AUDIO PC: Direct power to motherboad 24 and 4pin (picoless)

[goon-heaven]

Hee hee. A little late to the party...

Thanks Nige2000 for this writeup.

Have just completed my initiation: anr26650m1 x2 @ 5v across the usb OS stick. A layer of grunge has evaporated, especially at the top end - Cymbals sound like cymbals. More micro-detail. Firmer bass. More blackness tween the notes. PCIe soundcard next.

I intend to go picoless and I have the following questions:

1. With LPSUs, what are the 5V and 3.3V linear PSU current requirements? Models recommendations?
2. With batteries, which models are you using for 12V, 5V and 3.3V?

Nige2000, congratulations for the innovative work.

Adolfo

i dont have conformation that the 1200kpr works without the -12v
need to make a list of confirmed working motherboards

do you want to use some of your old lpsu's?
usually just buy parts and connect them together to make lpsu

i recommend A123 18650 and ANR26650M1 Nanophosphate cells
but already owned batteries can be used if there good without loosing too much sq, but im picky so i go the whole way
the 18650 x4 are ok for 12v mobo 24pin
anr26650m1 x4 for cpu 12v
anr26650m1 x2 for 5v for 24pin
anr26650m1 x2 for usb card
anr26650m1 x2 for ssd
anr26650m1 x1 for 3.3v 24pin

[nige2000]

Hee hee. A little late to the party...

Thanks Nige2000 for this writeup.

Have just completed my initiation: anr26650m1 x2 @ 5v across the usb OS stick. A layer of grunge has evaporated, especially at the top end - Cymbals sound like cymbals. More micro-detail. Firmer bass. More blackness tween the notes. PCIe soundcard next.

happy you guys have good results
hope you used the correct amount of mole grips :)
hope your float charging the 2 cells too

clean soundcard power should be very good too
the issue with pcie dacs is it draws its power from the pc that and emi/rfi
would be an interesting project to inject all clean power into a pcie soundcard
maybe if the pc was fully powered with lifepo4 direct it might nearly be as good

btw the sandisk extreme 16gb usb keys operate fine at 3.3v so one battery is sufficient

[goon-heaven]

hope you used the correct amount of mole grips :)

whoops, I forgot! They are still buried down the runs, hope to catch them buggers.

hope your float charging the 2 cells too

Yes siree, off the MB USB socket as per your USB adapter diagram I saw somewhere around here.

the issue with pcie dacs is it draws its power from the pc that and emi/rfi
would be an interesting project to inject all clean power into a pcie soundcard

Sorry! insufficient detail. No DAC on board.
Soundcard is RME HDSPe, digital out only -> XLR -> EMM Labs DCC2 SE, wordclock out -> Soundcard sync.
I have heard that USB is better, but have yet to compare.

maybe if the pc was fully powered with lifepo4 direct it might nearly be as good

On the roadmap, thanks to your writeup. Have the lifepo4s lined up. Just need a little time to install them, and a yet little more time to put out the fire.

btw the sandisk extreme 16gb usb keys operate fine at 3.3v so one battery is sufficient

Thanks. I had forgotten that voltage trick - will build another USB adapter molehill with 3.3v battery and tickle feed.
But there may be a ploblem. I have 2 partitions on the USB stick to support WinRAM: a weeny FAT32 boot partition and a huge NTFS for OS, VHDs, & media partition. I tried umpteen different sticks including Sandisk, but ended up with a rather expensive but excellent Kingston Datatraveller Workspace that OS sees as a fixed drive, so supports multiple partitions in windows.

[nige2000]

oh thought you had a pcie dac
my bad

these show up as fixed drives
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/SanDisk-16GB-Cru ... 41862746f7

the kingstons need 5v unfortunately
i had 4 of them all died
lifetime warranty though

[goon-heaven]

these show up as fixed drives
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/SanDisk-16GB-Cru ... 41862746f7

Thanks nige. Ordered some samples. Hopefully breakthrough the great Sandisk "is it fixed or is it molegrips" confusion that not even Sandisk seem to know. Shame they never thought to make them configurable.

the kingstons need 5v unfortunately
i had 4 of them all died
lifetime warranty though

Ugh! Too much information!

[nige2000]

these show up as fixed drives
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/SanDisk-16GB-Cru ... 41862746f7

Thanks nige. Ordered some samples. Hopefully breakthrough the great Sandisk "is it fixed or is it molegrips" confusion that not even Sandisk seem to know. Shame they never thought to make them configurable.

the kingstons need 5v unfortunately
i had 4 of them all died
lifetime warranty though

Ugh! Too much information!

just found the kingston data-traveller unreliable

[goon-heaven]

Thanks Nige for the tip, these Sanddisk 16Gb sticks work great as fixed drives. Also they run nicely off 3.3v LifePo, but that is now a moot point, as the sole stick is removed after bootup and PC plays music completely drive-less (apart from winRAM image in memory).

[nige2000]

Think I've tested pulling the drive out too
how does it sound in comparison to usb key on lifepo4 ?
big leap with lifepo4 on usb key though?

[Octagon]

Think I've tested pulling the drive out too

Hi,
I tested on my system some time ago pulling off OS SSD vs. keeping it: no difference in SQ; OS SSD and Music SSD pulled off (music files on RAM disk): no difference in SQ. Might be because both SSD are powered by a single linear PSU directly.
Take care
Thomas

[goon-heaven]

Think I've tested pulling the drive out too
how does it sound in comparison to usb key on lifepo4 ?
big leap with lifepo4 on usb key though?

Big leap in SQ from MB power to Lifepo4.

Comparing Lifepo4 to no stick: initial tests suggests music sounds slightly cleaner with stick out - certainly no worse. Stick out is simpler: no battery circuit. Need to do further testing.