Jump to content
IGNORED

AMD based server build


Recommended Posts

2 minutes ago, RickyV said:


not sure what mean by fast caps? What kind of caps are those, polyester, silver mica, Russian silver mica? Not sure where to start.

just find some very low ESR caps, and try.....nothing will break.

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

So, the copper plate sits on top of the heatpipe adapter and serves as clamp....let the games begin

 

 

IMG-20211005-WA0006.jpg

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

Just came back from Berlin Audio Meet where my protype met some old speakers using a 1.5W Tube amp and reaching realistic sound levels 😎.

 

bam.jpeg

IMG-20211007-WA0002.jpeg

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

We had a BLAST, and  a beer...

Heard some very special stuff, best mono Vinyl I ever heard (mono is special anyway), handmade cartridge....a new tube phono stage using a new principle, folks with crazy builds....the lunatics had truly taken over the asylum, the venue used to be a 'recuperation home' for the upper echelons in the former DDR  

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

I just compared two pretty extreme capacitors on the EPS cable, think low capacitance....

The difference is not trivial, so I urge you to experiment!

 

After this experiment I noticed there is an update for Daphile RT , and that appears to be a nice improvement too!

 

 

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

So finally the chokes have arrived, let the games begin...Hoping to be able to finish the new ATX and EPS cables and put everything together this week :-)

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

fitting a temporary box, and as always...there are two sizes,, too large and too small...I opted for too small...

 

IMG-20211208-WA0004.thumb.jpeg.a9292af6dbdc7b5a0de10989cb8d663d.jpeg

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

I'm going for higher CMMR connection of the chokes (series in + and -) for the PSU feeding the server, I finally got ALL the bits and pieces....

 

Got the softstart for the Toroidy 500VA transformer working off a pushbutton, 33V DC after the active rectifier, so far so good :-)

 

now for some tinkering with hefty wires and then trying to connect the Taiko ATX, my UPOCC 14AWG 24pin ATX cable has a sort of boner, it's not very pliable.

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

the PSU works, a steady 36.1 V DC output (without load)....too good I'm not done yet as listening would not have worked as I'm as deaf as can be in one ear currently. 

Connecting the Taiko ATX and then the MB is likely something for tomorrow (should my ear clear by then)

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

So the whole build is now up and running for a week (24/7) and my ear is not cleared yet, but I can clear it for a few minutes to get a sneak preview.

 

Sound quality appears VERY good! Yesterday I was listening to Mahler 8th, at home I've never heard a separation between the  individual singers that even resembles what happens live. Now it is close to that (provided my wonky hearing does not fool me).

Dynamics, f.e. the Piano on Three Blind Mice, Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, are stupefying fast, effortless and clean.

 

 

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got around to install Daphile (latest Beta RT 64b Kernel) on the femto drive and did some serious listening (which is almost back to normal)....let's say I could not stop listening until 3 AM....

 

The upgrade of the PSU was an important one for organic sound, pace, weight, dynamics, slam etc...but this one is at least as important!

 

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

Since yesterday I have te second EPS cable installed, a previous attempt probably failed in that I did not seat one of the 5 connectors on the Taiko ATX properly.

 

Broader acoustics, more colors in overtones, easier dynamics and a deeper view into the music as a result.

 

Over the next few days I'll be tinkering with some bypass caps for the PSU and on the output of the Taiko ATX, trying to finalize the prototype and starting the final build.

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

My AMD server has been developing over the past few years to this present state.  I had until recently been running Audirvana studio which is why there's a case fan as temps just got too high.  I've recently moved back to Daphile after a 5 year or so break and after a bit of tweaking I'm happy with it and temps are far reduced, so will be going back to passive cooling soon.}

The reason I posted is that I already run a fibre setup with a cheap generic converter then being converted back to copper with a Sonore opticalModule.   I want to run a fibre card in the servers case and was wondering if they work in Linux Daphile with the drivers already built into the kernel?

MVIMG_20220209_152845.jpg

Link to comment

My Xilinx Solarflare Fiber optics card worked straight off the bat in Daphile

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 3 months later...

The Solarflare X2522 25G works right off the bat too but you'll need to adapt the settings from a linux command line (see dedicated thread).

 

Other than that I added the Pink Faun Ultra OCXO, and together with these changes sound quality has climbed to a next level!

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

Hello All.

 

I am planning to build a PC that is able to support HQPlayer Embedded. My current dac allows me to up sample content only till 384khz and as per my future plans, I will only be required to up sample till DSD 256.

 

With the intention of going the simpler route, I was eyeing a MiniPC/NUC based system. I have shortlisted 2 models which are based on the following processors:

 

Intel® Core™ i5-11300H Processor 3.1GHz (8M Cache, up to 4.4GHz)  

https://www.asus.com/in/Displays-Desktops/Mini-PCs/PN-series/Mini-PC-PN63-S1/

 

OR

 

AMD Ryzen™ 5 5500U Processor 2.1GHz (11M Cache, up to 4.0GHz)

https://www.asus.com/in/Displays-Desktops/Mini-PCs/PN-series/Mini-PC-PN51/

 

While these builds are an absolute joke in comparison to what many of you have; I must say the lengths @MarcelNL has gone to to tweak his PC to suit audio is bonkers (in a good way!!). My questions are as follows:

 

Q1. Will any of these two MiniPC builds serve the purpose that I have - i.e., to up sample till DSD256 without any overheating and throttling issues?

 

Q2. Which one of these two procs (amd or intel) should i pick? My research says the Ryzen 5 as the TDP is almost half of the Intel i5 11th gen while maintaining similar clock speeds. Also, Ryzen has 6 cores and 12 threads, higher than Intel.

 

Q3. All said and done, their CPU passmark scores are perhaps half or a quarter of a full desktop sized processor such as a Ryzen 5600. So should I chuck the idea of going to either of these minipc builds and rather assemble a desktop pc? I was running away from a full blown desktop as I cant either go for a fanless SMPS nor can an LPSU work with such a high load. With a MiniPC, I will go for a pure dc based solution or go for HDPlex.

 

Any feedbacks will be highly appreciated!! It may help me make a sound decision.

 

Cheers

Kartick

 

 

Link to comment

In digital power is king, that goes for CPU power but also for the MB. Choosing a CPU with most cores and a MB with most direct power "phases" will likely get you best sound.

That said passive cooling is important too and definitely is possible for a full scale PC, ultimately it comes down to what your goals are and what the rest of your setup is/will be...going to the extremes only to connect the source to a low end dac and amp plus speakers may not be a good "investment"

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment

Agreed Marcel. But could you kindly advise me on the queries I had explicitly put out there. I am currently trying to find out if there is any merit in either of these 2 MiniPCs doing the job I expect them to do per my use case. 

 

By the way downstream, I am using an all DHT based tube system for amplification, a DHT 4P1L tube preamp, 2A3/GM70 DHT monoblocks. A souped up DDDAC1794A fit to receive data over NAA and fifopi/reclockpi as reclockers. Speakers are Klangfilm 15"/Altec 288K with Lecleach Horns and Supertweeeters. I would like to believe that the setup is good enough to invest in a good source!

Link to comment

I'd say your system should be allowing you to get most out of a full scale server.

I cannot say anything abou what CPU can do without throttlng etc, it also depends on what OS you're using.

Given my experience that more cores sound better I'd vote for the R5.

ISP, glass to Fritz!box 5530, another Fritz!box 5530 for audio only in bridged mode on LPS, cat8.1, Zyxel switch on LPS, Finisar <1475BTL>Solarflare X2522-25G, external wifi AP, AMD 9 16 core, passive cooling ,Aorus Master x570, LPSU with Taiko ATX, 8Gb Apacer RAM, femto SSD on LPS, Pink Faun I2S ultra OCXO on akiko LPS, home grown RJ45 I2S cable, Metrum Adagio DAC3, RCA 70-A and Miyaima Zero for mono, G2 PL519 tube amps. 

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...
On 6/2/2022 at 1:36 PM, MarcelNL said:

The Solarflare X2522 25G works right off the bat too but you'll need to adapt the settings from a linux command line (see dedicated thread).

 

Other than that I added the Pink Faun Ultra OCXO, and together with these changes sound quality has climbed to a next level!

Are you still using the X2522 in your build and have you gotten a chance to try any of the other fiber nics? I've been looking at this one and also the the PEX1000sfp2 that was recommended by Emile a long time ago, but I believe that one is not sfp+ (standard sfp only) and would perhaps not let me run a variety of modules in it. 

 

When you mentioned you added the ultra ocxo clock, were you referring adding it to the motherboard or the NIC itself?

 

I just started my first build based on the 5950x, seems very tough to not spend over $3500 once factoring in decent power on a build with this high of tdp. Can you give some details on your Akiko LPS?

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...