Build a dedicated Audio PC

[nige2000]

i notice on other ordinary usb3 cards that the external molex is used as a booster its not separate for usb supply
ill also state my hatred for riser ribbons, more like an antenna, always lose some sq through them
direct into pci slot seems to be optimal for me

Agree... but any ideas how best to separately supply clean 5V to a "molex-less" pci card?

soldering iron and diy probably

either desolder and modify the usb port on the card or
make a usb3 injection adapter

[mjock3]

Adam,

Wondering if you could give me a link to where you were reading about the copper in your PC?

Also are you using copper at your data connections and power? I am not sure but it looks that way. Does the thickness of the copper have any affect?

Thanks,
Mark

Sorry Mark, but I don't have such a link. The inside dividing and separating it's a regular procedure, special with a better components. I believe that cooper is the best in that case. I never compared how much exactly the thickness affects, but I'm assuming that the ticker - the better, less crap goes true.

Yes you are right about the copper on my sata SSD connection to MoBo and on the power connector to Mobo. That idea I got from Marcin. It makes difference. I used, I believe 3/4'' copper pipe (whatever size fits your connector), soldered wire to ground it and that was it. I put shrink tube on the end, so it does not make any short with MoBo.

Nice, thanks ;-)

[Aleg]

That wasn't my understanding of it
I think the internal molex or the external 2.1 jack provides the only 5v to the usb port
and if the dac is self powered no extra 5v is required
any less would be silly

John
Nigel is correct.
The additional power (Molex or 2.1 barrel) is just for feeding the 5V in the USB not for powering the card itself.

If you want to use external power to power the card instead of the pci-bus then you would need to buy a riser card with external power. The external power of the riser will feed the pci-card but not the 5Von the USB.

Cheers

Aleg

[Aleg]

...
ill also state my hatred for riser ribbons, more like an antenna, always lose some sq through them
direct into pci slot seems to be optimal for me

Nigel

I would agree, but I have no choice since in my HD-Plex case the card has to be mounted 90 degrees turned. So it sits horizontally and floats above the mobo.

I will use (or do it myself) a very short shielded ribbon cable.

Cheers

Aleg

[jkeny]

John
Nigel is correct.
The additional power (Molex or 2.1 barrel) is just for feeding the 5V in the USB not for powering the card itself.

If you want to use external power to power the card instead of the pci-bus then you would need to buy a riser card with external power. The external power of the riser will feed the pci-card but not the 5Von the USB.

Cheers

Aleg

Yes, that's what I'm saying the weakness with the design - no option for powering the card itself externally (except DIY or riser card route). From all our experiments here, it would seem that PC PS is best avoided for sensitive circuits. Then again, Marcin & Josef may have tested this & it may not make any difference?

[nige2000]

John
Nigel is correct.
The additional power (Molex or 2.1 barrel) is just for feeding the 5V in the USB not for powering the card itself.

If you want to use external power to power the card instead of the pci-bus then you would need to buy a riser card with external power. The external power of the riser will feed the pci-card but not the 5Von the USB.

Cheers

Aleg

Yes, that's what I'm saying the weakness with the design - no option for powering the card itself externally (except DIY or riser card route). From all our experiments here, it would seem that PC PS is best avoided for sensitive circuits. Then again, Marcin & Josef may have tested this & it may not make any difference?

do you think that pci eternal power would make much difference?

i see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
theres 12v and 3.3v pins on the pci-e x1
no 5v so that has to come from elsewhere

dont know if its a worthy experiment to inject clean power into a usb card
i would have thought it to be a small benefit

is there switching regs on the jcat?

[jkeny]

do you think that pci eternal power would make much difference?

i see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
theres 12v and 3.3v pins on the pci-e x1
no 5v so that has to come from elsewhere

dont know if its a worthy experiment to inject clean power into a usb card
i would have thought it to be a small benefit

is there switching regs on the jcat?

I'm not sure if it would make a difference - AFAIK, there is a oscillator on all USB cards which is responsible for timing the output rate of USB packets - this is one area of sensitivity I wonder if a better PS would assist? I'm also just working on the general principal that we seem to have established here - that using the PC's power is usually not the optimal solution

[Aleg]

...
is there switching regs on the jcat?

Marcin said this morning there are Linear regulators on the board:

Linear regulators on the card are extremely good. I thought I would be able to switch off the filtering as I'm using Bakoon BPS-02s battery PSU with the card, but it turns out even the bakoon benefits from additional filtering on the card.

Cheers

Aleg

[sbgk]

do you think that pci eternal power would make much difference?

yes, eternal power should make a difference

[nige2000]

yes timing the output rate of USB packets sounds very important

i have 5v going directly into the mobo 24pin from battery which supplies the rear usb ports
and yet injecting clean power into the usb devices directly sounds better,
its obviously still picking up something nasty going through the motherboard

it could be similar with a usb card

hi aleg

switching regs on batteries introduce noise, ive noticed this before, even though some switchers dont seem to be as bad as others

regardless people with dirty supplies going through their pc's, the jcat linear regs wont be able to clean it up
unfourtunetly we have to start from the ground up