Build a dedicated Audio PC

[Gerry D]

I saw this and thought of you guys. :-)

[nige2000]

Ha that looks too organised for my kind of testing

right ended up turfing out the z87i mobo as the b85 was a quarter hair better

took a chance on a asus h81i plus a simplier mobo
and its much better
even though it still sounds slightly different from the b85m g43
I haven't decided which I prefer as of yet but its close

the asus ticks alot of boxes
picoless operation un modded
no fouling of cpu cooler on streacom cases at all
simpler pcb less ports etc so less noise
bios is great no bullsh1t (although it wont let me undervolt ram)
sounds good (that should be too of the list)
also not the most expensive either abiut 60 stg

[jkeny]

Nige
Looking at that Asus mobo, I see they have given special attention to the voltage regulation module (VRM)
I wonder if this accounts for it's fine sound?
Makes me wonder how far we could improve SQ feeding clean fixed voltages directly to the relevant on-board chips?

[jesuscheung]

Nige
Looking at that Asus mobo, I see they have given special attention to the voltage regulation module (VRM)
I wonder if this accounts for it's fine sound?
Makes me wonder how far we could improve SQ feeding clean fixed voltages directly to the relevant on-board chips?

in asus board, VRM=auto=300. as VRM goes higher, the sound is more more control and intense. try VRM=400 you know what i mean. best sound should be <=auto.

[nige2000]

Nige
Looking at that Asus mobo, I see they have given special attention to the voltage regulation module (VRM)
I wonder if this accounts for it's fine sound?
Makes me wonder how far we could improve SQ feeding clean fixed voltages directly to the relevant on-board chips?

Dunno about vrm
I didnt take much note of it
this board uses more 12v than the msi's
Im on a bit of a hair splitting exercise anyway
im not sure if the sq difference is worth jumping up and down about as I have not a b tested it yet
but I know its up there with the best ive heard if not thee best
But if its better than the b85mg43 its not by a huge margin
tha z87i was a little harsh with the highs at a firm volume
I thought that was down to all the features and ports it has making a bit of noise

direct clean power bypassing the dc switchers will be the ticket to a place were further improvements would be unlikely or few
will be likely 6 or 7 clean unshared rails needed
think the cpu needs 3

this will be for the next project
im going to wrap this build up with the existing findings until theres a replacement

[nige2000]

Nige
Looking at that Asus mobo, I see they have given special attention to the voltage regulation module (VRM)
I wonder if this accounts for it's fine sound?
Makes me wonder how far we could improve SQ feeding clean fixed voltages directly to the relevant on-board chips?

in asus board, VRM=auto=300. as VRM goes higher, the sound is more more control and intense. try VRM=400 you know what i mean. best sound should be <=auto.

Will test that
lucky I set all things I dont understand to auto

theres a setting for cache whats that about

[jkeny]

Nige
Looking at that Asus mobo, I see they have given special attention to the voltage regulation module (VRM)
I wonder if this accounts for it's fine sound?
Makes me wonder how far we could improve SQ feeding clean fixed voltages directly to the relevant on-board chips?

in asus board, VRM=auto=300. as VRM goes higher, the sound is more more control and intense. try VRM=400 you know what i mean. best sound should be <=auto.

What does VRM=300 mean i.e 3V?

[Aleg]

Nige
Looking at that Asus mobo, I see they have given special attention to the voltage regulation module (VRM)
I wonder if this accounts for it's fine sound?
Makes me wonder how far we could improve SQ feeding clean fixed voltages directly to the relevant on-board chips?

in asus board, VRM=auto=300. as VRM goes higher, the sound is more more control and intense. try VRM=400 you know what i mean. best sound should be <=auto.

What does VRM=300 mean i.e 3V?

It refers to VRM Frequency

The VRM Frequency setting refers to the DIGI+ VRMs specifically and can also be left to Auto for air-cooled overclocking. As the VRM frequency is increased it become more responsive to changes in CPU load, so a higher setting will benefit overclocking. However, as with increasing the frequency of anything, this also generates more heat so be mindful that those blue heatsinks will need adequate airflow. Thankfully the T-Probe will moderate the temperature by dynamically distributing the load between them all, thus keeping a uniform temperature. You can try anything up to the maximum value of 500Hz safely, as ASUS says this is still within the acceptable specification.

[jkeny]

What does VRM=300 mean i.e 3V?

It refers to VRM Frequency

The VRM Frequency setting refers to the DIGI+ VRMs specifically and can also be left to Auto for air-cooled overclocking. As the VRM frequency is increased it become more responsive to changes in CPU load, so a higher setting will benefit overclocking. However, as with increasing the frequency of anything, this also generates more heat so be mindful that those blue heatsinks will need adequate airflow. Thankfully the T-Probe will moderate the temperature by dynamically distributing the load between them all, thus keeping a uniform temperature. You can try anything up to the maximum value of 500Hz safely, as ASUS says this is still within the acceptable specification.

Ah, right, I didn't see that.
JC, you must have one of these mobos to know the audible effects of increasing the frequency?
Are there other mobos that have control over the VRM like this?

I really do believe that this is the area to focus on to maximise the sound quality of a mobo - as I said before, if we could feed fixed voltages (linear or battery) to the relevant parts of the mobo. Some previous versions of the Fit-PC had easily replaced onboard regulators or direct voltage supply. Anybody got one of these?

[Sligolad]

Got a 3.3v Linear Supply built by Teddy Pardo so now have 3 Linear Supplies direct to the motherboard 24 Pin ATX block.
Hard to tell if it made much of a difference but I think it has improved sound a little, will need more listening.
No relay on this line as there appears to be little power pulled when the PC is shut down.

I began taking out 5v and 3.3v lines in to the 24 pin block which were not needed by a process of elimination and now down to a single 5v and a single 3.3v in to the board and everything boots and works fine.

Taking the 3 x 5v off the 4 x 5v in helped audio as the 3 connections which were not needed were drawing current, the 5v supply which was pulled down to 4.78v when running all 4 x 5v connections went back up near 4.9v when I disconnected the 3 x 5v lines which were not needed to run the PC.

Cheers, Pearse.