Build a dedicated Audio PC

[jkeny]

Here's a site from a guy who did mods to bring an i3 core CPU based PC to below 8.5W.
I'm not suggesting the extremes that he went to but his analysis of where the power is used in a PC is interesting & informative
http://ssj3gohan.tweakblogs.net/blog/61 ... lish).html

[tony]

Tony do you mean you DIDN'T run it off the SOTM USB?

Sorry for confusion John I ammended my post to make it clearer. Ran the test on the normal usb port. As stated above the intention was to ensure a level playing field for all devices. As John explained succintly and really accurately the difference was the zuma. His words describe it very well. Very keen to hear the solution John goes for. If it works great as it is significantly cheaper than the zuma option.

[Diapason]

Looks like I may well buy a Fit_PC as it is a neater & cheaper solution & I don't need the Streacom case - it doesn't fit with my range of products & their dinky ergonomics. Just need to do a bit more research.

It's funny you should mention Fit PC, one of my colleagues had suggested I should get this as a media device (mainly for video) in an effort to drag myself kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. I immediately wondered if it would be suitable for audio, not least the fanless aspect. Interesting piece of kit.

[jkeny]

Tony do you mean you DIDN'T run it off the SOTM USB?

Sorry for confusion John I ammended my post to make it clearer. Ran the test on the normal usb port. As stated above the intention was to ensure a level playing field for all devices. As John explained succintly and really accurately the difference was the zuma. His words describe it very well. Very keen to hear the solution John goes for. If it works great as it is significantly cheaper than the zuma option.

Ok, that makes it clearer :)
Now the thing I would like to ascertain is to decompose the Zuma & see how much each element of the build improves the sonics. It may be the SSD, PS, mb, lack of fan, etc. I don't have a handle on the improvements gained from SSD, for instance.

So before rushing into a configuration it might be useful to get a feel for this weighting?
I was hoping that Item_audio would contribute on this?

[jkeny]

Looks like I may well buy a Fit_PC as it is a neater & cheaper solution & I don't need the Streacom case - it doesn't fit with my range of products & their dinky ergonomics. Just need to do a bit more research.

It's funny you should mention Fit PC, one of my colleagues had suggested I should get this as a media device (mainly for video) in an effort to drag myself kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. I immediately wondered if it would be suitable for audio, not least the fanless aspect. Interesting piece of kit.

Ah, pity you didn't buy it already & we could have done a comparo with the Zuma
I'm looking at the Fit-PC3 low power version (LP) - 64bit dual core 1GHz 6.4W TPD AMD CPU - operating power range 7W - 15W

[Diapason]

That was suggested alright, but then I looked at the website and got immediate upgradeitis, so ended up doing nothing!

[jkeny]

The thing that's causing me pause is - if PS is the important factor then why didn't my netbook running off it's battery sound as good as the Zuma last night? The other thing is that my netbook uses a 1.6GHz AMD E-350 CPU which has no problem playing high res audio using Jplay or playing video through HDMI. It has a Passmark CPU benchmark of 774.
The processor in the low power Fit-PC3(LP) is a AMD G-T40E which has a score of 482 (maybe a bit low)
The Fit-PC3 (Pro) uses AMD G-T56N & a score of 762 (more like my netbook performance - which would be fine)
In both these case I don't want the Radeon GPU but there's no options to omit it.

Edit: so I think I'll get an SSD for my netbook first & see what improvement that brings?

[Diapason]

The power supply question is interesting to me, not least because one of the advantages I would expect from computer audio is decoupling it from the vagaries of the mains.

[jkeny]

The power supply question is interesting to me, not least because one of the advantages I would expect from computer audio is decoupling it from the vagaries of the mains.

Indeed, all my endeavours in audio to date have led me to the conclusion that power (moreso ground) is the most important aspect to get right.

[Fran]

Mmmmm.

So I've been looking at sorting the parts for a zuma build.

Intel DH77EB motherboard. Near impossible to get this side of the pond, but you can find them on ebay
Core i5 3470T processor. Logic stock them, but at €264 - and its not even an i7. Higher TDP processors available for much less, but passive cooling gets difficult
RAM - no issues.
PicoPSU - also available from logic ok
Passive cooler - almost impossible to find - how important is this for SQ? I cannot hear my current fan anyway and the case isn't even open, so the ambient noise of the fan is not an issue.


So mobo and processor are practically unobtainium.

Places I've tried: komplett, dabs, overclockers, ebay.


Any other options?

Fran