Build a dedicated Audio PC

[rickmcinnis]

MTLite is available for slimming post XP installs.

Free version does not let you do much but it saves over 1 G of install junk.

Giving it a try with SERVER 2012R evaluation.

http://www.ntlite.com/

[tony]

Just an update on my belated attempt to go picoless on the intel dh77eb board (original Zuma spec from Chris Connaker on CA)
Thanks to Nigel who did 95%+ of the soldering/wiring on a visit that extended well beyond the timings we had expected (Got to hear the dac Nigel has put together it is a work in progress but it seems Nigel's skills are not restricted to power supplies on PC's, I think that development will have it's own much visited thread in time). For anybody new trying this work please make sure all devices(usb keys,disks etc) are disconnected until one is confident the build is connected correctly. Very easy to advise but hard in progress when one is trying to get the initial temporary build powered up.

This intel board has an unusual characteristic. When run picoless the power button on the Zuma needs to be held in prior to tripping in the power.

After getting it to the 'finished state' the only working operating system I Had left was on a sandisk extreme usb key. For some unexplained reason mouse operation was not functioning on this.

Enter Pearse who had already spent a morning getting the initial build to power up dropped over for another afternoon of investigative work. Thanks to Pearse who had a working version of 2012R2 on ssd and the necessary power cables I got a full working system back in operation. This allowed my Zuma to work as before and fully operational. I think Pearse nabbed some photo's today of the 'temp' build maybe he might post them on this thread?. At some point I will stick this in a case.

Many thanks again to the two lads I would never have got to this point without their help and knowledge.




Fran note brass block on CPU doing an excellent job.



This shows the Toroidy transformer in a more flatering pose. The wires come out the bottom so I have an idea of
getting a case made and drilling a hole through the top and putting this on the outside. BTW forgot to thank Seb for arranging this with the polish manufacturer and helping getting the spec correct.

[tony]

Ended up with another case and because the Intel board is a bit sick have a basic asus board with ivybridge i7 now as transport for the second system. Wow I forgot how much of a lift one maplin linear supply/12v battery/pico brought.
The install had an early MQn version on it (3.39avx) but the Spendors have never sounded so good. Had previously used the 2 laptop streaming jplay with a meicord on this set up.

Did a bit of reading on Jplay and it would seem from others and my experience basic boards with minimum ports sound best. Never remember my intel board which was much larger and full of ports and options sound like this.

[Sligolad]

I did not have any great pics from my iPhone Tony but this may be better for the PS

[nige2000]

Ended up with another case and because the Intel board is a bit sick have a basic asus board with ivybridge i7 now as transport for the second system. Wow I forgot how much of a lift one maplin linear supply/12v battery/pico brought.
The install had an early MQn version on it (3.39avx) but the Spendors have never sounded so good. Had previously used the 2 laptop streaming jplay with a meicord on this set up.

Did a bit of reading on Jplay and it would seem from others and my experience basic boards with minimum ports sound best. Never remember my intel board which was much larger and full of ports and options sound like this.

which asus board is it?

as far as ive seen minamalist (cheaper) matx boards sound the best, but not massive differences

[tony]

Asus H61M-Pro. No external usb3.0 ports and tiny in size. No HDMI.

Thanks Pearse much better picture than mine but it still just looks like a minor mess compared to Nigel's masterpieces.

[nige2000]

Asus H61M-Pro. No external usb3.0 ports and tiny in size. No HDMI.

Thanks Pearse much better picture than mine but it still just looks like a minor mess compared to Nigel's masterpieces.

oh yea i forgot
these are just a little bigger than itx
i had a haswell like it for a short while :)

[Sligolad]

Just a little story for anyone having interruptions in music playback.

For several months now I have been having the occasional stoppage during listening to JPlay and it has not really been an issue until recent weeks where it got much worse.

Symptoms lately became:

JPlay Mini stopping and locking during a track and needing a lot of coaxing with Task Manager to shut it down to restart it again.

JPlay Mini playing a couple of tracks then going to a "Stopping Playback" message with tracks still left to play, I then hit the Space bar and Mini then moves to not the next listed track but the one after that.

After a lot of swapping memory, Bios changes, reinstalling OS, JPlay, AO, changing grounding system on power supplies, changing power supplies on Music SSD, tweaking buffers, settings, etc. I finally found the culprit…….

Turns out the PPA Red Sata cable on the Music SSD had a weak soldered joint which progressively got worse over recent weeks, I took it out today and stripped it back and resoldered 4 of the wires which looked suspect and now everything works great with no stoppages.

It had been driving me mad recently so just goes to show how you almost got to swap everything out sometimes to find the culprit.

I have a PPA Red Sata on the OS SSD as well and I like the cables so was unlucky with the one end of the one on the Music SSD.

The moral of the story, if you have any custom kit whether home brew or from elsewhere be prepared to swap some of it out if you get intermittent stoppages in JPlay Mini after exhausting all the setting changes route.

Cheers, Pearse

[nige2000]

Yea it can happen especially when we're changing out stuff regular
It's always good to have spares for troubleshooting

[Lowlands]

as far as ive seen minamalist (cheaper) matx boards sound the best, but not massive differences

Guys,

I need to decide just that: what mobo to go for. I was biased towards the same board as Nige uses (Asus H81i-plus) for simplicty, low features / power etc. So, the above statement throws me off a bit :-)

Requirements:

- 1150
- power: bought the Teradak linear ATX linear (the 275), so I need the usual ATX + CPU12V
- I will NOT be attacking it with a soldering iron at anytime (out of my comfort zone ) :-)
- Case: needs to fit in my Streacom FC5 (allready own that)
- 1 x PCIe for PPA USB card (I know, riser cable, small comprimise)
- I need space for 2 battery packs (likely the pre-wired e-bay remote racecar type Nige points to elsewhere) In the case, so small mITX would be prefere of mATX
- Decent BIOS tweaking options
- Run Server2012-R2 + OA
- Run Linux (legacy / BIOS capable UEFI)

What board do you guys suggests I take? Does the brochure talk 'ultra durable caps', 'coolrunning', 'voltage regulation' mean anything for SQ?

Greatly appreciate your input!
Hans