Building a DIY Music Server

[LJONESATL]

Thanks Nenon.  You are a wealth of information. 

[LJONESATL]

4 hours ago, Chopin75 said:

That is my question too and did u state the Asrock actually runs ECC fine but as Non-ECC mode?  And that is regardless of CPU or it only applies to Intel and not AMD? 

I've got some extra Apacer ECC RAM left over from when we ordered it from Nenon's friend a few months back (4g sticks DDR4).  I've been using one of the sticks in an AMD4 based Asus ROG Strix M-ITX system and like the sound very much.  I've also got a system with an Intel I9-9900 using the Asus ROG Strix Z390 m_ITX board.  Now that others have found the ECC RAM works with that board, I'm going to try an Apacer 4gb stick in that machine as well.  I also have a third build that has the Asus ROG Strix Z390 M-ITX board and it's got an Intel I7-8700K processor that could also benefit from the Apacer ECC RAM.  Just to re-iterate, I've been going with our findings that with RAM, less can be more, and using just one 4gb DDR4 stick sounds better than using two or more sticks of the same.  This has proved more than sufficient memory for playing Euphony loaded into RAMROOT with HQP oversampling even. 

[LJONESATL]

19 minutes ago, RickyV said:

Maybe something like this I did with my jcat usb card, for EMI.

 

Is that copper foil, or a copper sheet that you used for shielding?

[LJONESATL]

19 hours ago, Nenon said:

Played quite a bit with CPU Isolation today, and so far, for this build the following sounds best in my system:

0-1 stylus 2-3 gstp 4-15 
 

That would also need tweaking for Roon later, but with Stylus I can hear more of the room ambience and the music gets even more engaging with these settings.

 

What do other people set those to?

 

 

Thanks for the heads up on this!  I haven't yet tweaked those settings but will do so later today and report back.  Also, this might already be on another thread somewhere, but I seem to remember reading about optimized BIOS settings in general.  Is there a summary (or link to a thread) of what this group has found to generally sound better? 

[LJONESATL]

On 1/20/2020 at 2:58 PM, Nenon said:

 

BTW, gstp does not generate more than 10 threads, isolating 12 is not necessary. That makes those two options next to try:

0-3 stylus 4-5 gstp 6-15

0-1 stylus 2-5 gstp 6-15

 

 

I'm using an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X which is 8 cores, 16 threads.  This was a tough call to make but I ended up deciding that 0-3 stylus 4-5 gstp 6-15 sounded just a slightly more open and airy (and in my opinion better)

1032 nfm : 0-3
1042 stylus : 4,5
1127 avahi-daemon: : 0-3
1287 /usr/bin/smbd : 0-3
1306 /usr/bin/smbd : 0-3
1307 /usr/bin/smbd : 0-3
1309 /usr/bin/smbd : 0-3
1311 /usr/bin/nmbd : 0-3
14295 hqplayerd : 0-3
1444 /usr/bin/smbd : 0-3
1445 /usr/bin/smbd : 0-3
1498 gstp : 6-15
2210 /usr/bin/smbd : 0-3
449 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journald : 0-3
463 /usr/bin/lvmetad : 0-3
471 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-udevd : 0-3
602 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-resolved : 0-3
604 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd : 0-3
607 /usr/bin/haveged : 0-3
613 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-logind : 0-3
620 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon : 0-3
659 /usr/bin/dhcpcd : 0-3

[LJONESATL]

3 hours ago, Nenon said:

I have used the AsRock in previous builds. It's a great motherboard. You can't go wrong with either of them. I have a slight preference towards the Asus.

 

Also, speaking of HDplex H5 and Asus ROG motherboards, I have the big brother - Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero placed in a H5 case (not mounted, just placed on top). This is obviously an AMD motherboard, not Intel. 

 

When I did the build in this thread, I had a lengthy discussion with the now owner of this server, and it was decided to go with what I already knew works best rather than experimenting with new things. The Asus motherboard was a wonderful serendipity. So, time for new experiments with a bigger Asus motherboard now. 

 

The three BIG questions I would like answers for are:

1. Does this big full size ATX motherboard sound better than its smaller sibling I am currently using in their stock versions?

2. How much better Qobuz would sound (if it sounds better) when my JCAT NET Femto NIC is on a regular PCIe slot with no extension cables?

3. Last, but not least, what would be the effects of changing the motherboard clocks with high quality OCXO clocks? That's the part I am most curious about as it's something I have never done before. If time allows, I may even document the clock changing process here, but I am not promising.

 

What I like about the H5 case is that it supports a full size ATX motherboard and allows you to mount all PCIe cards vertically with no adaptors. 

What I don't like about the case is that this plate needs to come out completely every time you want to add or remove a PCIe card. But I haven't assembled it yet, so maybe there is a workaround this. It also feels a little cheaper quality than the Streacom, and I wish the top and bottom plates were thicker. 

 

This won't be a fully documented build like I did before, but rather some comparisons after I do the work. It would probably take several weeks before I have any discoveries I can share. I may post some info on the clock changing process, though. 

 

The first problem I am running into - I am not sure which PCIe slot is connected directly to the CPU and which goes through the chipset. If anyone knows, please let me know. It would save me some time. Ultimately, if I can't find any info I can probably trace the PCB traces on the motherboard and figure it out, but that would be too geeky :). 

 

Stay tuned for more updates.

I'm also very curious about all three of your questions.  Especially with the third question of swapping out the existing motherboard clocks with a higher quality OCXO Clock.  I've been tempted to pull the trigger on a Pink Faun Ultra OCXO Clock to go along with the I2S Bridge I purchased from them a few months ago, and that seems like an easy enough upgrade that I can swap out myself.  However, I've also been curious in general about upgrading motherboard clocks and wondered if the I2S bridge clock upgrade should be considered when swapping out existing mobo clocks.  So much to experiment with, and so little time......