Build a dedicated Audio PC

Anything to do with computer audio, hardware, software etc.
User avatar
Fran
Site Admin
Posts: 4136
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:03 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Fran »

KM: nope, direct wired connection.


Thought a few build pics might be of interest? These are just camera phone pics, so excuse the abysmal quality.

All the bits laid out:

Image
IMAG0308.jpg by francis morrin, on Flickr

This case has a hinged front that holds the drives. Here's the SSD in a cradle in one bay:

Image
IMAG0309.jpg by francis morrin, on Flickr

Processor mounted and with thermal paste applied.

Image
IMAG0313.jpg by francis morrin, on Flickr

And with the fan mounted. Just for others who might be going this route, there was only one way the heatsink would sit or else it was resting on a few capacitors on the MB. Just something to be aware of:

Image
IMAG0314.jpg by francis morrin, on Flickr

And the view from above:

Image
IMAG0318.jpg by francis morrin, on Flickr

Lastly, the screen shot of the figures. The SSD is reporting 100degC but thats not really happening, must be some sensor not turned on or something. Those temps were taken after running prime95, so are the worst case scenario I would think.

Image
IMAG0326.jpg by francis morrin, on Flickr



Fran
Do or do not, there is no try
nige2000
Posts: 4253
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:47 am
Location: meath

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by nige2000 »

Fran wrote:I got it working!


So my first test was would ultra work on the franzuma in standalone mode - yes it did. Then, on Josef's advice, I left driverbuffer at 0 and upped the US to 4000, disabled firewall on the audioPC (even though the rule to allow port 48168 was there). Result was sound!! After that I can get US down to 150, but no lower. I'm still not sure where to go next to drop that another bit. When I tested in standalone mode, I could get it down to 120 only, so an extra 30 for the streaming isn't bad.

I'd like to go lower though! Esp given that its a dedicated build etc and meant to be the DBs.


Fran
what are you using as a control pc?,
id try to get it down in ultrasize in single mode first as there is less to go wrong.
and when you switch to streaming youve a fair idea the audio pc should be set right and then adjust control til it works without error.

like the pics
what way are you powering the cpu fan?
what ram have you in the franzuma?

nige
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
User avatar
Fran
Site Admin
Posts: 4136
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:03 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Fran »

Yes, trying for lower latency is next. Pearse got it low enough so I think it must be some services etc.

Control pc is a dual core is laptop, SSD, running w8. Direct wired ethernet to audiopc.

I have 8gb 1333mhz ram in the zuma.
Do or do not, there is no try
Sligolad
Posts: 1089
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:52 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Sligolad »

Interesting last night at Tony's with my laptop and Zuma connected to the Ciunas I could not get Ultrastream to work, had loaded a 24/96 tack at my default Ultrasize 20!
Increased Ultrasize until I got it working at about 140.

Put on a 16/44 track and it stopped working, had to increase Ultrasize to 200 to get it to work reliably with the lower rez tracks.....very unexpected!

Tried Xtreme on default and all worked fine and sounded good, Ultra did not seem to add much compared to Xtreme but then again I normally run at 20 Ultrasize and unfortunately this was not possible to try last night with the Ciunas.

Have to say that Simons 10k Wadia CDP beat the Zuma and Ciunas though one high resolution track sounded excellent compared to the same track from the CDP.
Will have to arrange a shoot out with the Meitner now against the Wadia!!

Does seem like Josef has some work to do over the coming months alright.
___________________________________________
SD Card DAC, Gryphon Essence Mono's & Pre Amp, Wilson Alexia 2 Speakers,VPI Scout 2 & Supatrac arm, Studer A812 R2R.
User avatar
Fran
Site Admin
Posts: 4136
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:03 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Fran »

I cannot get US below 140 using the jkDAC32.

Josef has said many times that the dac driver is the limiting factor so it may not be possible to go any lower. Pearse: your US of 20 - is that with the Meitner?

There's a link on Johns "optimise PC" thread on jplay forum to CA forum to show how to automate fideliser startup. I found this made a good difference before. I haven't doen any listening comparisons, but I have managed to get it working. Combining that with total commander might well end up with a very optimised PC for little enough effort.

Fran
Do or do not, there is no try
nige2000
Posts: 4253
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:47 am
Location: meath

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by nige2000 »

Sligolad wrote:Interesting last night at Tony's with my laptop and Zuma connected to the Ciunas I could not get Ultrastream to work, had loaded a 24/96 tack at my default Ultrasize 20!
Increased Ultrasize until I got it working at about 140.

Put on a 16/44 track and it stopped working, had to increase Ultrasize to 200 to get it to work reliably with the lower rez tracks.....very unexpected!

Tried Xtreme on default and all worked fine and sounded good, Ultra did not seem to add much compared to Xtreme but then again I normally run at 20 Ultrasize and unfortunately this was not possible to try last night with the Ciunas.

Have to say that Simons 10k Wadia CDP beat the Zuma and Ciunas though one high resolution track sounded excellent compared to the same track from the CDP.
Will have to arrange a shoot out with the Meitner now against the Wadia!!

Does seem like Josef has some work to do over the coming months alright.
We had a little ultrastream issues at kens couldnt get under 200 us with the ciunas
Uninstall reinstall of jplay sorted it out though
I have found a few times I had to reinstall I has assumed it was all the settings changes I was doing was confusing it
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
User avatar
Fran
Site Admin
Posts: 4136
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:03 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Fran »

So I disabled a few more "unneccessary" looking services tonight, also managed to automate the start of fideliser to run just after startup and then the last point was to add total commander. I decided to run at US=250 to allow a little bit of wriggle room.

Tell you one thing, she's sounding very sweet tonight!


Fran
Do or do not, there is no try
nige2000
Posts: 4253
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:47 am
Location: meath

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by nige2000 »

got another picu psu today so i can run the i3 build and i7 build in the streacom at the same time and stream between them via ethernet/crossover

played at us=24 with hi res would only play a few tracks then go to white noise, moved to us=30 and left it playing for a couple of hours and was still playing when i came back, so i assume its stable
.
it sounds great in two pc mode, theres still that gap between single and 2pc.

how do you use total commander i cant seem to make head n'or tail of it.

nige
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
User avatar
Fran
Site Admin
Posts: 4136
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:03 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Fran »

Download totalcommander

put the folder anywhere, but my recommendation is right on the C drive.

double click on TCshell and it writes stuff into the registry that disables windows explorer and enables TC which is an alternate explorer.

Restart the PC and TC runs. All you see is a blank screen with the mouse pointer.

Sounds better, but hampers doing anything else on the PC, but perfect for an audioPC that you are running headless. You can run stuff when TC is enabled by ctrl-alt-del, task manager, new task, browse to your C:\totalcommander folder, double click TC64.exe and you have an explorer window. You can navigate to the desktop etc and double click on shortcuts etc.


To remove TC:

ctrl-alt-del and new task etc as above. When in TC explorer, navigate to c:\totalcommander and double click on "shell" file. Do a restart and you have windows explorer back.


In reality, this is a thing to do when you are at the very end of your tweaking and you are about to run headless.

Right now I'll also mention Fidelizer too.... another thing like TC to put on just as you are finished tweaking..

Fran
Do or do not, there is no try
User avatar
Fran
Site Admin
Posts: 4136
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:03 pm

Re: Build a dedicated Audio PC

Post by Fran »

Nige2000: What DAC are you using when you get US=30?
Do or do not, there is no try
Post Reply