Building a DIY Music Server

[Hauser]

Nenon's server build thread has inspired me to consider building my first server, not that I'm unhappy with the Aries, but curious to see what more may lie ahead.  The Z390 ITX seemed an attractive, compact and not too challenging approach.  What I've found though, is the rapid obsolescence of computer gear.  The motherboard is being replaced by the Z490 and a new CPU socket.  The new boards look impressive with a lot of heatsink armour and the new CPUs come with a TDP of 125W.  A recipe for heat issues?

 

Nenon's latest build involves Intel's LGA 3467 socketed Xeon CPU, stunningly showcased by Taiko with an equally impressive price.  A good deal of time spent on Google rewarded me with info on another server; Phasure's Stealth 3.  This uses an Asrock board with the option of several Xeon CPUs and pre dates the arrival of the Extreme.  Coincidentally, both products derive from the Netherlands so possibly some cross fertilisation of ideas.  That said, the Stealth has a rudimentary almost DIY construction with the only standout features being the proprietary LPS and software.  The CPU is the most expensive component in the build.  I have not heard this server but all the customer posts have been positive and the developer's possibly biased and unique Dutch/English posts translate to me the server warrants some consideration, not least because of its implementation.  It has been built to use HQ player, controlled by Windows 10 and consumes 56W when active.  This is achieved by running the CPU at 960MHz, the DIMMS at 1886MHz and a 14/28 core CPU with core count reduced to 10/20; a radically different approach to say the Z390 optimisation.  I'm wondering if this is how the Extreme operates?

 

Where Nenon made the post that his recent AMD and Intel builds sounded different rather than one or the other better, I think the Scalable Xeon may be the path to something better.

 

I'm not game to try a dual CPU board build and having read the thread on the Phasure site, feel that complexity may not be justified.  The Asrock mATX board I was looking for is no longer available.  They do offer an ITX but it has the usual constraints; 1 PCIE x 16, 2 x M.2 and only 4 DIMM slots.  Supermicro's mATX  X11 SPM TPF has several ethernet variants and 3 PCIE slots, 1 x M.2.  This with a 4214 CPU will probably be my choice.

 

It would be interesting to know how Nenon's custom RAM performs.

 

Martin.

[Hauser]

Just read Nenon's Monday post and mention of trying Windows instead of Euphony.  I hope this doesn't come across as me being a shill for Phasure, but they offer a selection of OS for the Stealth that can be purchased separately.

 

Martin.

[Hauser]

8 hours ago, ray-dude said:

 

I am continually being surprised by the impact of network traffic (and network topology) on SQ.  The EtherREGEN started me down this path (surprise -> attention and study) but the rabbit hole is much vaster than signal regeneration.  Honestly, I thought this would be at the minor tweak level, but there seems to be something fairly fundamental going on here.

 

Having just switched from a 2 box i7 NUC setup to an Extreme, the impact of network traffic and topology has become at least an order of magnitude more obvious (more surprise -> more attention and study   I'll have more to share next week, but when running the Extreme as an end point (Roon, HQP, etc) on the native Windows or booting to Linux from a USB stick, you are giving up a lot compared to running everything on Extreme in a one box solution.

 

 

 

 

Having looked at the Asus motherboard Taiko use, the ethernet connections channel through the board chip.  You may get better results connecting with a card through PCIE to the CPU.

 

Martin.

[Hauser]

Hi Dev,

 

Glad I was sitting down when I saw the price of that case.  My intention is to customise a Takachi case I have used already in a couple of power supply builds.  When reading Nenon's two box server build, the separate power supply seemed a good idea but somewhat hobbled by the need for extra wiring.  I thought I'd try using the bottom of the case for all the supplies; the lower 50mm, build a second level for the motherboard; the top 90mm.  I will probably use MP Audio regulators and 4 or 5 Toroidy transformers.  The internal dimensions are 324 x 286 x 141.  Apacer make low profile DIMMs 19mm high which may be necessary for heatpipes going to the case side heatsinks.  For the CPU heatsink, I'm thinking a custom lump of copper with with heatpipe holes drilled near the top with a Supermicro or Dynatron 1U passive cooler mounted on top.  I won't be doing any upsampling so expect to reduce consumption and heat relative to the Stealth 3.  I should note a fan is used in the Stealth.  I think the key to this is using a high power processor at near idle speed.

 

Martin

[Hauser]

HI Dev,

 

Yes, the cases I've used are the same as the JS2.  It will get lots of holes drilled into it.  The 4214 Xeon has a 85W TDP.  This was another reason why I decided against the new 10th Gen CPUs.

 

Martin.

[Hauser]

20 hours ago, Downtheline said:

Same here! I'd have to abandon the approach I am using for a single 36637 socket mobo though if this is only made for the socket like the Asus Sage. All mobos I see that use a single narrow socket will look like this.

 

Peter do you think you could do the drawings for this general case set up as well?

Hi Downtheline,

 

Just noticed your Frankenstein heatpipe implementation.  I intend using the same Supermicro board.  Recent mention had me look at the Turemetal cases and they seem to have a solution to your problem.  They use a third heatsink between the two case heatsinks.  Running the heatpipes parallel to the Ram cards to the third heatsink allows access to the cards without dismantling the pipes.  The socket base doesn't look overly complicated; a machine shop should be able to copy the Dynatron base in a lump of 12 x 108 x 78 copper and machine some parallel half radius slots in the top with a matching clamp down lid.  I'm thinking of four 8mm diameter pipes and using additional pipes to connect to the outside heatsinks as done by Turemetal.  Taiko Extreme looks to be using three 8mm heatpipes per CPU connected to a custom copper heatsink.  On line metals have 1.5 x 6 x 12inch copper bar for sale.  A more affordable option in extruded alloy from Marston 150 x 300 x 40.  Some DIY is called for.

 

Martin.