker Cables | Speaker Stands | Acoustic Panels

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I have 16g of ram in my audio PC. Right now, my vhd is 12g fixed size (has to be fixed size for this to work), so obviously I have 4 gig left that the PC can use as normal ram. That seems like plenty. I guess it could be a problem playing dsd files.

I'm using server 2012 R2 datacenter (got a cheap ebay license for it), and it's just under 10g, so I have 2 gig left to add things, again plenty. I may try shrinking the vhd down to 11g or so, that might work a little better. I will also try the AO utility to shrink the OS, and see how small it will make the vhd, and if everything still works ok.

 

One very cool aspect of this (IMHO) is that as long as you make periodic backup copies to use as baselines, its easy to experiment and try different changes (like shrinking the os). If something gets messed up, you can just revert back to a previous working copy.

 

In theory, I'm just using RAM, and I should be able to turn off my OS sdd once windows is loaded and running. I'm planning on adding a switch on my SDD power line so I can turn off SDD power.

 

Randy

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In theory, I'm just using RAM, and I should be able to turn off my OS sdd once windows is loaded and running. I'm planning on adding a switch on my SDD power line so I can turn off SDD power.

 

Randy

This is exactly what I was thinking too. I wonder if it would be possible to automate the process at startup once everything is set up? For example, at boot up after some time the system defaults to loading everything into RAM? I am nothing more than hack when it comes to knowledge of PCs so please excuse me if this is a dumb question. I have no idea what it takes to get the OS to automatically load into RAM.

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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The way PeterSt has configured things, multiple OSs can be stored on the HDD/SSD and the one to be loaded into RAM easily selected. This makes comparing the SQ of different OS versions a total doddle. And it’s so easy to demonstrate that different OSs do indeed sound totally different, even with exactly the same hardware and configuration.

 

Which OS sounds best? Was the comparison also done with Linux and Mac OS X by anyone? That would be interesting.

Dedicated Line DSD/DXD | Audirvana+ | iFi iDSD Nano | SET Tube Amp | Totem Mites

Surround: VLC | M-Audio FastTrack Pro | Mac Opt | Panasonic SA-HE100 | Logitech Z623

DIY: SET Tube Amp | Low-Noise Linear Regulated Power Supply | USB, Power, Speaker Cables | Speaker Stands | Acoustic Panels

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I'm planning on adding a switch on my SDD power line so I can turn off SDD power.

 

I was thinking of a similar solution for HDD but then I am not sure if this is good as HDDs usually need to park the head before powering down (or at least I think so).

Dedicated Line DSD/DXD | Audirvana+ | iFi iDSD Nano | SET Tube Amp | Totem Mites

Surround: VLC | M-Audio FastTrack Pro | Mac Opt | Panasonic SA-HE100 | Logitech Z623

DIY: SET Tube Amp | Low-Noise Linear Regulated Power Supply | USB, Power, Speaker Cables | Speaker Stands | Acoustic Panels

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This is exactly what I was thinking too. I wonder if it would be possible to automate the process at startup once everything is set up? For example, at boot up after some time the system defaults to loading everything into RAM? I am nothing more than hack when it comes to knowledge of PCs so please excuse me if this is a dumb question. I have no idea what it takes to get the OS to automatically load into RAM.

 

It will be fairly easy to have the bootup default to the ram os.

 

I'm using a program called easyBCD for much of the bootup stuff, as this program makes it easier to implement. It also makes choosing the default selections easy to make and change.

 

I have two bootup screens now, so you need to handle both of them.

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It will be fairly easy to have the bootup default to the ram os.

 

I'm using a program called easyBCD for much of the bootup stuff, as this program makes it easier to implement. It also makes choosing the default selections easy to make and change.

 

I have two bootup screens now, so you need to handle both of them.

 

I have no idea what you just wrote. I just hope I am pc literate enough to follow your directions.

12TB NAS >> i7-6700 Server/Control PC >> i3-5015u NAA >> Singxer SU-1 DDC (modded) >> Holo Spring L3 DAC >> Accustic Arts Power 1 int amp >> Sonus Faber Guaneri Evolution speakers + REL T/5i sub (x2)

 

Other components:

UpTone Audio LPS1.2/IsoRegen, Fiber Switch and FMC, Windows Server 2016 OS, Audiophile Optimizer 3.0, Fidelizer Pro 6, HQ Player, Roonserver, PS Audio P3 AC regenerator, HDPlex 400W ATX & 200W Linear PSU, Light Harmonic Lightspeed Split USB cable, Synergistic Research Tungsten AC power cords, Tara Labs The One speaker cables, Tara Labs The Two Extended with HFX Station IC, Oyaide R1 outlets, Stillpoints Ultra Mini footers, Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, Vicoustic/RealTraps/GIK room treatments

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Could you use a usb memory stick boot and then remove it?

easyBCD supports making boot usb sticks. I haven't used this option yet, but it appears you can use it to make a bootable stick that can boot up a vhd. So that is definitely a possibility.

 

tboooe,

I think (or hope) my instructions, although somewhat long, are detailed enough for you to follow.

The big thing is most of the work is performed while running in windows 7. Windows 8 should work also, but some of the steps may be a little different in 8.

So you would need to be able to run win7 or 8 on the target PC.

 

Randy

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Don't feel bad Tboooe, I'm about to ask the dumbest question ever... lol...

 

Do you have to insert/remove the HD to load the OS into RAM every time you boot up the computer or is this a one time install? My current server is headless and turns on via wake on lan through an android Jriver remote control app on my phone... which is about as convenient as I could make it. I shut the server down via my phone as well. So going to a more complicated boot up routine could be a little more inconvenient.

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Don't feel bad Tboooe, I'm about to ask the dumbest question ever... lol...

 

Do you have to insert/remove the HD to load the OS into RAM every time you boot up the computer or is this a one time install? My current server is headless and turns on via wake on lan through an android Jriver remote control app on my phone... which is about as convenient as I could make it. I shut the server down via my phone as well. So going to a more complicated boot up routine could be a little more inconvenient.

 

Whenever you shut down your server, you will lose the contents of RAM.

So you need to reload RAM whenever to turn on your server.

If you want to keep the same convenience, you could just leave the HD connected all the time.

If you're running the OS out of RAM, it may not matter that the HD is still connected.

 

Yash

I think the newer hard drives, especially 2.5" ones, park their head automatically when you're not using them, so you might be safe in turning off power to the hd, once windows has booted up.

The ones I have only spin when they are being accessed, and I would guess when they're not spinning, the heads are parked. Otherwise, they would never survive in a laptop type of environment.

 

Randy

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Yash

I think the newer hard drives, especially 2.5" ones, park their head automatically when you're not using them, so you might be safe in turning off power to the hd, once windows has booted up.

The ones I have only spin when they are being accessed, and I would guess when they're not spinning, the heads are parked. Otherwise, they would never survive in a laptop type of environment.

 

Thanks, it looks there'd be a need to confirm that the drive has the circuit inside to do the auto-parking.

Dedicated Line DSD/DXD | Audirvana+ | iFi iDSD Nano | SET Tube Amp | Totem Mites

Surround: VLC | M-Audio FastTrack Pro | Mac Opt | Panasonic SA-HE100 | Logitech Z623

DIY: SET Tube Amp | Low-Noise Linear Regulated Power Supply | USB, Power, Speaker Cables | Speaker Stands | Acoustic Panels

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I thought I’d share my recent experience of PeterSt’s latest development – running a Win OS purely from RAM. This allows for the HDD/SSD on which the OS is stored to be completely removed from the PC once the OS is booted into RAM, reducing power draw from the mobo/PSU (and therefore presumably noise too).

 

In my case, I have literally two devices connected to my mobo:

  1. my DAC, via a PCIe USB card
  2. my NAS drive (on which all my music files are stored), via the ethernet port

 

And that’s it.

 

Running the OS purely from RAM has provided a quantum leap in SQ. Whether this is down to the increased speed or decreased noise, or a mixture of a lot of things, I have no idea. But the result is dramatic.

 

The way PeterSt has configured things, multiple OSs can be stored on the HDD/SSD and the one to be loaded into RAM easily selected. This makes comparing the SQ of different OS versions a total doddle. And it’s so easy to demonstrate that different OSs do indeed sound totally different, even with exactly the same hardware and configuration.

 

In my case, I’ve gone even further with the following PC mods:

  • the CPU is water-cooled and all fans have been removed from the PC
  • 2 of the cheap clocks on the mobo and 1 on the PCIe card have been replaced by high-quality DEXA clocks (each with its own linear PSU)
  • the PC’s ATX SMPS has been replaced with a high-quality Teradak ATX linear PSU
  • I use a Baaske ethernet isolator and an Intona USB isolator

 

I strongly suspect that running the OS purely from RAM and removing as many devices from the mobo as possible provides more of a SQ improvement than all these mods put together (apart from the Intona, which I think is essential with a USB DAC). But this is difficult to verify.

 

More info on what PeterSt has done on the Phasure forum.

 

Mani.

 

 

Hey Mani, if you think about it companies like Aurender and such that use customised boards, basically do the same thing - they remove all unecessary devices and use only what is important for audio and nothing more. I mean, that the concept is similar to yours and many other people.

 

I have just saw your post here. Can you please explain how you setup this Run from RAM thing with OS? Specifically if you use a Linux distro or even with Windows, as that would also be of benefit to a lot of us. Which software do you use, etc?

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