Building a DIY Music Server

[MarcelNL]

6 hours ago, Exocer said:

CPU integrated graphics will work .

That was indeed what I was trying to say ;-)

[MarcelNL]

is that temperature with the CPU in idle? Is everything configured properly in BIOS?

 

I am discovering that some incorrect BIOS settings or the presence of the Optane stick (trying to get Optane NVME to work on a new X570 AMD board to work) make the CPU temp go high even when idle without OS real fast (60-65'C). Now without the Optane and some BIOS settings changed all is back to more normal temperatures (40-ish), that is with the heatsink and fan, as the HD plex cases are not yet in stock in the EU.

 

 

 

[MarcelNL]

meanwhile I finished replacing the 8 pin EPS and 24 pin EPS cable for UP-OCC, the last cable is still breaking in but the difference is far more pronounced that it ought to be😄

 

@mikicasellas I suggest you double/triple check all components and BIOS settings, that temperature is too high for comfort

[MarcelNL]

7 cores 15 threads, is that correct? Odd numbers? Should you not see 10?

[MarcelNL]

@seeteeyou I may be alone here but I have a bit of trouble reading Chinese even when google-translated...If there is a suggestion that using different PSU's for the CF card creates different sounding OS for a Pi when using one and the same PSU for the PI, please try so for PC😀

[MarcelNL]

it sounds ridiculous enough for me to try....Daphile is installing itself real quick but I'd need a really poor PSU to make most of the difference to increase the chance of catching it.

 

I recently discovered that playing files from RAM sounds better when they sat on Optane rather than the (externally fed) SSD...no, don't ask me to explain ;-) Let's wait for some of the objectivists to call nonsense and explain me why this cannot be true 🤣

 

 

[MarcelNL]

did you? good to see I can confirm it ;-)

I read the info as saying that Optane as SSD sounded better, and that made me try Optane,  in a small dose as the cost of the large PCIe disks is abhorring. I tried loading to the RAM Disk both from SSD and Optane and learned that the latter 'storage' options sounds better, which makes me 'park' files on Optane to then load them into RAM.

 

That was testing done with the first Optane NVME stick that mysteriously died a while ago, he new one (32Gb) is not recignized by the new MB.

 

I may have misunderstood the info in the thread, anyway, the Optane is not yet working I just got my gear put back together and playing after a very long nightly session comparing loads of stuff with a couple of friends.

[MarcelNL]

1 minute ago, CJH said:

I don't think Z590 MB supports optane--you would need Z490.

CJH

I'm using a X570...for which NVME PCIe 4 is a function, https://www.gigabyte.com/nl/Motherboard/X570-AORUS-ELITE-rev-10#kf

Somehow my 32Gb MEMPEK NVME Optane is not recognized, BUT linux tells me the NVME is 'not ready', which is a bit cryptical.

[MarcelNL]

so...today I swapped the switching external PSU for the SSD for a linear ultra low noise and I cannot believe what a difference in musicality, dynamics, space, power slam prat etc .that makes. Is digital really about 0 and 1 or is there a -0.9 and 1.1 too?

Guess i'll be trying mercury filled tube rectifiers for this anytime soon.

 

[MarcelNL]

I think there ought to be common denominators that apply to all, but if a system (or the builder) is not yet at a stage where it (he/she) is able to reveal/hear the effects it may not be showing.

 

[MarcelNL]

Oh sure, I was not implying subjectivity is not involved, just trying to say that when all would be equal the results probably are quite similar as they are based on some fundamental differences.

[MarcelNL]

My POV was a bit wider, f.e. that having a MB with better power handling improves SQ. or that more cores, more capable PCUs improves SQ aspects. It's clearly impossible to compare low level details yet hovering over the details there are some key design principles and I was pointing at those. (or trying to)

[MarcelNL]

@Topk i have looked at the ELfidelity products but I'm not very partial to the types of caps on them so I passed.

Did you try add some decent caps to your EPS and ATX cables? 

[MarcelNL]

I haven't come around to add caps to the power cables but will do so, I'm doing incremental steps of canges so I can keep track of which is which. I'm using copper Neotech UP OCC for the wiring because it sounds great and the Mundorf silver-gold alloy presents a squeaky ringing in the upper mids.

[MarcelNL]

Thanks for that insight!

I'll make another EPS cable with the Mundorf and will burn that in separately, I did listen to the analog interlink I made with the Mundorf wire for 2 months

I can see how you arrive at saying it's 3D  and transparent, I found it very 'forward' in the beginning, it all became more homogenous after 4-6 weeks but in a final comparison after 2 months (constantly burning in) I found it too 'ringy'. Perhaps it fares better as power cable. 

[MarcelNL]

as far as I can tell the Elfidelity device is simply a bunch of capacitors stuck on a PCIe circuit board. I assume (always dangerous) that it simply filters some of the HF crud flying around in a PC, you can do the same with any bunch of caps attached to various supply voltages.

I predict the effect is small, and it should be fairly easy to filter HF crud a bit more effectively using different caps in different places but preventing HF crud is always best. Some of the HF will be created by the active elements on the MB itself, anything short of designing a new MB with audio in mind will likely fail to decrease it almost completely.

I expect the Taiko ATX PSU will do a great job to prevent most HF as it is designed to operate at a switching frequency that puts all noise in a very high bandwith that is unlikely to affect other components, except the crud created on the MB. Using a clean PSU and a decent MB combined with as much externally powered add ons will probably be the best solution for the near future.

 

The JCat is also one or a few caps, mica, I can only hope they are silver mica at that price tag, probably connected between ground and +5V. BTW; typically a few smaller sized caps in parallel work best as their ESR goes down.

[MarcelNL]

yeah breaking in does strange things, I am aware! This effect however resembled silver coated copper in teflon wire effect after a good 2 months too much to my liking, perhaps I cut the break in short (the described effect never goes away with silver teflon).

Same player shoots again...not looking forward to insulating 8 lengths of bare wire again, it's a bit of a nuisance...

[MarcelNL]

54 minutes ago, Ryelands said:

Essentially, it's just that except that it uses three different types of capacitor plus inductors, etc. It's a bit more than 'a bunch of capacitors' and IME (albeit in a slightly different context than here) very effective. Ditto BTW for Elfidelity's other products, all of which are passive devices.

 

Hopefully, other folk will report back in due course. Meanwhile, I've compared 'a bunch of capacitors' (admittedly not of the best quality) with Elfidelity boards on a server using a Seasonic Prime Titanium ATX PSU. The Elfidelity thingies were significantly better. YMMV and all that . . .

 

Dave

interesting, quick question; did you place your 'bunch of caps' in the PCIe slot or across the power wire loom and if so which one?

I found that replacing the EPS cable wire made much more of an impact than the dreaded 24pin cable.

 

I can imagine that we need to cover both the power loom AND the MB separately with 'a bunch of caps' as the MB contains more active components creating new noise. 

[MarcelNL]

slit foil and sic safco, memories of the past (building a Le Monstre amp with 1.5F and 2 car batteries)

[MarcelNL]

Gigabyte is probably not very good at responding, they were unable/unwilling to answer my question about memory channels....my MB (Aorus elite) does not boot with UDIMM's in the two spots laid out on the MB and manual. The response basically was a repetition of asking details (already provided).

[MarcelNL]

On my Aorus Elite all cards that fit work in the PCIe slots, goes for the Xilinx Solarflare and the Pink Faun I2S out card. Did you try disabling USB/Ethernet in BIOS? (Bios updated to latest stable version?) 

[MarcelNL]

on the Elite I can comfortably change settings and save them in a profile in Bios , also ; updating BIOS is really simple using a USB stick and the push of one button (no I don't work for GB ;-) )

It's just a suggestion to do troubleshooting, in the Elite Bios I can disable several USB groups just see if it helps.

 

If I read you correctly the USB CArd only works in the lower 4x slot in another computer (different MB?) too? Isn't that indicating it's the card rather than the MB?

 

[MarcelNL]

forget the internal audio and blinking led's, try to go for NO fans. Knowing what I know now I would get the one at your budget that has the max number of memory channels, most proper (no doublers) VRMs, the amount of PCIe slots you need (or will need) to use stuff like a dedicated (i.e Xilinx Solarflare or Jcat etc) network card, a Graphics card, and a decent output card with separate PSU...(USB I2S SSPDIF, whichever rocks your boat) and perhaps a bit of PCIe SSD like Optane or Sabrent. Others may have different considerations for a wish list, so YMMV....

[MarcelNL]

there is a list over at the HDplex website, or ask via email.

[MarcelNL]

that is indeed something I wondered about too....makes sense I think, to dedicate the direct lanes to the most important things.