Building a DIY Music Server

[dminches]

50 minutes ago, exeric2 said:

Here's the question: I'd like to use the 400 dc-atx but not use +12V output from it to the motherboard. I have a dual rail LPS coming with 12V and 19V rails. I'd originally planned to use the 12 rail to only go to the EPS connector. I'd like to now feed the 12V atx connection from that same LPS 12 rail. Would there be a problem doing that. The only one I can imagine happening is with different grounds going to the atx connection on the motherboard, one from the LPS 12 rail and one from the atx ground that is being fed from the other 19v rail of the same LPS. Could this be a problem? I realize this might be going into the weeds but does anyone know what some of the different grounds on the atx connector are linked to. If there is one specifically linked to the 12V input on the motherboard atx connector I could supply that ground straight from the 12v LPS rail...

 

The 800W DC-ATX does not have a 12v input.  Is that what you are thinking of doing?  The DC-ATX needs to be fed by a 16-63V input.  It has 2 sides and thus can be fed by 2 16-63V rails if you are going to use a lot of outputs from it.

 

 

[exeric2]

10 minutes ago, dminches said:

 

The 800W DC-ATX does not have a 12v input.  Is that what you are thinking of doing?  The DC-ATX needs to be fed by a 16-63V input.  It has 2 sides and thus can be fed by 2 16-63V rails if you are going to use a lot of outputs from it.

 

 

I understand that. I'm a newbie to this thread but not to electronics. I'm going to do exactly as Nenon implemented it. The only exception will be to wire the two +12v inputs on the motherboard's atx  connection to the 12V EPS connection. 19V will power the 400 dc-atx. 3.3V and 5V on the motherboard will still come from the 400 dc-atx.

[Downtheline]

1 hour ago, exeric2 said:

One thing I haven't been able to order is the HDPlex 800 watt dc-atx converter.

Try emailing Larry, I did when the site said no stock a few months ago, but he had some to sell. 

[exeric2]

27 minutes ago, Downtheline said:

Try emailing Larry, I did when the site said no stock a few months ago, but he had some to sell. 

I think I'm going to try the 400 dc-atx, unless someone gives me a convincing argument about the separate ground issue I mentioned. If the ground issue only comes down to "general principles" and not to causing it not to work then I'd like to try this. It always bothered me getting the 800 because I'm paying $200 over the 400 mostly for having multiple Sata and PCI outputs, which I don't even plan on using. The PCI cards will be powered from a separate 5V LPS. I'm sure the 800 has more power and better regulation than the 400 but I'm guessing that offloading the 12V output might create significant benefits that lessens its "effective" inferiority.

 

Anyway, it will be a learning experience, which is good. I'd hate to do exactly what someone else has done and not contribute to community knowledge about what does not work as well as what does work.

[Nenon]

3 hours ago, exeric2 said:

Hi, newbie here that has been following along. I plan to reproduce Nenon's Asus Crosshair version with Ryzen CPU. I have many of the parts in hand and others are on order. One thing I haven't been able to order is the HDPlex 800 watt dc-atx converter. They are not in stock anywhere and no update from them when they will be in stock. I know Nenon was not impressed with the sound using the HDPlex 400 dc-atx but I'm thinking I may try it.

 

Here's the question: I'd like to use the 400 dc-atx but not use +12V output from it to the motherboard. I have a dual rail LPS coming with 12V and 19V rails. I'd originally planned to use the 12 rail to only go to the EPS connector. I'd like to now feed the 12V atx connection from that same LPS 12 rail. Would there be a problem doing that. The only one I can imagine happening is with different grounds going to the atx connection on the motherboard, one from the LPS 12 rail and one from the atx ground that is being fed from the other 19v rail of the same LPS. Could this be a problem? I realize this might be going into the weeds but does anyone know what some of the different grounds on the atx connector are linked to. If there is one specifically linked to the 12V input on the motherboard atx connector I could supply that ground straight from the 12v LPS rail...

 

The Asus Crosshair does NOT share the same 12V rail between the EPS connector and the ATX connector. I would recommend you power up the ATX connector from the HDplex 400/800 and power the EPS connector from your 12V rail. There is a benefit to isolating the 12V CPU/EPS rail from the rest. 

 

All motherboards I have seen have a common ground plane between all the rails. If you really want to try to feed the 12V ATX from the same rail as the EPS, you can of course try that. But I don't recommend it. 

 

As for trying to get a HDPlex 800W DC-ATX, email Larry. He gets small batches and sells them via email. Have him add you to the waiting list, and you would be able to get one faster this way. 

[exeric2]

12 minutes ago, Nenon said:

As for trying to get a HDPlex 800W DC-ATX, email Larry. He gets small batches and sells them via email. Have him add you to the waiting list, and you would be able to get one faster this way. 

Who is this infamous Larry? Does he have an email address? It seems everyone here knows about him but me.

[Nenon]

9 minutes ago, exeric2 said:

Who is this infamous Larry? Does he have an email address? It seems everyone here knows about him but me.

 

He is the man running HDPlex. 

https://hdplex.com/contact/

 

[exeric2]

7 minutes ago, Nenon said:

 

He is the man running HDPlex. 

https://hdplex.com/contact/

 

Thanks, I'll get on the list.

[exeric2]

44 minutes ago, exeric2 said:

Who is this infamous Larry? Does he have an email address? It seems everyone here knows about him but me.

That's too funny. You guys all made it sound like you were on a first name basis with the boss by just calling him "Larry". But that's his email name.

[Chopin75]

1 hour ago, exeric2 said:

That's too funny. You guys all made it sound like you were on a first name basis with the boss by just calling him "Larry". But that's his email name.

Does he have a last name. I cannot figure out where he lives ? He seems to answer emails all the time. In HK or US (California)? Stuff are sent from California. But I am sure they are made in HK/China or maybe he has 3 separate factories in HK/China, Europe in US ? (like What Tesla is going to do?). I am still using his old 200W that self-combusted but since he sent me an updated one, it is ok. Worth to upgrade ?

[jean-michel6]

Hi , 

 

I am now putting together a server with the supermicro X10sdv-f motherboard. It has a Xeon with 8 cores .

My mobo is drawing 3 to 4 A @12V .

There is no accessory powered by the mobo except an optane m2card. 

 

I am now powering it with a 12v Sean Jacobs psu .

However since I have been told that I will get better sound quality if I use the atx connector , I want to buy an hdplex dc to atx converter .

Eventhough I do not need high power , Is there any interest to use the 800 over the 400 or 200 ? ( powered by a 19v Sean Jacobs psu )

[Dev]

21 minutes ago, jean-michel6 said:

Eventhough I do not need high power , Is there any interest to use the 800 over the 400 or 200 ?

 

I use a Xeon 8-core as well and have both the 800w and 400w. The EPS is powered by separate 12v rail and so are the PCIe cards. My Gigabyte mobo consumes ~35 watts. In this setup, I don't believe I hear a difference between them but since space isn't a constraint I use the 800w for a feel good reason 😄 The 800w consumes only couple of more watts than 400w though but nothing alarming.

 

If you are powering the CPU through the Supermicro, I would suggest using the 800w.

 

[jean-michel6]

Thank for your reply . From your perspective sq is the same for 800 or 400 .

 I will be powering the cpu through the atx plug  as there is no 12v  cpu specific plug on my mobo .

Does efficiency of dc-dc conversion is different between 800 and 400 ?

[Dev]

28 minutes ago, jean-michel6 said:

Thank for your reply . From your perspective sq is the same for 800 or 400 .

 I will be powering the cpu through the atx plug  as there is no 12v  cpu specific plug on my mobo .

 

In that case, make sure you have a good beefed up power supply for the 19v rail and much greater than 5A. With 19v @5A rail, I couldn't boot. If you are not upsampling, you "might" be bottle-necked at boot as it requires a ton of power to initialize. Once this is past, the normal operation should be a breeze. I have DIY'ed LPS using SJ regs and have gained and measured a ton of data recently. 200w Hdplex is probably not a good idea for 8-core but depending on which CPU you are using I would at least go 400w. The 800w is preferrable for powering high-power CPU.

 

28 minutes ago, jean-michel6 said:

Does efficiency of dc-dc conversion is different between 800 and 400 ?

 

sorry, I can comment the dc-dc conversion efficiency between the two since I haven't used them to power the CPU. For low wattage application, I don't hear any audible differences between the two as I was saying earlier. Maybe you can check with Larry on this. 

[Tatomek7]

1 hour ago, jean-michel6 said:

am now putting together a server with the supermicro X10sdv-f motherboard. It has a Xeon with 8 cores .

My mobo is drawing 3 to 4 A @12V .

There is no accessory powered by the mobo except an optane m2card.

 

At the moment I have 10 core Xeon CPU. HDplex 400 (19V ) and Keces P8  with 21V are really hot, when powering mobo plus CPU through HDplex dc dc 400 conversion panel.

Keces shows only 2 - 3A, but having choice I would avoid to power CPU plus ATX with one LPSU rated below 10A ( due to heat ).

[jean-michel6]

10 hours ago, Dev said:

 

In that case, make sure you have a good beefed up power supply for the 19v rail and much greater than 5A. With 19v @5A rail, I couldn't boot. If you are not upsampling, you "might" be bottle-necked at boot as it requires a ton of power to initialize. Once this is past, the normal operation should be a breeze. I have DIY'ed LPS using SJ regs and have gained and measured a ton of data recently. 200w Hdplex is probably not a good idea for 8-core but depending on which CPU you are using I would at least go 400w. The 800w is preferrable for powering high-power CPU.

 

 

sorry, I can comment the dc-dc conversion efficiency between the two since I haven't used them to power the CPU. For low wattage application, I don't hear any audible differences between the two as I was saying earlier. Maybe you can check with Larry on this. 

The CPU I am using is a Xeon d 1541 . Right now I have no problem booting from the Sean Jacobs 12v @5A using of course the 12v plug on the mobo.This dépends also of the amount of ram you are using I am using 8 giga rdimm apacer industrial.

You can also do some set up in the bios to have a slower boot that will take a little bit longer .

If it is ok with 12v@5A , I think it will probably be right at 19v@5A with the dc Atx converter 

But I agree that a more powerful psu should be better , however there is no Sean Jacobs psu above 5A . I have found the Sean Jacobs to be extremely good in term of sq and I want to stay with them.

 

For dc-dc efficiency it’s is in the range of 94 to 96 % for both the 400 and 800

[Nenon]

1 hour ago, jean-michel6 said:

however there is no Sean Jacobs psu above 5A

 

Check with him. He has one but does not advertise it. This thread might be of interest to you if you have missed it:

 

[exeric2]

Just an update to what I said earlier on this very interesting thread from Nenon. I decided to go with his recommendation to keep independent LPSs to CPU and ATX power. In my case I'll be using a dual rail SR7T Paul Hynes LPS of 19 and 12 volts with the 19 volt rail supplying the HDPlex 800 to motherboard ATX connection and the 12 volt rail to the CPU/EPS connection. This seems to make sense to me on further reflection. I'll be using a separate dual rail SR5T to supply 5 volts to a JCAT netcard and JCAT USB card. I'm foregoing the motherboard clock replacement at this time. It's going to be months and months to get the PH LPS's in my greedy little hands, as well as to get the HDPlex 800 (I suspect) so don't expect updates from me anytime soon. Nenon blazed the trail here so my update is not as important.

[dminches]

17 minutes ago, exeric2 said:

Just an update to what I said earlier on this very interesting thread from Nenon. I decided to go with his recommendation to keep independent LPSs to CPU and ATX power. In my case I'll be using a dual rail SR7T Paul Hynes LPS of 19 and 12 volts supplying the HDPlex 800 to motherboard ATX connection and the 12 volt rail to the CPU/EPS connection. This seems to make sense to me on further reflection. I'll be using a separate dual rail SR5T to supply 5 volts to a JCAT netcard and JCAT USB card. I'm foregoing the motherboard clock replacement at this time. It's going to be months and months to get the PH LPS's in my greedy little hands, as well as to get the HDPlex 800 (I suspect) so don't expect updates from me anytime soon. Nenon blazed the trail here so my update is not as important.

 

FWIW, I did exactly what you are planning to do except I decided to get a Sean Jacobs DC4 which has 3 rails: 19V, 12V and 5V.  And, I already have it in my hands after ordering it on May 30th.

 

[jean-michel6]

13 hours ago, Nenon said:

Check with him. He has one but does not advertise it. This thread might be of interest to you if you have missed it:

Thank’s , I will definitely ask him as I am currently involved with him buying dc3 and DC4 reg modules 

 

I have one question which puzzled me . On the beginning of this thread you are detailing the construction of a server that you built using three dc3 reg to supply the dc atx for this board . 
I am surprised to see that there is no boost modules for these dc3reg . 
The dc3reg by itself is capable of only 1.5A power which is quite low you need the boost module to go to 5A .

Thank for your feedback . 
 

Also about using separate reg modules to power the atx compared to using a dc to dc hdplex converter . 
I have read that for some mobo the timing to power up the different voltage could be critical and the mobo will not start if that was not correct.

Did you ever experienced difficulty using discrete reg to power the atx connector of the mobo ? 

[ASRMichael]

FYI, I have two Sean Jacobs custom DC3 LPS now

 

5a - 7 Rail (no boost module)

10a - 4 rail boost module)

 

I appreciate Sean website does not show this information on the DC3, if you call him and discuss your requirement I think he'll build something for your needs. 

 

 

[Nenon]

7 hours ago, jean-michel6 said:

I have one question which puzzled me . On the beginning of this thread you are detailing the construction of a server that you built using three dc3 reg to supply the dc atx for this board . 
I am surprised to see that there is no boost modules for these dc3reg . 
The dc3reg by itself is capable of only 1.5A power which is quite low you need the boost module to go to 5A .

Sean had two types of DC3 regulators at the time - 1.5A and a more powerful one. I called the more powerful one "5A" in my posts. 

 

On 1/10/2020 at 11:15 AM, Nenon said:

There will be 3 regulator boards in this chassis, all of them feeding a 20-pin ATX connector on the motherboard. They are: 3.3V (1.5A), 5V (5.0A), and 12V (1.5A).

 

I think those don't necessarily provide continuous 5A, hence Sean is offering the boost module for 5A applications. But the 5V ATX rail does not need continuous 5A. It only needs to be able to handle occasional peaks over 1.5A, so that arrangement worked fine. I had tested it on other builds and knew that worked fine.

 

My friend already had a SJ 12V LPS with a boost module, which he used for the EPS:

On 1/10/2020 at 12:01 AM, Nenon said:

The EPS connector will be powered by another 12V Sean Jacobs DC3 LPS he already has.

 

[jean-michel6]

@Nenon & @ASRMichael  Thank's for your answers , this help clarify what is available from SJ . I will contact him .

[Nenon]

I share mostly success stories, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes with my experiments. Here is a behind the scenes failure story... Tried to replace the clock on one of my Buffalo switches, and the switch board is fried.

 

 

The problem is I don't know why. I had someone else remove the clock, so that might be part of the problem. Also USPS was quite brutal with this package as it can be seen by the bended port. 

Well, one less precious Buffalo in this world. That specific buffalo breed is nearly extinct!

I will sacrifice another one, and hopefully it would work out next time. 

[austinpop]

5 minutes ago, Nenon said:

I share mostly success stories, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes with my experiments. Here is a behind the scenes failure story... Tried to replace the clock on one of my Buffalo switches, and the switch board is fried.

 

 

The problem is I don't know why. I had someone else remove the clock, so that might be part of the problem. Also USPS was quite brutal with this package as it can be seen by the bended port. 

Well, one less precious Buffalo in this world. That specific buffalo breed is nearly extinct!

I will sacrifice another one, and hopefully it would work out next time. 

 

Sad to see the loss of one these noble creatures.

 

"Oh give me a home...

Where the Buffalo roam...

..."