Building a DIY Music Server

[Gavin1977]

Update on the choke group buy - manufacturer is still awaiting prices for some components.  Will provide another update next week.

 

Thanks

[Gavin1977]

Anyone know what the recommended/max current rating is for the SATA connector on Taiko DC-DC?

 

Thanks

[Gavin1977]

Choke purchasing details now live:

 

 

[Gavin1977]

SOTM SCLK-ex…

 

It’s supplied with a SATA adapter to power the board, but it seems to me that this is just for convenient connection, and besides Taiko ATX doesn’t come with a Sata power cable, just a 4 pin (2 x 2) SATA collector.

 

Anyone else fashioned a cable to power SCLK  direct from Taiko ATX SATA output?

 

What connector, crimps and crimp tool do I need?

[Gavin1977]

1 minute ago, Johnseye said:

 

What are you clocking with the sCLK?

 

SoTM q370… going to look at external clocks in due course.

 

I might have found it, if Taiko ATX is the same as HDPlex then it uses Molex Mini-Fit Jr, 4.2 pitch.  I don’t know the smaller connector type on the SCLK-ex though?

[Gavin1977]

The SotM SCLK-ex arrived configured for 9v in.  Yet the SATA power adaptor takes 12v in, and only a cap, no resistor to drop output…

 

So to directly wire from Taiko ATX as 12v I’d need to remove an internal jumper for 12v operation.  But then I’d be nervous about excluding the cap that the SATA power adapter includes.

 

 

@MayfromSOtM can you advise?

[Gavin1977]

6 hours ago, AngeloVRA said:

Hi @Gavin1977

 

The DC power IN cable connector for the SCLK EX is a Molex  0050375023 with crimp terminals 0008701039

You can use the PCIE output on the Taiko ATX. That is 8 pins, 4 pairs of 12v and Ground. 
 

I power my SCLK-EX with an external 12V PH DR7T. I use the PCIE output of Taiko ATX for the internal SATA power cable for the SNI-1G which is required even when externally powering it. 

 

 

Hope that helps

Angelo

Nice work Angelo!

[Gavin1977]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:13 PM, botrytis said:

For win 11 people would this be useful.. 

 

https://wccftech.com/tiny11-toned-down-version-of-windows-11-can-run-on-a-gpu-with-4-gb-vram/

This has potential... especially since Windows 11 is being reported as better sounding than Win 10 LTSC.  Anyone tried it yet? 

[Gavin1977]

6 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

how does VRAM compare to industrial RAM , sonically?

Looking at it - you can only boot Windows to a GPU/VRAM using a virtual machine i.e. within Windows.  Unlikely to be any benefit for audiophiles due to the increased overhead.

 

However, a significantly de-bloated version of Windows looks very attractive - potentially down to 30-40 processes.  I checked my main work laptop - 400 concurrent processes!  Nothing essentially new here, but there are some good tools out there you can substitute for audiophile optimiser (I've never used it).

[Gavin1977]

1 hour ago, RDOK said:

 

it is shown that it is very well possible to run W10 or W11 directly in RAM.

 

Yeah, sure thing.  I have run ramboot before, but what I was referring to was booting via VRAM on a GPU… different kettle of fish.

[Gavin1977]

Great research as always  - so what are the best sounding (ideally Ready-2-Run) solutions at this point in time @seeteeyou according to your research?

[Gavin1977]

D31.23245S.001 works fine for me -2666MHz which is the max stock frequency.  It’s cheaper, unless you configure settings to run the faster RAM that Angelo mentions above.  Sourced from SOSElectronics - good service.

[Gavin1977]

If you don’t do upsampling, than 2666 MHz ram will be fine, the faster speed module that Angelo uses will benefit you if you intend to upsample.  Otherwise not much, if any, difference.

 

Please note the motherboard is only designed for 2666Mhz, might take some optimisation to get 3200 to work.

 

The price was very reasonable - ask them for a quote.

[Gavin1977]

5 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

I was looking at the new MB in order to assess the best order of placing the PCie cards and NVME disks, which is somewhat tricky as the board only has three PCIe slots and accepts up to 5 NVME drives and I need to place;

 

-PF HEA bridge I2S output; PCIe 1x.. Assuming latency is a key aspect I found this article;

-Solarflare NIC X2552; PCIe 8x

-Video card which is a long PCIe format, only needed for POST..Ican always buy a PCIe x1 video card

 

Some of the NVME and SATA (will be shut off) are connected via the X570 chipset and some even by an auxilliary chip.

I suspect I want to stick to the CPU direct lanes of which there are only a limited amount

 

 

So looking for any info on latency differences across PCIe lanes I found this article on PCIe clock retimers

 

https://www.edn.com/a-short-primer-on-pcie-latency-and-its-optimization-with-retimers/

 

Anyone here who knows more about this retimer, is this software? Is it incorporated in any OS? 

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/pci-express/pci-express-gen4-retimer-features-tech-brief.html

 

I’d place the Pink Faun I2S bridge in the CPU direct 20 lane channel as this is the most important card (last part of the chain), after that it doesn’t really matter too much in my experience.  But if you had 2x cpu direct lanes I’d put the network card in the other.

 

The retimer tech is basically about signal integrity - PCIe 4.0 is faster, so the signal will degrade quicker and retimers are needed (for example, it might otherwise be a recipe for disaster if you used a long flexible riser).  Anyhow, that’s my interpretation of it - how PCIe 4.0 affects sound I do not know.

[Gavin1977]

Hi @Nenon I’ve been looking at these ATS-4-HE.  PM incoming.

[Gavin1977]

@seeteeyou so what does Win11PE audiophile consist of - is it a custom disto, or Win11 plus optimisations that must be run by the user?

[Gavin1977]

1 hour ago, drjimwillie said:

Greetings, music, loving friends😎

 

I am going to start my Sage MB build in the Taiko case soon. I am going to be using the Taiko Rectifier, the big CAP and the Martin Mug chokes.

I have a feeling that I am going to need to drill some custom holes for the standoffs. I want to buy a tap and die set for the stand off screws, but I am having trouble identifying, the correct tap and die. I see that the thread for the standoff is #6-32, but the tap and die sets are not specified this way. Can anyone help me find the right tools for this work, please?

also, what size drillbit do I use to drill the hole, please?

is the bottom of the DIY Taiko case thick enough for tapped screws?  I am betting that the side walls are. 
 

has anyone else built a server with these components yet? I am hoping to see examples from others.

I still have a bit of time before I get started, but I will post pictures as I try to make decisions.

 

thank you 

 

I hope you all are enjoying some good music🎶

 

DJW

I recommend practicing and a scrap piece of aluminium, buy some tapping compound and drill and tap for all of the 'drill and taps' you have (they usually come in a box set).  This way you can practice and also have something you can test screws in to confirm which one you need.

 

Generally the drill bit is 0.5mm smaller than the hole to be tapped ( if I remember correctly).

 

Trial and error and practice is best.

[Gavin1977]

17 hours ago, BCRich said:

This should work……

Have to drill a bunch of holes, may have wait on that. 

 

That’s amazing that you managed to fit it in the chassis 

[Gavin1977]

14 hours ago, drjimwillie said:

You guys are extremely convincing. 😉

I just purchased the Saligny Power GaN. 
 

It looks like now I’m going to need a board to mount the cap that goes with the Rectifier.

it looks like all the cool guys are doing it. 
 

rob and Mike, will you please give me advice on how to order a PCB board?
 

Marce - are you going make a board to mount yours with your Cap?  maybe I can order one with you?

 

although, I know nothing about this, so I don’t know if it’s prudent to order a board locally?

 

thank you, Will

I shared earlier, just do point to point wiring using a mounting bracket like these: https://www.hificollective.co.uk/index.php/components/capacitors/mountingbrackets.html

[Gavin1977]

@seeteeyou  nice post on the Xeon CPU Max Series from Intel with 64GB of HBM2e inside the CPU itself - onboard memory could be great for us audiophiles.  I wonder if it'll trickle down to lower TDP processors, or K series.

[Gavin1977]

23 hours ago, dctom said:

 

Thank you for the suggestion - not easily availeable in the uk, simlar boards are pretty expensive here.

It is a nice board - could be imported, might even be cheaper?

[Gavin1977]

22 hours ago, RickyV said:

 

Is this a reasonable price for these “old” cpu‘s. I might order the SOTM motherboard soon.

Yes that’s a good price - I would suggest avoiding 9900KF, couldn’t get it to boot (not sure if this is a known issue or a one off).

[Gavin1977]

6 hours ago, RickyV said:

thanks, so you think it’s just user inexperience? I will email them to see what the problem is and maybe they can install it, good idea.

I watched a YouTube video doesn’t look difficult. A long time ago I installed a few cpu’s but they had the pins on cpu itself.

I did experience difficulty - motherboard wouldn’t boot.  Sent it back directly to SoTM after troubleshooting and they did exchange it no quibbles.  The new one worked fine.  But my friend also experienced something similar.   So anyway, it’s real good, but just be prepared to put some hours in if it doesn’t boot first time.

[Gavin1977]

14 hours ago, Exocer said:

Interesting- 

 

In my setup, I have my wireless AP fiber gapped between it and my Edgerouter Er-4. Music server and Etherregen are on a separate dedicated subnet (this did wonders for SQ). As for power, I’ve tried using a decent quality LPS on the wireless AP but as expected there was no audible improvement (because my streamed content never traverses the wireless AP perhaps?). I only use it to send control commands anyway. Plus, it isn’t in the same circuit as my “clean” gear.

 

The only downside to this configuration is/was that UPNP requires a ton of work run when multiple subnets are involved. If I had been able to get that to work I may have gone with the Eunhasu OS for my SOTM server (which sounded glorious with LMS, and per @MayfromSOtM sounds even better with MPD).

 

I may have to revisit that when I incorporate the SOTM server again. Just waiting for my NiC to return and that test will proceed.

I had no idea that Eunhasu OS was available in x86 flavour.  Anyone else played around with this?

[Gavin1977]

Some nice design tips here - I like the copper motherboard mounting plate, easy to DIY and will help remove heat.  Also, only 4 (larger) heat pipes on the CPU, which then get sandwiched in-between the heat sinks by the looks of it.  Neat.