Seems quiet in here…. Anyone building a z690?

[TimF]

Hey all

 

Not too many posts perhaps as nenon is going to buy a Taiko ! 

Anyone building a z690 on the new Hdplex h5? 

Just interested as I’m about to do this and it’d be good to see other’s specs. I know oneguy is, but not seen any others. 

 

Cheers Tim

[bit01]

I am hoping to. I have the H5 case, not sure about the MB & RAM (DDR4 or DDR5) yet. I will be watching with interest.

ATB.

b

[Exocer]

3 hours ago, bit01 said:

I am hoping to. I have the H5 case, not sure about the MB & RAM (DDR4 or DDR5) yet. I will be watching with interest.

ATB.

b

You and I both. I had plans to go dual CPU but I will be sticking to single CPU for a while given the success achieved with my current build.

[TimF]

Well I’m thinking Gigabyte Z690 AORUS MASTER

 

It’s actually tricky to find an atx one that the will fit the cooler. I believe most of the upper ASUS boards won’t work. 

Thoughts appreciated! 

[Lebouwsky]

Haven’t started the build yet, but this is my list:

hdplex h5

Asus tuf z690 ddr4 

intel i7 12700K

GSkill Trident Z F4-3200C14D

intel optane 800p

jcat femto usb card

jcat  femto network card

 

paul hynes sr7 2 rail (dc-atx and cpu)

hdplex 400w 4 rail (both jcat cards)

hdplex 400w dc-atx

neotech jssg360 dc cable

 

windows server 2019

Audiophile optimizer 3.0

jriver

 

 

 

[bit01]

3 hours ago, TimF said:

Well I’m thinking Gigabyte Z690 AORUS MASTER

 

It’s actually tricky to find an atx one that the will fit the cooler. I believe most of the upper ASUS boards won’t work. 

Thoughts appreciated! 

I asked Larry (HDPlex) about the ROG Maximus Z690 Apex and he says it is supported (but best always to confirm with him yourself). The Aorus Master needs one LGA1700 bottom rack which he supplies.

 

The Asus Hero seems to have had  a manufacturing error:

https://www.asus.com/us/news/u5866wtjwmbj1fue/

 

The Apex costs a lot more than the Aorus Master though (@Newegg). One criticism of the Z690 Master is the plastic cover with the logo that extends over the robustly built heatsink. It seems to hinder (somewhat) the airflow through the fins? It seems counter intuitive but can be easily cutoff I guess?

 

I have a Z490 Master with an i9-10900K in the thermally undersized H3. It works great for music playback though (Audiolinux LXQt + J River, no DSP). I even found one USB 3.2 port on it that allows excellent SQ ! I believe the Master has great VRM performance though I have not stress tested it as all I am looking for at the moment is nice SQ -and that it gives.

 

Negatives -  WiFi use badly affects the SQ on the Z490. I ended up with a USB/RJ45 adapter for ethernet as the best performer for  the LAN . I disconnect it when not needed (I play local files). In addition when dwelling in the BIOS settings the CPU temperature will quickly rise. I use an external fan on the case h/s fins to cool it down when needed. I understand this happens with the H5-passive/i9-12900K too as mentioned by @oneguy in Nenon's thread:

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/58164-building-a-diy-music-server/?do=findComment&comment=1175263

 

 

ATB

b.

 

[oneguy]

@bit01you can remove the plastic relatively easily. Here’s mine with the bling removed.

I only saw thermal creep that bad on the first power on. Since then it hasn’t been any near that bad. No idea why.

 

A couple weeks after I replaced the thermal grease I was using with something else. The NT-H2 may have been bad because it didn’t spread word a 💩 and when I removed it the consistency was like playdoh. 

[TimF]

Cheers Oneguy... question on your spec:

 

G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series ... did you get the 5200MHz or the 6000MHz? (assuming the 5200).

 

Lebouwsky - are you running DDR4 for cost reasons?

 

Cheers, Tim

[oneguy]

@TimFI actually ended going with the Adata 4800MHz RAM. 
 

The price and availability of the G.Skill RAM ended up being more than I was willing to pay and too hard to come buy so I went with the Adata RAM at a more reasonable price. 

[Lebouwsky]

@TimF to answer your question about ddr5 there were 3 reasons not to use it

 

From what I’ve red across the tech forums ddr5 has little to none advantages yet, in the future it will. 

 

A search on this forum didn’t gave me any results of members reporting an improvement in sound when using dd5, so decided to stay on a proven technology

I also contacted Miska from HQplayer and he adviced  me to go for the G.Skill Trident-Z CL14 DDR4-3200.
 

If I may give you a general advice: you were on a very fast learning curve. But it seems you’re slowing down on the last details. You’re on the right pass already, don’t overthink it, pull the trigger and enjoy the music. 

[MarcelNL]

Why not stick with the Apacer industrial DDR4? Sounds better than the lower latency stuff I got with a previous MB.

[TimF]

The Apacer looks like about £500 which is a lot for DDR4 when running a new DDR5 motherboard. 

[MarcelNL]

the Apacer is not cheap, but it sounds better than any other RAM tested thus far, someone should comparer it to some DDR5 but it ain't going to be me as I'm using an X570 MB.

 

Building a music server is no different than building any other piece of audio kit, EVERYTHING matters...some things more than others but they do matter. I'd say the difference in RAM was in the order of 15% of final SQ (hard to quantify so do not get fooled by the apparent precision of the number or absolute value)

[oneguy]

It’s harder to test DDR4 vs DDR5 because they require different MBs so you pretty much have to disassemble everything to swap MBs in one case or build 2 nearly identical servers to test the difference.

 

To my knowledge, no one has actually tested the two back-to-back in nearly identical setups in an audio server setting.

 

Compounding the problem DDR4 vs DDR5 debate is that fact that not all versions of MBs are available to both memories. For example, the highest Aorus Z690 DDR4 MB you can get is the Pro where as the Z690 DDR5 you can get the Master and Xtreme. 

[MarcelNL]

Is it that difficult? I understood the newest Z690 boards will accept DDR4 and DDR5, How else can someone 'go for DDR4' ? I may have misunderstood...

Testing on different MBs does not prove a lot other than that there may be differences but to determine what makes which difference is key.

 

 

[bit01]

There are no DDR4/DDR5 hybrid MBs currently and likely will not be (i.e. it is either a DDR4 or DDR5 MB) . Power management of the DDR5 is on the memory module, not on the MB as per DDR4. DDR5 slot is not compatible with DDR4.

ASUS has a card (in the works?) that can run DDR4 on Z690 DDR5 though not sure what the SQ trade offs would be if any.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17136/asus-demonstrates-ddr5-to-ddr4-converter-card

 

I wish G. Skill had a single 16GB 6000 CL36 DDR5 module on offer - I would try it out . I do not want/need the 2x16GB

[MarcelNL]

THAT clarifies! So any comparison is going to be largely invalid. Good to know! (I did not read up on DDR 5 or the Z690 as I'm running AMD and they only announced a new chipset/CPU family for 2nd half of 2022.

 

 

[Lebouwsky]

10 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

“I'd say the difference in RAM was in the order of 15% of final SQ“

 

15% gain final sound quality? Really? Oemph in my recent updates it costed me an improved tweeter, some acoustical treatment  and a better preamplifier. 🧐

[Don_CT]

On 1/31/2022 at 11:51 AM, TimF said:

Hey all

 

Not too many posts perhaps as nenon is going to buy a Taiko ! 

Anyone building a z690 on the new Hdplex h5? 

Just interested as I’m about to do this and it’d be good to see other’s specs. I know oneguy is, but not seen any others. 

 

Cheers Tim

I have been trying to get an H5 for about a year and Larry always says 'next month...' Well it's finally arriving tomorrow so I am starting my Z690 build planning. I will be building a PC inspired by the one @StreamFidelity built (linked below.) I just ordered a couple of Optane 800P SSDs from an Ebay seller in China - I sure hope they are legit!

 

 

[MarcelNL]

10 hours ago, Lebouwsky said:

“I'd say the difference in RAM was in the order of 15% of final SQ“

 

15% gain final sound quality? Really? Oemph in my recent updates it costed me an improved tweeter, some acoustical treatment  and a better preamplifier. 🧐

hard to quantify precisely, but 15% of the SQ of the music server...

[TimF]

Moving along now… purchased 

GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO (decided on atx size to eventually fit the case and Taiko)

Corsair vengeance DDR5 2x16GB 5200 (seemed a good option, low price and well reviewed)

12900K

Intel 800p optane drive (very low latency)

 

Already have basic usb and network cards from Femto, and Hdplex external 500w PSU. 

 

Q. Could I drive a Taiko supply with my Hdplex PSU? Any point at all? Will get unregulated at a later date. 
Q. With the Taiko do you need separate PSU for both 5v cards? 

What do you think? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TimF]

Picked up the Taiko today. Still interested in my previous question if someone knows? 

[StreamFidelity]

16 hours ago, TimF said:

Could I drive a Taiko supply with my Hdplex PSU?

Everything between 16-48VDC at the 6 pin Molex connector is accepted. You can see the schematic here: https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/product/taiko-audio-dc-dc-atx/

 

16 hours ago, TimF said:

With the Taiko do you need separate PSU for both 5v cards? 

Which cards do you mean? There is only one 4 pin Molex SATA connector. 

[bit01]

@TimF Is this the PS you are referring to? If so then please observe that its maximum output voltage seems to be 15VDC which is below the Taiko minimum spec of 16V (also note-according to users the higher the supply voltage the better the TAIKO performance).

As for the PCIe cards- they should be able to accept power from the motherboard or directly from the HDPlex 3 pin XLR with the right cable and voltage setting assuming they have the external power option (e.g. the Femtos).

 

 

[StreamFidelity]

1 hour ago, bit01 said:

Is this the PS you are referring to?

This HDPLEX 500W ATX Linear Power Supply should be operated without DC-ATX converter, because it already meets the ATX specification. 😉