HOW I´VE BUILT MY NEW PC FOR XXHIGHEND AND WHY I´VE CHOSEN THE COMPONENTS

[manisandher]

My Atom PC is based on the 'CAPS' computer: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS-v20

However, I would NOT recommend this PC for use with XX. The maximum SFS that I can set is around 150 (I have it set to 100). Even with this SFS setting, I cannot get gapless playback - the system simply isn't powerful enough. Now for me, sacfricing gapless playback for a smoother, less edgy sound is worth the price. But there's no guarantee that this will be the case for anyone else.

My recommendation would be to wait until ultra-low wattage/TDP designs become as powerful as today's i5/i7 designs - it surely can't be too far away. The other alternative would be to look into a linear supply for a current i5/i7, but I think this would be too crazy... even for us Phasure posters!

Apart from not coping with gapless playback, my Atom works quite nicely with XX, especially in Unattended with OS minimised. It's quite a lot slower than my i7 when playing with the XX GUI, but not painfully so.

Mani.

[boleary]

Hi Juan, just wondering what differences you experienced between 12 and 24 gigs of memory? Thanks for your updates!

[juanpmar]

Hi,

Almost from the start of building my computer I have 24Gb of memory although I haven´t updated the post until today, so I can´t tell you what´s the difference in between 12Gb or 24Gb, most of the people have 12Gb or less memory and are very happy. What I can say is that my computer is lightning fast and that I have not time enough to read the window that appears when Minimize OS that says "Wait for Service..." I have not time enough to read any other word. If this kind of things depends on the amount of memory I´m not sure, all I can say is that the computer works fantastically well.

Best regards,
Juan

[manisandher]

A short while ago, Nick asked me about the specific component list of 'Le Monster'. I thought other people might be interested also, so here it is. Most of these components are readily available from Amazon, apart from the case.

HTH. But please feel free to ask any questions.

Mani.

• Caselabs W8

• Seasonic P-1000 ATX 12V 1000W Platinum Series Power Supply Unit

• 6x Noctua NF-P12 PWM 120mm Cooling Fan

• Asus P9X79 Workstation Series Motherboard

• Intel Core i7-3960X Processor - 3.3GHz, 15MB Cache, Sandy Bridge, Socket 2011, Intel Turbo Boost Technology

• Noctua D14-2011 Dual Radiator PWM CPU Cooler : NH-D14-2011

• (2x still on pre-order) G Skill Ripjaws Z 4x8GB DDR3 PC17000 2133MHz Kit for Intel X79 Quad Channel Platforms (currently using G Skill Ripjaws Z 16GB DDR3 PC17000 2133MHz Kit instead)

• Dell WD3000BLFS Western Digital 2.5 inch 300GB 15K SATA Raptor Drive with Sharkoon HDD Mounting Frame, 2.5-inch and 3.5-inchHDD Vibe Fixer Pro

• 4x Seagate Barracuda 3.5 inch 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB 6GB/S Internal SATA Drive

• Perixx PERIBOARD-515, Wired Professional Touchpad PS2 Keyboard - 370*138*20mm - 2.0m Long Cable - US Layout

• TeckNet USB 3.0 PCI Express Interface USB 3.0 Dual Expansion Card (Molex Splitter NOT included)

• USB 3.0 Ultra High Speed Cable - 5 Metres - Blue - Male A Plug to A Plug 5m - Indigo Banana Media

• USB A Female to B Male Adapter

[Nick]

Mani hi,

Many thanks for the details of "le monster", that is some build and worthy of the name IMHO.

My "demi monster"  is up and installing W7 just now. We have a lot of components in common the main being the Asus X79 WS motherboard which looks superb. I am still using my existing HDD and see you have sourced some very high performance drives so I may give these a try.

I will post more on the config when I get music playing ok. It may be a few days because the rest of my system is stored away safely whilst the decorators finish the hall 

Out of interest what graphics card did you go for ?

Thanks again,

Nick

[PeterSt]

Out of interest what graphics card did you go for ?

None I bet.

[PeterSt]

I really want to make a remark about those PSUs you guys tend to dunk in;

Why in heaven's sake so large ? Do you really think it is needed ? The only reason for needing a larger than 300-350W PSU is when you have a 300W graphics card in there (which coincidentally could use its power). But do we ?

Remember, my system consists of 9 internal HDDs, a low consumprion graphics card and by now a bunch of USB (hdd) connections. And a 350W PSU (couldn't get a 300W one).
But I anticipate there is no way I could be accessing all those HDDs at the same time. Oh, I could, but it won't happen. Normally only one or two will be spinning; often none.

Peter

[juanpmar]

Hi Peter,

I have in my computer a Corsair AX750 power supply and it has some important advantages mostly about running in a silent mode. In this case the size is important because that means that using below the 20% of the load the fan in the power supply is 0 rpm and below 50% of the load the fan is running in quiet mode producing just 16db or less. That means that using 375W this power supply is almost inaudible and it was an important part when I built my pc.
Of course also if for any reason or at any time you need more power you get it but again the most important reason to choose my ps was the almost negligible noise at normal use. There are also some fan-less ps but I don´t trust them as much as a ps with a built in variable speed fan.

Please see the Hybrid Silent Fan Control graphics in Tech Specs : http://www.corsair.com/professional-series-gold-ax750-80-plus-gold-certified-fully-modular-power-supply.html

Best regards,
Juan

[Nick]

I will post more on the config when I get music playing ok. It may be a few days because the rest of my system is stored away safely whilst the decorators finish the hall 

Well I couldn’t wait for the decorating to be finished. I set the system back up this morning, it will have to be moved out again in time for Monday but I’m  so glad I had listen.

I found something out about the old, and not so trusty as it turns out, motherboard in my last PC.
 
I have held off doing a PC upgrade for years and kept using an ASRock G43 chipset mother board. Throughout this time improvements in the system (XXHE releases, using a HiFace, gainclones,  iterations of the NOS1 and USB3) have removed layer after layer of distortion. BUT, still at higher up-sample rates (> 88khz) a veil came over the music making it slightly confused and no matter what I did it just would NOT go away. In addition to this veil there were also strange high frequency overtones present when I tested the system with sweep frequency tracks. Still a superb sound overall to listen to, but bl**dy frustrating 

This morning with the new motherboard (I doubt the problem above was down to the old Quad core CPU) the problems have gone ! Peter will know how desperate I have been to banish this problem and has helped so much with suggestions. Many, many thanks Peter, you were right 
 
The point I wanted to share is that motherboards CAN and DO cause distortion, in my case it has been easly masked with other forms of distortion in systems for years but it was there all the time. It makes this thread very important IMO,  information on good PC builds is clearly so important to sound quality. My PC has components selected from both Juanpmar and Mani’s builds so a BIG thanks guys for posting the details or your builds.

The sound of this new PC Build is quite epic compared to the old, the things that stand out are the substance in the music, the timber of voices / instruments and the smooooothness. And this without much tunning yet of the system and with Z09-7 on the way. I am late to using a really hi spec PC compared to many on the forum so I others will know all about this but I am really pleased the upgrade.

Nick.

Ps Spec details of my build to follow.

Pps the old PC is now going to do punishment as an internet toaster for my daughter, it has no place in a music system
 

[PeterSt]

NICK, but THAT is good news !!

But no matter I can have been right on something, it is a total mystery to me how this distortion of you can have happened.
For others : Nick (and I too via a recording Nick made) could hear (distorted) music through his system via the NOS1 with only USB connected and the remainder of the DAC being totally out of power. So, something D/A'd there, but whatever we tried we could not find what in heaven's name could do this.

Very glad this is solved Nick !
Peter

[manisandher]

I really want to make a remark about those PSUs you guys tend to dunk in;
Why in heaven's sake so large ? Do you really think it is needed ?

Ah well, in my case this was a mistake. I first tried the 460W fanless PS from my previous totally-silent PC in Le Monster. Although the LEDs on the X79 mobo all lit up, the PC would not boot up. So I tried another 460W PS from my other totally-silent PC. And again, Le Monster just wouldn’t boot up. Whenever I’ve had boot-up problems in the past (mainly using linear PSs in Atom PCs with SOtM modules installed) the culprit has always been a too-low-powered PS. So I naturally assumed this was the culprit here and so went ahead and ordered a 1000W PS. And once installed in Le Monster… it still wouldn’t boot up! And you want to know what the issue was? It was the bloody power cord I was using!!! It was rated at 5A, so should have been fine, but it just wasn’t. I replaced the power cord with a 13A one, et voila, everything worked fine. I haven’t reverted back to one of the 460W PSs yet, but am sure they’d work fine. Actually, the CaseLabs W8 allows installation of two PSs – at some point I might try powering the mobo with one PS and all peripherals with another.

Out of interest what graphics card did you go for ?

None I bet.

Yeah, that was the idea. But I can’t figure out how to go ‘headless’ and also use XX in ‘Minimise OS’ and ‘Unattended’ mode. I’m hoping 0.9z-7 might provide a solution… For now, I’m using a cheapo Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti.

The point I wanted to share is that motherboards CAN and DO cause distortion, in my case it has been easly masked with other forms of distortion in systems for years but it was there all the time. It makes this thread very important IMO,  information on good PC builds is clearly so important to sound quality. My PC has components selected from both Juanpmar and Mani’s builds so a BIG thanks guys for posting the details or your builds.

My pleasure Nick. If you come up with any particular tweaks for the mobo let me know.

Mani.

[stefanobilliani]

Yeah, that was the idea. But I can’t figure out how to go ‘headless’ and also use XX in ‘Minimise OS’ and ‘Unattended’ mode. I’m hoping 0.9z-7 might provide a solution… For now, I’m using a cheapo Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti.

Mani.

Oh that is interesting , because in my new pc , I am experiencing the same thing and I do not have the video card .
Did some mail excange with Peter , and I did think it was some driver problem , did some restore .  But after a while it wont go to minimized os properly : the wasapi services remains on , the lan services also , and the minimized desktop doesn't work .

s

[PeterSt]

Haha, it seems that we are mixing up a few things here;

What I meant with my "none I bet" is that the processor should be able to provide the graphics. If only the MoBo supports it ...

So, nothing about "no video at all", which (I bet ??) wouldn't even allow for some remote thing like RDC etc.

Peter

[stefanobilliani]

Haha, it seems that we are mixing up a few things here;

What I meant with my "none I bet" is that the processor should be able to provide the graphics. If only the MoBo supports it ...

So, nothing about "no video at all", which (I bet ??) wouldn't even allow for some remote thing like RDC etc.

Peter

lol , I change signature by now .

Anyway , can't go to minimized OS properly and can't figure out why for now .
But the system plays music fantastically well , smooth and detailed .

Thanks!

[Nick]

My pleasure Nick. If you come up with any particular tweaks for the mobo let me know.

Mani hi,

You asked if I could mention tweeks for the Asus X79 WS mother board. I think I have a package of settings that is REALLY worth taking the time to setup. I am so impressed with the potential of this board, I wish I had upgraded ages ago. Almost all of this is stuff that we all know about but as a package of changes the sound produced it is quite beautiful to listen to. The thing I would stress is that the tweeks seem to work as a PACKAGE, individually you can hear them but put them together and wow 

The set of tweeks defiantly work on the Asus board that Mani and I have but others may find that they work on other boards with fast multi core PCs, I just cannot say that the sound quality is going to be what the Asus X79 WS provides.

Summary of tweeks.

1)   Eliminate ALL fans (CPU fan case fans etc)
2)   Take power off ALL drives but one (OS XX and Music on the single HDD)
3)   Power the one HDD from a linear power supply
4)   Remove power connections from DVD and Floppy Drives etc
5)   Turn off hyper threading
6)   Over Clock the CPU
7)   Disable CPU “Clock Spreading” 
   Turn off Intel Virtualisation
9)   Use PCIe USB 3 (NEC chipset)
10)   XX processor scheme 3, SFS around 350mb,
11)   Hygiene factor tweeks (Old hat stuff but for good measure)
a.   Disable Data Execution support (in Bios)
b.   Disable all Devices not needed for music (extra SATA controllers, USB ports etc etc in Device Manager)
c.   Disable all devices not used for Music in  Bios (Mobo
USB, Sound card, COM ports etc)
(Points 1 to 10 all have an effect individually, but together they really move music to the next level.


Notes


1)   Fans. At first I had to set my new PC up with a CPU fan because the mounting clip to fit my Zalman Reserator water cooler was not available. When the clip arrived I was able to remove the CPU fan and fit water cooling to the CPU and Video card. The water pump is powered by a separate 240v supply. It really makes a difference.

2)   Only ONE Drive with power.
For years every time I have added ANY additional drive (SDD, DVD, FD even just having them powered up in the PC and not using them) it always affects SQ. With the tweeks I have one Sata II HDD powered up (SDD and DVD are fitted but powered down). This is really worth doing and its easy to test, just put the OS, XXHE and some music on the same HDD and pull the power off all the others then listen....

I just reconnect the power on DVDs and other drives if I need them.


3)   Linear Power supply for the single HDD. This is really important.
Most HDDs seem to get by on about 1.5amps on the +12v rail and 0.5amps on the 5v rail. The key is to make sure that the linear supply power rails are directly referenced to the PC’s SMPS earths directly and individually for both the 12v and 5v rails (I found that if you reference the linear supply earths only via the Sata Power connection to the drive the Bass and SQ do improve but not NEARLY as much as with the earth set up mentioned).  I am using a cheap Maplin bench supply and I can explain a little more about how I have the supplies setup if needed.

4)   Take Power off all drives except the one used for Music.
Already mentioned in 2) above

5)   Turn off HyperThreading. This was a funny one. In the past over I found over clocking has helped sound quality a little. With the 3930 CPU I was thinking the choice here is either 12 threads at half the clock speed or 6 threads at full clock speed and full cache for each core. 6 threads at max clock won easily.

6)   Over Clock the CPU. See 5). Use the “Asus Optimal Mode” button on the “EZ Bios” Page to get a stable 4.2Gb clock speed with good memory speeds. No other effort required.

7)   Disable CPU Clock Spreading. CPU clock jitter as far as music is concerned in the ASAS Bios this as called. Bios > Advanced > Ai Tweeker > Spread Spectrum > Disabled

   Turn off “Intel Virtualisation Technology”. Bios > Advanced > CPU Configuration > Intel Virtualisation Technology > Disabled.

9)   USB 3.0.  Well documented on the forum. I am finding a USB 3.0 cable with an adaptor best with these tweeks.

10)   XX processor scheme 3, SFS around 350mb. Not much to say but these give the detail of Scheme 1 together with a rich full presentation with presence and great timber.

Best Nick.