DIY Project High Performance Audio PC with high quality wiring

[Zauurx]

3 hours ago, StreamFidelity said:

 

I did not manage to deposit the correct link. Presumably our forum has an aversion to audio “science” review. 😂

 

I know KSTR from German-speaking forums. He writes well-founded. I am always grateful when I understand the technical construct. But at the same time humble, because not everything can always be explained with today's technology. My ears always win.

 

The named sample jumps are wanted by the developer (it was written somewhere in the developer blog).

 

Besides some measurement results, did KSTR "hear" the sampled music? There is nothing about that in the report.

 

I also use MinorityClean as a CPU jitter cleaner because it "sounds" better. Everyone as he likes. 😉

Why this test ? You are (like me) an HQplayer user who does it on the fly... with possibly Roon which switches to 64bits if processed upstream (auto level).
MC user as well (MC203/4). 👍

[StreamFidelity]

1 hour ago, Zauurx said:

Why this test ? You are (like me) an HQplayer user who does it on the fly... with possibly Roon which switches to 64bits if processed upstream (auto level).

 

That's a good point. In fact, I have to given one important piece of information: I also use the HQPlayer with low frequency interpolation files. Namely DSD256 with the Modulator ASDM7EC and an ingenious new filter poly-sinc-gauss-xla. 👍

 

Now most of you will think that is nonsense. The thesis behind this is, if a file ripped from the CD in WAV format sounds better than FLAC, why shouldn't processing with more tabs also increase SQ?

 

Just as with WAV it is no longer necessary to unpack and therefore possibly ensure a better SQ, the significant increase in the tab points could help the HQPlayer to achieve new top performance. I admit none of this is scientifically proven and it's my guesswork.

 

But my ears and those of the sound engineer noticed an increase in sound. Unfortunately, only from 134 million tabs, which requires a lot of computing power and time. There is nothing free in our hobby. 😂

[seeteeyou]

Just wondering if anyone were familiar with HPE servers by any chance? They're adding something to the BIOS options of their Xeon Scalable motherboards (Proliant Gen10) that couldn't be found anywhere else

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/page/616/?tab=comments#comment-1014096

On 12/16/2019 at 7:37 AM, romaz said:

You really want the least possible variation in load, and higher cpu power / bandwidth systems are better at that with very low load music playback processes.

 

https://www.peters.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/HPE-Gen10-Customer-Deck-Tom.pdf#page=6

Quote

Jitter smoothing
– Reduce latency, and deliver deterministic and reliable performance by mitigating processor frequency fluctuation.
– Ideal for workloads where processor frequency is highly variable (e.g. High Frequency Traders, HPC).

 

https://www.peters.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/HPE-Gen10-Customer-Deck-Tom.pdf#page=24

Quote

− Jitter Smoothing Mitigate frequency fluctuations for deterministic performance, reduced latency, and improved workload throughput.

 

https://techlibrary.hpe.com/docs/iss/proliant-gen10-uefi/GUID-CF7117BC-A4F1-4DDE-B051-68B02E5B6A79.html

Quote

Hewlett Packard Enterprise introduced the Processor Jitter Control feature in its Gen10 and later servers to enable customers to achieve both frequency upside and low jitter. This feature is available for Gen10 and later servers using Intel Xeon Scalable Processors. Servers using AMD processors do not support this feature. This feature allows the customer to remove or reduce jitter caused by opportunistic frequency management, which results in better latency response and higher throughput performance.

 

https://www.net-cloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/intelligence-system-tuning-report.pdf#page=2

Quote

Level and balance frequency fluctuation, minimize jitter, and reduce latency problems while in Intel Turbo Boost Mode using patent-pending technology. Jitter Smoothing mitigates processor frequency fluctuation and can improve Intel processor frequency by up to 12% over base with low latency and deterministic processor performance.4In some cases, Jitter Smoothing can even deliver workload throughput above Intel bo Boost mode alone for an even higher performance improvement.5

 

Quote

Jitter Smoothing requires:
• HPE ProLiant Gen10 server with Intel processor
• HPE iLO 5
• HPE iLO Advanced license or Advanced Premium Security Edition license

 

iLO 3 iLO 4 iLO 5 HPE iLO Advanced License 1 Year iLO key License Fast Email🎈
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324604453952

 

512485-B21 512519-021 845052-B21| HPE iLO 2 3 4 5| iLO License| Ship Physical 🛫
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324604453948

 

 

A barebone system for €582 or so

 

https://www.serverschmiede.com/konfigurator_bulk/en/hp-ml110-gen10-g10-tower-server-8x-25-sff-1x-intel-xeon-scalable-lga3647-ddr4-ecc-psu-raid-windows-server-2019-vmware-7

https://www.ebay.de/itm/324557734492

 

The motherboard alone (refurbished) should cost about $300 and up

 

https://micropartsmi.com/878926-001-proliant-ml110-gen10-server-board-by-hp/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313422440119

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254995966307

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-878926-001-ML110-Gen10-Systemboard-874022-001/264988910968

https://www.ebay.com/itm/874022-001-878926-001-HPE-ML110-G10-System-Board-Assembly-/402009457820

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-878926-001-874022-001-PROLIANT-ML110-GEN10-SYSTEM-BOARD-/265106014766

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-HP-874022-001-878926-001-PROLIANT-ML110-GEN10-SYSTEM-BOARD/274141167662

 

Simply DAFS on SHA-256: b98c578bf96e4ebed8645236a70d5df4d104d37238e5d17d59387888db5ae106 and that 10GB ISO image should include all software required

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=b98c578bf96e4ebed8645236a70d5df4d104d37238e5d17d59387888db5ae106

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/nvs6pq/can_anyone_hook_a_brotha_up_with_some_hp_dl380/

 

BTW, I could find dozens of UEFI settings related to latency here

 

https://lenovopress.com/lp1477.pdf

https://thinksystem.lenovofiles.com/help/index.jsp?topic=%2Fuefi_xeon_3rd%2Fprocessors.html

Quote

SNC (sub NUMA cluster) partitions the cores and last level cache into clusters with each cluster bound to a set of memory controllers in the system. SNC improves average latency to the last level cache.

 

SNC could also be enabled on HPE Proliant Gen10

 

https://techlibrary.hpe.com/docs/iss/proliant-gen10-uefi/GUID-0200DE9A-AFCF-4CF0-919D-713E2A8B915A.html

[The Computer Audiophile]

19 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

Just wondering if anyone were familiar with HPE servers by any chance?

That’s what this site run on 😁

[AudioDoctor]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

That’s what this site run on 😁

 

The low jitter must be why the site is so speedy...  ;-)

[ASRMichael]

7 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

The low jitter must be why the site is so speedy...  ;-)

Even faster if you pay for premium access!!! Love black skin also! 

[AudioDoctor]

Just now, ASRMichael said:

Even faster if you pay for premium access!!! Love black skin also! 

 

Oh I know, that's how you get the low jitter connection... Otherwise you get the site ran on an old HP desktop running an Athlon and 512MB of RAM...

[Miska]

On 6/30/2021 at 8:58 PM, The Computer Audiophile said:

That’s what this site run on 😁

 

And also some of my servers, like email server and kernel downloads... :D

 

[seeteeyou]

https://proaudioblog.co.uk/usb-3-vs-thunderbolt-interfaces/

Quote

Since Thunderbolt is allowed almost straight access to the CPU, it is able to lower the “round trip” audio latency from about an absolute minimum of about 4.5 ms through USB, to under 1 ms.

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/61951-qnap-via-thunderbolt/?tab=comments#comment-1134958

On 5/21/2021 at 9:24 PM, littlefooch said:

In the interim, as the Win10 releases have matured, and in particular in the Insider releases, W10 does provide support for thunderbolt networking.  This can mean a lot of different things.  What I'm testing in particular is the ability to use existing Win10 capability to bridge two ethernet adapters (one or two of which can be Thunderbolt Networking adapters).

 

This is becoming increasing more stable as the W10 releases mature.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/eGPU/comments/lw0pn1/thunderbolt_4usb_4_pcie_card/

Quote

So turns out you can do just that but I'm not sure even Asus realises you can!

I had the same question, I'd heard some people had got TB3 cards to work by bridging a couple of pins on the header cable instead of plugging it into the motherboard. Thought I'd try it.

Purchased the Asus Thunderboltex 4, plugged it into a dark hero motherboard (x570 with no thunderbolt header). To my surprise it worked. No header cable required.

Just the USB2.0 cable plugged into the motherboard and card in the last PCI-E slot, nothing else. Not drivers needed (or at least Windows went and got them for me if there were).

I now have my GPU into the Thunderbolt card, that goes into a thunderbolt HUB (because you can have those with TB4) then a thunderbolt to DisplayPort cable that goes into a my Samsung Odyssey G9 doing 5120x1440@240hz. UFO Test confirms it all working smoothly with no stutter.

Only thing not working if I can't install the Intel thunderbolt software but I have no idea what it does or why you would need it?

I honestly can't work out why Asus doesn't shout this from the rooftops!

 

So two cards would cost $230 and the latency of Thunderbolt Networking over an optical cable could be quite interesting, *IF* that were actually confirmed by Corning to be OK

 

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/Accessories/ThunderboltEX-4/

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ThunderboltEX-Thunderbolt-bi-Directional-DisplayPort/dp/B08ZS3D6JY

 

$360 for each cable

 

https://www.amazon.com/Corning-Meter-Thunderbolt-USB-C-Optical/dp/B08CK7LPXZ

https://www.corning.com/optical-cables-by-corning/worldwide/en/products/thunderbolt-optical-cables.html

 

[Vivling2021]

Has anyone used Buffalo gs2016(with or without modded clock) with a solarflare 8522/2522 NIC? If so, what's the result? These two items has been hot topics on the forum as they offer very good bang for the buck SQ. 

[StreamFidelity]

Audio PC: passive cooling of Solarflare network cards

 

Due to the high performance of the Solarflare NICs (Network Interface Card) of the 8 and x series, the chips installed there get very hot. They are already equipped with an oversized cooler compared to other cards, but the manufacturer expects a case fan with at least 200 rpm. The only solution so far has been generous ventilation holes on the lid or cover up the lid.

 

The Solarflare NICs have very low latencies and are therefore used, for example, in high-frequency trading on stock exchanges. In the audio sector, low latencies are also a great advantage. Taiko Audio and others noted outstanding sound, but it deteriorated as the heating increased. That is also my observation. That's why I developed passive cooling with heat pipes.

 

 

The HDPLEX 2nd Gen H5 Fanless Chassis with heat pipes offers excellent passive cooling options by simply dissipating the heat via the side wall. If you don't use a passively cooled graphics card, the left side wall is free. Due to the different slots on the motherboards, a flexible connection option for the heat pipes was required. The attachment in the middle enables the heat pipes to be shortened. Since it is a prototype, the production is still a bit rough.

 

 

The block at the top enables it to be attached to the Solarflare NIC with four precisely fitting holes.

 

 

Here you can see the heat sink of the XILINX Solarflare X2 Series Ethernet Adapter - XtremeScale X2522, which is not sufficient for passive cooling. The contact pressure of the heat sink on the chip is created by means of spring plug-in holders.

 

 

The spring clips must be carefully removed from the back of the circuit board. The bracket is pressed together with tweezers and the connection to the circuit board is loosened.

 

 

The bare solar flare chip comes out and it is cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. Then a new thermal paste or thermal pad comes on.

 

 

The new cooling block is carefully attached to the chip with the removed spring plug-in holders.

 

 

It must be ensured that the cooling block lies flat on the chip.

 

 

A thermal paste must be applied so that the heat is dissipated well via the side wall. Before doing this, you will try out how the heat pipes are positioned and marked.

 

 

Installed it looks like this:

 

 

With the acrylic glass lid closed, the prototype is already impressive.

 

 

performance

 

I was very curious to see if that would work. After about an hour the left side wall gets quite warm, which is a very good sign. The heat dissipation via the outer wall works! An endurance test now follows. I will also completely close the housing cover with the original.

 

Sound impression

 

Even after hours there is finally no audible drop in performance. The enormous clarity, the stage far out the loudspeakers and the unexcited, slag-free sound are retained.

[NewOldman]

why not just mount a small fan with a external powersource 

[StreamFidelity]

1 hour ago, NewOldman said:

why not just mount a small fan with a external powersource 

 

A fan with an external power source is a good idea because electronic pollution from PWM is avoided.

 

Unfortunately, the other drawbacks of a fan remain. Even if a large case fan with 200 rpm makes almost no noise, the inevitable vibrations can seriously disturb the electronic components working in the high frequency range. That doesn't bother with word processing. But jitter or other electronic interference are problems in audio processing.

 

Fans tend to collect a ton of dust. Some people wonder about the large openings in the fis Audio acrylic glass cover. Since with passive cooling, the heated air moves from the bottom up, most of the dust remains outside.

 

The fis Audio PC is constructed in such a way that there are no moving parts. 😉

[Nenon]

3 hours ago, StreamFidelity said:

Audio PC: passive cooling of Solarflare network cards

 

Due to the high performance of the Solarflare NICs (Network Interface Card) of the 8 and x series, the chips installed there get very hot. They are already equipped with an oversized cooler compared to other cards, but the manufacturer expects a case fan with at least 200 rpm. The only solution so far has been generous ventilation holes on the lid or cover up the lid.

 

The Solarflare NICs have very low latencies and are therefore used, for example, in high-frequency trading on stock exchanges. In the audio sector, low latencies are also a great advantage. Taiko Audio and others noted outstanding sound, but it deteriorated as the heating increased. That is also my observation. That's why I developed passive cooling with heat pipes.

 

 

The HDPLEX 2nd Gen H5 Fanless Chassis with heat pipes offers excellent passive cooling options by simply dissipating the heat via the side wall. If you don't use a passively cooled graphics card, the left side wall is free. Due to the different slots on the motherboards, a flexible connection option for the heat pipes was required. The attachment in the middle enables the heat pipes to be shortened. Since it is a prototype, the production is still a bit rough.

 

 

The block at the top enables it to be attached to the Solarflare NIC with four precisely fitting holes.

 

 

Here you can see the heat sink of the XILINX Solarflare X2 Series Ethernet Adapter - XtremeScale X2522, which is not sufficient for passive cooling. The contact pressure of the heat sink on the chip is created by means of spring plug-in holders.

 

 

The spring clips must be carefully removed from the back of the circuit board. The bracket is pressed together with tweezers and the connection to the circuit board is loosened.

 

 

The bare solar flare chip comes out and it is cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. Then a new thermal paste or thermal pad comes on.

 

 

The new cooling block is carefully attached to the chip with the removed spring plug-in holders.

 

 

It must be ensured that the cooling block lies flat on the chip.

 

 

A thermal paste must be applied so that the heat is dissipated well via the side wall. Before doing this, you will try out how the heat pipes are positioned and marked.

 

 

Installed it looks like this:

 

 

With the acrylic glass lid closed, the prototype is already impressive.

 

 

performance

 

I was very curious to see if that would work. After about an hour the left side wall gets quite warm, which is a very good sign. The heat dissipation via the outer wall works! An endurance test now follows. I will also completely close the housing cover with the original.

 

Sound impression

 

Even after hours there is finally no audible drop in performance. The enormous clarity, the stage far out the loudspeakers and the unexcited, slag-free sound are retained.

 

Well done! In a true DIY spirit. I like it! Thank you for sharing. 

[MarcelNL]

Quick question (great work BTW), what sort of temperatures did you see before and after?

 

in my case the Solarflare seems to run at around 57'C , I happen to have a bunch of heatpipes lying about for the CPU and I have a few more than I need....

[Exocer]

4 hours ago, StreamFidelity said:

Audio PC: passive cooling of Solarflare network cards

 

Due to the high performance of the Solarflare NICs (Network Interface Card) of the 8 and x series, the chips installed there get very hot. They are already equipped with an oversized cooler compared to other cards, but the manufacturer expects a case fan with at least 200 rpm. The only solution so far has been generous ventilation holes on the lid or cover up the lid.

 

The Solarflare NICs have very low latencies and are therefore used, for example, in high-frequency trading on stock exchanges. In the audio sector, low latencies are also a great advantage. Taiko Audio and others noted outstanding sound, but it deteriorated as the heating increased. That is also my observation. That's why I developed passive cooling with heat pipes.

 

 

The HDPLEX 2nd Gen H5 Fanless Chassis with heat pipes offers excellent passive cooling options by simply dissipating the heat via the side wall. If you don't use a passively cooled graphics card, the left side wall is free. Due to the different slots on the motherboards, a flexible connection option for the heat pipes was required. The attachment in the middle enables the heat pipes to be shortened. Since it is a prototype, the production is still a bit rough.

 

 

The block at the top enables it to be attached to the Solarflare NIC with four precisely fitting holes.

 

 

Here you can see the heat sink of the XILINX Solarflare X2 Series Ethernet Adapter - XtremeScale X2522, which is not sufficient for passive cooling. The contact pressure of the heat sink on the chip is created by means of spring plug-in holders.

 

 

The spring clips must be carefully removed from the back of the circuit board. The bracket is pressed together with tweezers and the connection to the circuit board is loosened.

 

 

The bare solar flare chip comes out and it is cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. Then a new thermal paste or thermal pad comes on.

 

 

The new cooling block is carefully attached to the chip with the removed spring plug-in holders.

 

 

It must be ensured that the cooling block lies flat on the chip.

 

 

A thermal paste must be applied so that the heat is dissipated well via the side wall. Before doing this, you will try out how the heat pipes are positioned and marked.

 

 

Installed it looks like this:

 

 

With the acrylic glass lid closed, the prototype is already impressive.

 

 

performance

 

I was very curious to see if that would work. After about an hour the left side wall gets quite warm, which is a very good sign. The heat dissipation via the outer wall works! An endurance test now follows. I will also completely close the housing cover with the original.

 

Sound impression

 

Even after hours there is finally no audible drop in performance. The enormous clarity, the stage far out the loudspeakers and the unexcited, slag-free sound are retained.

Wonderful work! I am contemplating picking up the newer Solarflare card and will likely emulate what you've done here :) Thanks for sharing. It looks very well executed.

[StreamFidelity]

Thank you all. The X2522 card runs 24h without dropouts and the SQ got even better.

 

The Ethernet diagram shows a very quiet course with occasional data bursts, which are probably requested by the HQPlayer NAA.

 

 

 

The temperature development on the heat sink is sensationally low and is approx. 37.5 ° C (99.5 ° F).

 

I still have to make a small modification. The heat pipes are too close to the X2522 board and should gain more distance by a kink.

 

If you are interested, I can order a lttle quantity exclusive for this comunity. The cooling solution fits the 8000 and x25 series and the HDPLEX 2nd Gen H5 fanless chassis. I do not produce the cooling solution myself but commission a German manufacturer to do it. I have to calculate the price depending on the quantity.

[seeteeyou]

I didn't realize that we've got (at least) two separate XOs on X2522 until I saw your pictures. Pretty easy to tell that X4 should be 20MHz but it's quite tricky to see those numbers of X2.

 

Since an internally-powered SFN8522 was able to beat the externally-powered JCAT NET Card FEMTO + OPTIMO 3 DUO combo with ease, replacing some clocks on X2522 should elevate its performance by another notch or two IMHO.

 

BTW, it's interesting that X2522 and X2541 were recommended specifically for their KumoScale software

 

https://business.kioxia.com/en-emea/ssd/kumoscale-software.html

https://business.kioxia.com/en-us/news/2021/ssd-20210622-1.html

Quote

Solarflare Communications XtremeScale SFC9250 10/25/40/50/100G Ethernet Controller OR Solarflare XtremeScale X2541-100G Adapter

 

 

 

https://kumoscale.kioxia.com/en/

Quote

KumoScale software manages storage devices at the media level to deliver the best possible latency at all times.

 

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201008005161/en/KIOXIA’s-KumoScale-Software-Demonstrates-60x-Storage-Improvement-Over-Traditional-Ceph-Software

Quote

Testing conducted in a networked environment that included the NVMe-oF specification and a TCP/IP transport showed that KumoScale software’s read performance is 12x faster than Ceph, and read latency is reduced by 60%. With similar loads, under the same testing conditions, write performance is 60x faster than Ceph while latency is reduced by 98%.

 

https://blocksandfiles.com/2020/10/08/kioxia-kumoscale-vs-ceph-block-performance-with-nvme-tcp/

Quote

Our native mapper function uses NVMe-oF to provision block volumes over the network which provides the lowest latency and best performance results.

 

StarWind NVMe-oF Initiator for Windows
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-nvme-of-initiator

[MarcelNL]

does anyone have a tip for a serious 5.1mm connector for powering gear externally? I just got those from  Oyaide and cannot say that I'm overwhelmed or that my expectations were met... a crappy solder on only ground, little room for proper wire, plastic ? insulation...there must be better ones at this price point for sure.

 (they are way better than the usual throwaway crap normally used but it somehow looks as if the appearance mattered more than their function)

 

 

[NewOldman]

ELECAUDIO DC-2.1G Gold plated connector Jack DC 5.5 / 2.1mm - Audiophonics

 

ELECAUDIO DCT-2.1G Jack DC 5.5 / 2.1mm Connector Tellurium Copper Gold Plated 3µ - Audiophonics

 

[MarcelNL]

thanks, they appear of similar build and plastic insulator inside...

[Zauurx]

7 hours ago, StreamFidelity said:

Thank you all. The X2522 card runs 24h without dropouts and the SQ got even better....

I appreciate your work, your research... elegant solutions.
I admit to being frustrated by the loss of the left radiator by putting a pci card in the HDPlex box.
Here it is used.

To have an improvement of the SQ, a minimum latency is desirable.
But below a certain level, is the game worth the price?
The Solarflare solution is excellent, elusive but it is quite possible with the same environment and a JCAT Net card to go below 1 ms (and down to 0.05 for TCPIP or Ndis drivers).
It's also a problem of buffer management, software and windows optimization.

Yes, better hardware with better clocks, better power supplies will do better... with a cost !!
A simpler scheme (direct connection to the streamer in IPV6 without going through a switch) with less hardware to optimise, a simple second-hand JCAT Net card and fewer problems to solve.
Of course my i5 gets hotter in DSD 256 / gauss-xla and ASMD7EC... but it does it! 😋

[Vivling2021]

9 hours ago, Zauurx said:

I appreciate your work, your research... elegant solutions.
I admit to being frustrated by the loss of the left radiator by putting a pci card in the HDPlex box.
Here it is used.

To have an improvement of the SQ, a minimum latency is desirable.
But below a certain level, is the game worth the price?
The Solarflare solution is excellent, elusive but it is quite possible with the same environment and a JCAT Net card to go below 1 ms (and down to 0.05 for TCPIP or Ndis drivers).
It's also a problem of buffer management, software and windows optimization.

Yes, better hardware with better clocks, better power supplies will do better... with a cost !!
A simpler scheme (direct connection to the streamer in IPV6 without going through a switch) with less hardware to optimise, a simple second-hand JCAT Net card and fewer problems to solve.
Of course my i5 gets hotter in DSD 256 / gauss-xla and ASMD7EC... but it does it! 😋

A solarflare x8255 is 120 dollars, X2522 is 170 dollars on ebay, much cheaper than any of the Jcat Net card offerings, and a compatible 10G Mikrotik optical switch is only 100 dollars. These are very very cheap solution( in the Hifi world )and yet offer superior results. I doubt you will be better off with a ordinary switch with a JCAT NET. 

[Vivling2021]

My Solarflare X2522 is connected to Mikrotik CRS305 via 10G SFP+ AOC. The Solarflare X2522 is powered directly from LPSU, And it works beautifully under Euphony. I learned from StreamerFidelity to change it to Ultra low Latency under BIOS. By testing, the latency is well below 1ms even without Onload.

 

It sounds wonderful. I can cook an egg on this Solarflare(very hot), so I installed it outside the Streacom box and the cold air from air conditioner cools it down. This is perhaps the first Solarflare X2522 powered externally by LPSU on this forum, this would reduce noise generated by the card going to the motherboard.  I think it would beat most copper based NIC solutions many times more expensive. 

 

My current audio chain is modded Buffalo GS2016(powered by LPSU)---Optical fiber---MicroTik(LPSU)---Optical fiber---Solarflare(externally powered by LPSU)---i7-10700(Teradak LPSU)---Apacer 8G ECC---JCAT USB XE(Uptone JS2)---Uptone Isoregen(Uptone JS2)---Schiit Ygg A2---Microzotl 2.0(LPSU)---Line Magnetic 219IA---Audio Note AN-E SPE/HE. Both the solarflare and JCAT USB card are connected to a Asus motherboard via shielded chipless PCI-e extension cord. Both of these card are placed outside the computer box to avoid noise generated by the computer. As you can see from the photos, it is a bit messy but a effective and  inexpensive solution that achieves low latency and isolate noises.

[Iving]

I'm a little off the beaten path; nevertheless, enjoying the shares on this Thread.

 

Is there any reason the following wouldn't work for local playback ASIO > Dante Virtual Soundcard >>>

 

Instead of:     Intel X540-T2                         > ordinary ethernet cable > A Side etherRegen > DDC > DAC

 

Replace with:   Solarflare X2522 + RJ45 Transceiver   > ordinary ethernet cable > A Side etherRegen > DDC > DAC

 

TIA any helpful tips