Building a DIY Music Server

[firedog]

14 minutes ago, Csaba said:

Hello,

 

I would like to ask for your kind advice, which scenario would be the best solution for me in case of building a music server/control PC (as Roon Core).

 

System:

The dac to be used is an Ayre QX-5 Twenty (via USB input), which synergize well with my endpoint SOtM SMS-200ultra (with SPS-500).

According to one of our very knowledgeable forum members (who knows both products very well), the Ayre QX-5 Twenty is not a DAC that can be transformed by HQPlayer (with heavy PCM to DSD conversion). Therefore only PCM upsampling is needed to 352/384 kHz, so heavy computing power is not really necessary.

OS would be Audiolinux (with Roon Core + HQPlayer, if needed) or Roon Rock.

 

1st scenario

Cirrus7 fanless case with NUC 7i7DNBE

PSU: I would allocate my existing SOtM SPS-500 for this purpose (and my SMS-200ultra would get a new PSU, e.g. Farad Super3 12v)

 

2nd scenario

HDPlex H3

Intel i7-8700K (or similar Intel i7)

PSU: Keces P8 (and my SMS-200 ultra would remain with SPS-500)

 

For the sake of simplicity (especially for PSU), I am leaning toward the NUC scenario, but the 2nd scenario would add higher flexibility (for future upgrades) and CPU power is higher.

 

Thank you very much for your advice(s) in advance.

 

Regards,

Csaba

I would build whatever gives me more flexibility for the future. If you aren't planning on doing DSD, no need for HQP or especially high power. You can do any upsampling in Rock, anyway.