server HQplayer How I build my high power computer server for HQplayer

[hols]

I must admit that I am not an expert in building servers and what I would try to do here is to provide some background why I chose to do my server this way and I have been quite satisfied with the end result. Most of what I chose are not something new but has been well described in the experts' threads like those of Nenon, StreamFidelity and jabbr under the same category of music servers. 

 

My requirements

My purpose is to build a high power computer capable of using embedded HQplayer with their EC modulators like ASDM7EC in DSD256. To me these modulators are getting the best of both worlds. Traditional DSD is usually musical but giving a relatively too thick sound whereas EC modulators put them back to perspective and giving enough transparency yet maintaining the musicality.  These EC modulators are well known to be power hungry and will need CPU clock frequency of more than 4GHz in several cores before they work. And experience from Romaz and Austinpop also are in favour of higher CPU power will give you better dynamics.(I have also tried the Asrock H370M with i78700T and also Asrock z390 phantom-itx with i7 8700K and the latter is obviously better and after upgrading to i9 9900K the SQ is even better) But high power CPU will cause harsh digital noise, heat dissipating issues, mechanical and electrical noises of fan and also harsh noises from power supplies. 

My second requirement is to run HQplayer embedded which is only available in Linux. But being headless it is going to further cut down resources required and the SQ is in a different league compared with desktop HQplayer4. And not all motherboards are compatible with Linux and the Linux support is not always available for newer motherboards. 

 

My choices(total 3 sets were done)

(1) Chassis-- HDplex H5 fanless

(2) CPU-- i9 9900K and 10700K

(3) mobo-- Asus z390 ROG STRIX-E gaming, Asus z390  ROG Strix-H gaming, Asus z490 Maximus XII Hero

(4) Apacer ECC Ram 8Gb x2 for each mobo

(5) HDplex 400W and 800W DC-ATX, HDplex 400W LPS HDplex 200W LPS

(6) DIY linear power supply project with friend 

(7) UKAS Linux OS from buddy 

(8) nvme storage Samsung 970 EVO 

(9) DIY cables 24 pin and CPU cable AWG18 silver plated hook up wire

 

Chassis & CPU

My plan is to go for fanless chassis in order to minimize problems from fan and HDplex H5 is the best available fanless case around. i9 9900K is 95W TDP and H5 is just adequate spec wise. I am not using any graphic cards for cuda offload( I am not interested in the heavy demand filters) so the overall utilization is not as high as expected. Besides the core temperatures are not persistently high they fluctuates from higher to lower temperature. With my trial case I found no problem with overheat so I am confident with its use. I then experimented with 10700K  although said to 125WTDP but can be tuned down to 95W if necessary so I decided to have a go and it works fine with the H5 without need to tune down to 95W. And SQ wise 10700K is superior to 9900K.

One comment is that since I am not using graphic card one side of the heatsink is cold and the other side is hot and it would be much better if there are longer heatpipes available so that both hetasinks can be utilised and the temperature control should be even better

 

Mobo

It was an unluckty time for me to search for mobos because of launch of 10th generation CPU and all 9th generation mobos are locked up by Asus not for sale in order to promote 10th generation mobo. My original plan is go for top ROG Maximus mobo for its presumably better power build but ended up with ROG Strix series and the result is still good

 

Ram

Apacer ECC Ram is well known to be good and I can testify that yes they are well worth it compared to my Kingston HyperX Ram. But need wait for 2 months. If I picked the 4G pieces it needs to be 3 or 4 months.

 

Power supply

Actually I have a joint project with my friends trying to build our dream linear power supply. It's been running intermittently since last year.  My initial plan is to use linear power supply 3 rails to supply mobo. At the same time I also explored the HDplex 400W and 800W DC-ATX. Finally got the 400W and tried with the mobo and the sound is actually very good provided the 19V supply to it is of good quality. We have a prototype DIY LPS 19V and another branded LPS also 19V and tried and the result is really great. And changing to 800W DC-ATX the improvement is really astonishing so w gave up the original plan of 3 rails 12v,5v3.3v going to the mobo and avoiding the small possible risk of burnt mobo in case irregularities come up. Besides the drop in voltage from 12v to 5v and 3.3 v is going to generate a significant amount of heat. 

 

OS

UKAS is a linux OS created by my buddy with self compiled kernel and still under development for some final touches. And it is only for private use at the moment. 

 

nvme storage 

Samsung 970EVO is chosen is just a balance between speed and price. Because my chief purpose is to play files from my own library so nvme storage becomes necessary and mobo with PCIe going straight to CPU is necessary.

 

24 pin and CPU cables

Considered Mundorf  but it is really too expensive so only using AWG 18 silver plated hook up wire

 

I have also 3 more NAA computers built mainly using left overs from previous computers like the i7 8700T i7 9700K and 10700. And it is a big surprise that even for NAA computer a higher powered CPU like 10700 still gives better sound than say 8700T. I have used Jcat USB XE card and Jcat femto network card in the NAA computers and with 5v external power supply. The result is much better than onboard USB and onboard Lan.

 

And the final result is that the 10700K HQ player computer coupled with 10700 NA computer that gives the best sound. Given the best power supply to this pair the SQ can match the extreme. I would say it betters the extreme in dynamics and detail and liveliness. Extreme tend to be more warm and a little more musical.

 

This is just a brief introduction of how I built my high power computer server for HQplayer to kcik off the discussion. Comments are welcome.

 

 

[hols]

14 hours ago, rickca said:

Are you saying HQPlayer embedded SQ is in a different league than desktop HQPlayer even with both running on Linux?

I have not directly compared HQplayer embedded with HQplayer4 desktop on the same Linux system.

I have been using HQplayer3 desktop before changing to HQplayer embedded and as I say it is in a different league. I have tried HQplayer 4 desktop in windows computer and I don't find it any better than HQplayer3 desktop in the same computer. I have also tried HQplayer4 desktop in another Linux system and I don't find it close to HQplayer embedded. But I have not directly A B comparison of the two in the same Linux system.  Hope this helps.

[hols]

On 8/18/2020 at 3:18 AM, exeric2 said:

This is very interesting, Hols. I'm curious why you didn't try Euphony. After all, it does have a HQP embedded option within it. That might be nice for those of us who do not have a friend who can write a linux program for us. I'm sure you have a reason and inquiring minds want to know.

 

On a separate note: Maybe there should be a crowd push here for HDPlex to create a passive cooling copper rods kit that engages both heat sink side panels from a single CPU. It seems like a really good idea because it would probably double the heat dissipating capacity of the H5. Instead of having them go out just one direction they would have to go out both directions from the single CPU. One complicating factor would be the necessity of clearing all three occupied PCIe slots. 

Actually I have tried Euphony way back more than a year ago and I still have a license now. Euphony does not seem to be very popular among our circle. We have compared directly audiolinux with HQplayer and Euphony with or without HQplayer embedded we all favor audiolinux. My impression of Euphony is it lacks the bass boost and also tend to have less detail than desired. YMMV.

 

As for the additional heat pipes utilizing heatsinks on both sides I have asked Larry of HDplex about it but it seems that he is not really interested in offering this option.

[hols]

On 8/18/2020 at 4:13 AM, guiltyboxswapper said:

@hols thanks for sharing.  Have you tried a single box configuration (i.e. embedded without NAA, but using the JCAT Net + USB XE card) ?

I am all for using HQplyer+ NAA option because singlebox HQplayer alone configuration can at most get 80% of what a HQplayer+NAA system can offer. Having said that I am using one singlebox configuration in one of my system because I am still waiting for some linear power supply for powering the NAA computer. I am using the Jcat USB XE card and still waiting for the new Jplay network card. 

[hols]

6 hours ago, andru26 said:

 

What do you think about JCAT USB XE? Did you by chance compare it to JCAT USB Femto?

I like the JCAT USB XE card a lot. Compared with the onboard USB ports the JCAT card is better in that it gives a more beautiful mid and high range. The sound is also more pure. But it most be supplied with a good external Linear Power supply otherwise its effect is only mediocre. And also if you are using HQplayer and going to high oversampling frequency e.g. PCM 1411 with say Holo Audio Spring 2 or May you have to scale down to 16 bit  instead of 24 bit. This is because of some USB architecture issue and is common to all PCIe USB cards and not just Jcat alone.

 Unfortunately I don't have a Jcat femto USB card to compare.

[hols]

Thank you

On 1/2/2021 at 2:09 PM, GUTB said:

I built a 7700K based Windows audio PC with TeraDak 380W, Paul Pang V3 USB and power-isolated SSD. I used large passive cooler from QuietPC:

....and it fails to keep the 7700K from throttling under heavy load from the advanced HQPlayer filters. I built it in the hopes of handling DSD512 up-conversion but thanks to the throttling it can't. It also struggles with DSD256 using the toughest filters. So, please make sure the cooling solution in this case will actually be able to stop the CPU from throttling.

Thank you for your post. I have been using this fanless server for 9 months now. Fortunately I do not have CPU throttling problem. I used it initially for going to DSD 256 ASDM7EC. The temperature may reach 70 to 80 degrees Celsius but no CPU throttling. I am using the 800W HDplex DC ATX  unit. In recent months I am changing more to upsampling to PCM 1411 and the temperature is not an issue too.

[hols]

15 hours ago, andru26 said:

@hols I just noticed your HD Plex build, very nice work. I would have one recommendation for you, which in my case improved the sound of my PC. I see your custom hook-up wire run parallel to each other. Try twisting them around each other. This will help with electrical noise reduction and will improve sound quality.

See attached image for an example.

Thank you for your suggestion. I think this is a really controversial area. In general I think the twisting of wires is belived to be useful in reducing noise in AC transmission. The improvement in DC is much less significant. Second is we are dealing with 24 wires traversing about 8 inches. If you twist them the resulting wire becoms a cake or a ball and the length of the wire used may have to be doubled or even tripled. The work involved in knitting the 24 wires is not easy. I am not so sure that adding so much metal is a good idea with regards to SQ. Besides cost is also a concern because these wires are not cheap at all, esepcially if some of them use Mundorf gold/silver wires. YMMV.

[hols]

23 hours ago, barrows said:

@hols, are you using any special BIOS settings for your build, or are you finding the OE settings of your MoBo to be adequate for your use of HQPlayer oversampling?

I am using original BIOS settings, only updating BIOS to the most recent version. It is adequate for HQplayer upsampling if I connect the Denafrips terminator plus. If i connect it to Holo Audio May then the USB can only output 16 bit in upsampling to 1411/1538 unless you use Jussi's NAA OS when some patch to facilitate USB functionality is done then you can output 24 bit.