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

[lmitche]

More exciting Intel i9 rumors here:

 

https://wccftech.com/intel-9th-gen-core-i9-9900k-i7-9700k-i5-9600k-cpu-specs-leak/

[rickca]

Interesting how some people insist that a 6-10W SOC is the way to go while the Phasure Stealth III has gone to a server motherboard with a 14/28 core Xeon CPU.

[PieterP]

For a custom HQ-player PC build I am looking for a Motherboard, can you advise me? Considerations from my side: I just bought a second hand Ryzen 5 1600 but I want the option to (easily) upgrade to Ryzen second-gen at a later stage (e.g. 2600 or 2700), size ATX is fine. I have a Paul Pang V2 USB card in my current daphile streamer (Asrock Q1900-ITX) which I want to try in my HQ-player PC, I also need a small graphics card for the set-up.

 

Looking at mobo's around 150 euro I found the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming being recommended by hardwareinfo. It has a proper power supply, USB-dac up (clean USB power) and I can easily upgrade to Ryzen 2nd gen. What do you think of this mobo? They say that the bios of Gigabyte is not user-friendly?

 

I have bought the DSD DAC DSC v2.5.2 (from the 'do it your self audio' site) and it will have an Amanero input (USB connector) at first. Later on I might want to try the NAA route (beagle bone black with network connector and I2S output, and subsequent isolation and reclocking) in stead of USB-Amanero. My question is whether it is better to have a mobo with two network connectors if I want to connect my HQ-player PC to a NAA directly instead of using a network switch? The Hardwareinfo recommended Gigabyte Aorus AX370 has two network connectors. What do you think of this mobo here? 

 

Do you have any other thoughts/suggestions that I should consider for a mobo? 

[lmitche]

7 hours ago, PieterP said:

For a custom HQ-player PC build I am looking for a Motherboard, can you advise me? Considerations from my side: I just bought a second hand Ryzen 5 1600 but I want the option to (easily) upgrade to Ryzen second-gen at a later stage (e.g. 2600 or 2700), size ATX is fine. I have a Paul Pang V2 USB card in my current daphile streamer (Asrock Q1900-ITX) which I want to try in my HQ-player PC, I also need a small graphics card for the set-up.

 

Looking at mobo's around 150 euro I found the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming being recommended by hardwareinfo. It has a proper power supply, USB-dac up (clean USB power) and I can easily upgrade to Ryzen 2nd gen. What do you think of this mobo? They say that the bios of Gigabyte is not user-friendly?

 

I have bought the DSD DAC DSC v2.5.2 (from the 'do it your self audio' site) and it will have an Amanero input (USB connector) at first. Later on I might want to try the NAA route (beagle bone black with network connector and I2S output, and subsequent isolation and reclocking) in stead of USB-Amanero. My question is whether it is better to have a mobo with two network connectors if I want to connect my HQ-player PC to a NAA directly instead of using a network switch? The Hardwareinfo recommended Gigabyte Aorus AX370 has two network connectors. What do you think of this mobo here? 

 

Do you have any other thoughts/suggestions that I should consider for a mobo? 

Pieter,

 

Yes, a dual nic solution makes sense for a 2 pc system. This design seems to be confirmed over and over again. Personally I am sticking to a single pc solution, but others prefer two machines.

 

I don't like gigabyte motherboards and I'd try to find an Asus product instead. I haven't researched x470 boards in detail but something like the ROG Strix X470-F Gaming looks good on it's face.  

 

 

My experience is that the gigabyte products just don't have the same quality of bios support and updates as the Asus product.

[PieterP]

Thank you Imitche! 

 

Is there a preference by you and other 'HQ players' to use Asus Mobo's because their support is ok? I saw that Miska is also using a Asus Prime x370 in his Ryzen 1800x build of march 2017. Sound Galleries Music Server also uses asus. Is it only the good support by Asus or are there other reasons as well? If I am right, Pink Faun uses AS rock mobo's. 

 

The Asus ROG Strix X470-F indeed has good reviews (about 205 euro). The  MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC is a bit cheaper (<150 Euro) as has good reviews too. It also has wifi and bluetooth. Would this onboard wifi be of any advantage if I want to use the embedded HQ player to stream Qobuz through my phone? 

[lmitche]

I can't speak for others. Over the long haul, the Asus company just seems to have better bios support than other manufacturers.

 

You get what you pay for.

[rando]

Recently put together a non-audio computer for someone using a (Intel H370) Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 3 WiFi.  Other than the BIOS I can't fault one thing on that board.  I would say if AMD chipsets have equally good onboard wifi+BT5.0 implementation streaming will be fine.  Pay attention to whether the wired antenna included is the same as on Intel boards.  

 

[lmitche]

16 hours ago, PieterP said:

Would this onboard wifi be of any advantage 

Pieter, the first thing I did when installing my new motherboard was to remove the WiFi card. It is easy to unscrew the cage and remove it entirely. Best to keep WiFi sources away from the audio system.