My First Audio PC based on HDPlex 2nd Generation H5

[Robert van Diggele]

Interesting findings on using SSD or HDD. Currently I have a SSD with Vortexbox plus a WD Red HDD for data. Will try and reinstall on the HDD only.

 

Recently I started using the HDPlex 400W power unit, with the ATX connections to mobo, cpu and SSD/HDD. Already an improvment over de 100W/250W DC/ATX unit. With the 400W is gives a smoother sound.

[lmitche]

Interesting findings on using SSD or HDD. Currently I have a SSD with Vortexbox plus a WD Red HDD for data. Will try and reinstall on the HDD only.

 

Recently I started using the HDPlex 400W power unit, with the ATX connections to mobo, cpu and SSD/HDD. Already an improvment over de 100W/250W DC/ATX unit. With the 400W is gives a smoother sound.

 

I spent a couple hours this morning playing around with various SATA cables and made a nice discovery. I've been using my motherboards standard SATA connections. Today I thought to try one of the SATA express capable connections which are downward compatible with SATA.

 

Surprisingly there was a nice sound quality improvement with the SATA express capable port.

 

On power supplies,over here an EVGA 1600 watt ATX power supply powers my upsampling machine's motherboard and hard disk. Ripple is in the 10 mv range and it sounds great. At much less than 1600 watts usage the fan never kicks in.

 

Today, there are cheaper ATX power supply solutions with similar specs, titanium rating, available for about half of what I paid from manufacturers like Seasonic.

[rickca]

This proves that it is the elimination of the noisy SSD high frequency backwash on the 5 volt rail that makes the SQ difference here. Ordinarily that backwash must express itself on the 5 volt USB power lines and other 5 volt connected components.

I'm confused. NVMe M.2 PCIe drives like Samsung 950 Pro use 3.3 volt not 5 volt.

[lmitche]

I'm confused. NVMe M.2 PCIe drives like Samsung 950 Pro use 3.3 volt not 5 volt.

Hi Rickca, my observation was about SATA SSDs not m.2 or nvme drives. Although people that have tested the latter have made negative observations about sound quality. Check out Eurodrivers posts about the same.

[Robert van Diggele]

Thank you.

Everything is new in this build, JCAT also new, it's the FEMTO version. Regarding the SATA wires, I already ordered 2 x Pachanko Reference, which should arrive in a few days. I hope they will be as good as everybody keeps saying.

And yes, the 2TB is the music storage.

Hi Andru, did you already received these cables? And how are they performing? Thanks.

[andru26]

Hi Andru, did you already received these cables? And how are they performing? Thanks.

 

Hi Robert,

I didn't have time to perform A/B testing against the default cables, however the sound improvement looks to be there. I believe this is the kind of upgrade that you can only appreciate once you go back to the previous cables and you realise that there is a loss of quality.

 

If I get the chance I will try putting back the factory SATAs for a reality check and will report back.

 

Andru

[Robert van Diggele]

Thanks, sounds good. Are the cables flexible, and what termination do you have, straight or 90 degrees angle? I am thinking about trying a black reference in my set up.

[andru26]

Thanks, sounds good. Are the cables flexible, and what termination do you have, straight or 90 degrees angle? I am thinking about trying a black reference in my set up.

 

You're welcome Robert.

The points you are bringing a very good. The cables are not very flexible, but you can create loops over bigger distances. I had to purchase 30cm lengths just to cover 10-15cm of distance between the sata ports and the SSD/HDD.

 

Regarding the termination, when I initially spoke to Audiophil before making the purchase, I sent him photos of my setup and asked him about using the 90 degrees termination. However he recommended the straight termination instead, saying that the 90 degrees one would not be better. Now having the cables installed I believe that the 90 degrees ones would have worked better. The reason is that the cables can not be bent at all on a distance of about 7-8cm from the ends. I managed to curve them after all, but I had to use the entire vertical room in my case for that. This might be a very big issue when dealing with very small areas around the SATA ports, that's why i believe that the 90 degrees versions would have been better.

 

With that said, straight terminations can also work, but you need to have at least 10 cm of open space above your SATA connectors on the motherboard in order to be able to curve the cable.

 

I hope this helped.

 

Best,

Andru

[Greg_S]

Hi Andru,

Thanks for sharing your build. Do you think your build would be suitable to run HQPlayer with upsampling of Redbook PCM to DSD256? Your processor choice seems adequate, but I'm wondering about such a processing load maybe being a bit much for the JS-2 LPSU?

Greg

[andru26]

Hi Andru,

Thanks for sharing your build. Do you think your build would be suitable to run HQPlayer with upsampling of Redbook PCM to DSD256? Your processor choice seems adequate, but I'm wondering about such a processing load maybe being a bit much for the JS-2 LPSU?

Greg

Hi Greg,

 

You're welcome.

You will not have any problem upsampling to DSD256. Other people reported that they are upsampling to DSD512 using JS-2 and they didn't have any issues.

[Greg_S]

Great! Are you using something along with the JS-2 such as a PicoPSU as your motherboard ATX connection? Thanks again.

[andru26]

Great! Are you using something along with the JS-2 such as a PicoPSU as your motherboard ATX connection? Thanks again.

Yes Greg, this is what I am using: picoPSU-160-XT, 160watt (200watt peak) , 12V input DC-DC ATX Power Supply

I also got an extra peripheral cable: picoPSU-150-XT peripheral extension cable, as you only get one when you buy the PSU.

[Greg_S]

Andru, I think I'm going to pretty much duplicate what you've done. Thanks for the pathfinding!

[andru26]

Andru, I think I'm going to pretty much duplicate what you've done. Thanks for the pathfinding!

 

That's great to hear Greg. Please share your thoughts on the build once it will be ready.

[Greg_S]

Will do.

[gadawg58]

Incredible build ... been thinking about something similar only with Linux and using MPD. Great job!!!

[andru26]

Thank you and good luck with your build.

[Takacid]

On 2017/2/13 at 8:22 AM, andru26 said:

2. If you decide to build your own, then think about how do you intend to play your music. If you want to upsample to DSD512 using HQP, then you should get a very powerful CPU. If upsampling is not your intent, I guess an I5 will work fine. But you should also have a look at low TDP Xeons. This one (Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1235L v5 (8M Cache, 2.00 GHz) Product Specifications) has a 25W TDP and it won't require a lot or current from the LPSU.

Hi  andru26, Thanks for your post. I'm thinking of building my own PC similar to yours. The only difference is the CPU, Intel XEON E3-1235Lv5 (It seems like the perfect CPU with low TDP, essential for Audio PC). Do you know if this CPU is compatible with the MB Super Mircro X11SAE-M that you use? I'm not sure if the Graphics of the XEON E3-1235Lv5 is compatible with the MB... Thanks

[Marcin_gps]

1 hour ago, Takacid said:

Hi  andru26, Thanks for your post. I'm thinking of building my own PC similar to yours. The only difference is the CPU, Intel XEON E3-1235Lv5 (It seems like the perfect CPU with low TDP, essential for Audio PC). Do you know if this CPU is compatible with the MB Super Mircro X11SAE-M that you use? I'm not sure if the Graphics of the XEON E3-1235Lv5 is compatible with the MB... Thanks

It is compatible. I have the same setup which I recommended to Andru as well. 

 

Cheers, 
Marcin

[andru26]

4 hours ago, Takacid said:

Hi  andru26, Thanks for your post. I'm thinking of building my own PC similar to yours. The only difference is the CPU, Intel XEON E3-1235Lv5 (It seems like the perfect CPU with low TDP, essential for Audio PC). Do you know if this CPU is compatible with the MB Super Mircro X11SAE-M that you use? I'm not sure if the Graphics of the XEON E3-1235Lv5 is compatible with the MB... Thanks

 

Hi Takacid,

 

From the manufacturer website, here are the supported CPUs:

1. Single socket H4 (LGA 1151) supports 
   Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v5/v6, 
   Intel® 6th/7th Gen. Core™ i7/i5/i3 series, 
   Intel® Celeron® and Intel® Pentium®

So you can go for any of the E3-12XX v5/6 CPUs.

[Marcin_gps]

Maybe except for Xeon E3-1240L v5 which does not have integrated graphics. According to the motherboard's specification, onboard DVI/HDMI/DP signal comes from the CPU integrated graphics.

[andru26]

17 minutes ago, Marcin_gps said:

Maybe except for Xeon E3-1240L v5 which does not have integrated graphics. According to the motherboard's specification, onboard DVI/HDMI/DP signal comes from the CPU integrated graphics.

 

Good point, Marcin. Even though the motherboard supports all mentioned CPUs, for audio purpose it's best to use CPU integrated graphics.

[Quadman]

@andru26 have you tried up sampling to DSD512 (in HQP) with this processor, or know anyone who has?  I am very intrigued by these boards, especially the SoC boards as most every peripheral has a direct connection to the CPU rather than go thru a switch as is the case in most motherboards.  Couple that with the low TDP and the ability to use several of the linear PSU's on the market and we should be able to build excellent sounding audio PC's for not crazy (SMG server) dollars.  The only Q being can these processors handle DSD512 either in HQP or roon DSP.

[andru26]

6 minutes ago, Quadman said:

@andru26 have you tried up sampling to DSD512 (in HQP) with this processor, or know anyone who has?  I am very intrigued by these boards, especially the SoC boards as most every peripheral has a direct connection to the CPU rather than go thru a switch as is the case in most motherboards.  Couple that with the low TDP and the ability to use several of the linear PSU's on the market and we should be able to build excellent sounding audio PC's for not crazy (SMG server) dollars.  The only Q being can these processors handle DSD512 either in HQP or roon DSP.

 

@Quadman, I am upsampling at this moment to DSD512 with HQP and it works great. The CPU usage is between 40 and 47% and I never had any problems with JS2 not coping with the CPU power demands.

 

Also, note that I have disabled everything related to related to Intel SpeedStep, Turbo Mode, C-States, Virtualization Technology & Hyper-Threading, according the the specs found in AO setup guide. Even so, I don't have any performance issues.

 

[Quadman]

24 minutes ago, andru26 said:

@Quadman, I am upsampling at this moment to DSD512 with HQP and it works great. The CPU usage is between 40 and 47% and I never had any problems with JS2 not coping with the CPU power demands.

 

 

Excellent and good to know.  non 2s filters or 2s filters only? Have you gone into task manager and checked the per core usage while up sampling to DSD512?  Obviously you are doing so with no issues so i suspect no core is going over 70%.  In HQP do you enable dsp multicore? (used to be called pipeline SDM)?  I also wonder if you enabled hyper threading in Bios (and used DSP multicore in HQP) would the load be more even over all the cores usage and possibly drop from the 40's%.  I am getting excited now about the possibilities.