A crowd funded motherboard(s) for audiophiles - Part 2

[LTG2010]

10 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

I was so fixated on CPU PCIe lanes versus PCH PCIe lanes and then I didn't even go check some Micro-ATX motherboards out.

You also need to check on the block diagram, on a typical motherboard with 4 slots, you may find 3 of those go direct to the CPU and the 4th via the PCH. Therefore how much degradation if any will occur via the PCH route? Can we test this? It may leave only 3 of the 4 usable.

Also you will find on most of the medium to high powered motherboards, USB and LAN, input are all via the PCH, therefore will we be using up 2 of our 3  'good' PCIE slots for a USB and LAN card ?

The good thing about the SOC boards is that lAN, USB and PCIE are all direct to processor and this could the reason a lot of manufacturers are opting for these boards, for sound quality.

I would agree with @ Marce that its unfeasable to design a board from scratch unless we used the modular route and we might need to choose one for modification, with some manufacturer input if possible, eg. certain upgrades and BIOS tweaks.

[LTG2010]

20 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

Maybe some of us just happened to forget why we'd like to bypass PCH at all costs? Or someone else might have played the devil's advocate somewhere?

This is true but modern chipsets especially the latest 'Optane ready' ones are very fast- low latency. The only way is to test this out, move your PCIE card back and fourth between a slot connected to PCH and one direct to processor, shame we don't have the luxury of buying 20 boards and testing them, including some noise measurements.

[LTG2010]

7 hours ago, lmitche said:

Having moved my USB card between PCH and CPU direct slots, improvement in SQ from CPU direct slots is easily heard.

This will limit our choices, I've looked at some boards from evga and supermicro some have 3 PCIE slots 2 only to processor 1 to PCH.

2x M2 slots to PCH,- its early days though.

[LTG2010]

51 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

 

None of my skills are considered advanced by any means but does this P10S-M with Socket LGA 1151 count?

That is promising, 3x PCIE CPU slots two are linked via a switch bit that should not impact sound quality significantly.

I had a word with DFI tech today regarding the modular approach. The closest I got to what we might be looking for is :

You can use this combinations   5 PCIe x1 or 4 PCIe x1 + 1 PCIe x4 or 3 PCIe x1 + 2 PCIe x2 (support up to 5 devices and 8 lanes)   And you need COM332-B carrier board with the KU968 unit. Basically a carrier board with a slot on CPU unit. All linked direct to CPU. The maximum processor size is 15W i7 7600U 2.8 ghz 3.9 turbo. This might be a dream board for SOTM and low power users, but not for the medium and higher power upsampling needs. Also these boards are quite pricey.

[LTG2010]

47 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

BTW, it's just really a different paradigm when we actually see the block diagram of their EPYC 7000 series

Great find @seeteeyou, it looks like a high power version of intel's SOC.

The good thing about this type of arrangement is that USB, LAN and SATA all direct to CPU, it gives a greater degree of user flexibility.

Anybody used one of the AMD boards for a music PC?

Edit. wow just seen some prices of those larger 180W processors.

[LTG2010]

18 minutes ago, rickca said:

I didn't see anything saying that the M.2 slot only supports SATA in the H11SSL-I/C/NC manual.

Looks like there's 1 x PCI-E 3.0 x4 M.2 port

Also all these server processors are multi core around 2Ghz (3Ghz turbo) what do you need for upsampling to

DSD ?

[LTG2010]

43 minutes ago, lateboomer said:

I believe putting the OS on the SSD with its own partition gives the best sound so I am still trying to figure out how to do it for Supermicro board. 

 

Try switching from AHCI to IDE mode in BIOS

[LTG2010]

1 hour ago, lateboomer said:

But I am very tempted no doubt.

The txUSBHubin is $350 but ideally with sclk-ex price jumps to $700. It just connects to motherboard USB bus via special cable supplied.

With all these products clean external power is essential for them to perform.

Same with tx USBexp it sounds dull and recessed without ext clean power, surprised by your finding there, when I tested there was an increase in sound quality when moving from motherboard USB, to txUSBexp then HUBin. The biggest jump was the last, but motherboard USB very good to start. Will look at that more closely as it was a brief test.

USB music output is usually the USB2 port, the one below the USB 3 port you're using, so another surprise there. 

With SOTM's USB cards even though they have 2 outputs it's only recommended to use 1 or sound quality is degraded - not ideal.

[LTG2010]

37 minutes ago, Lebouwsky said:

Unfortunately the hubin requires 9v externally and the mb 12v.

Get yourself one of stanheim's lt3045, regulator boards at 9v. Set the sPS500 @ 12v with your y cable and you will get the best of both worlds for a knock down price.

[LTG2010]

1 hour ago, lateboomer said:

I am refering to the Supermicro x10sba-l-b bought from Amazon which gives better sq with the mobo's usb3 port at the bottom

Not disputing your findings in your own system but the USB 2 port is the one used for music by most manufacturers if you have found the bottom port better - cool.

[LTG2010]

2 hours ago, jaynyc said:

due to the 'Quick Switch' I wonder if it's 1, 2 or 3 bonafide direct2cpu slots.

There are 3 available, but slots 5 and 6 'share' bandwidth via the quickswitch- this is acting like a sort of 'router' and will re - direct data from one slot to the other depending on traffic to prevent overloading of CPU. Its not the greatest arrangement, but it really depends on what is placed in those slots.