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

[Stanray]

My working pc is almost like yours, maybe I´ll try it with the NOS1 to see how it sounds, the mb that I use in that pc is a P8H67-M EVO, with a i7 2.600 and 16Gb kingstone, a pasive GPU and it is very silent also. Making some arrangements I could make almost a clone of yours. I´ll follow your changes to see if I can apply it to my computer and compare it with the one that I have now dedicated to music.

Interesting, curious for your results.

The Modu MD1 looks very nice, where did you buy it, in Italy?

Yes, from http://www.modushop.biz/. Good quality, reasonable prizing and fast delivery.

Stanley

[Stanray]

Now, what about something like Coverart showing in that right leg of the NOS1 eh ? ... oh, oops. Yea, so stupid. Let me promise that for the next version after 0.9z-7 (and not ages after it).

Ah, that's where the mysterious display is for. Didn't know that. This will really look cool!

Stanley

[nik.d]

This is strange...

I'm trying to use 2 'regular' computer PSs  (both Seasonic) - one for the mobo and one for all other peripheral devices. I can power the whole PC from either PS no problem, i.e both PSs work fine. But when I connect the mobo to one PS and the peripheral devices to the other PS, the peripheral devices remain totally dead and are not detected. If I swap the two PSs, I get the same result! So it seems a 'regular' computer PS will simply remain dormant unless it detects a mobo.

Weird. Anyone know why this should be?

Mani.

Mani hi,

Coen was close in his reply - when ATX PSU is not connected to MBD it needs pin#14 (PS_ON, green wire)
to be short connected (shorted) to COM (any black wire) order to power up. See here and here.
 

HTH

[manisandher]

Hey Nik, thanks for this. Nice and simple - I'll definitely give it a go. Will let you know how I get on...

Cheers, Mani.

[manisandher]

Yep, it works fine. The only thing to bear in mind is that most modern ATX PSs are not 20-pin. Mine has two outputs for the mobo - an 18-pin and a 10-pin. It's the 10-pin ouput that has the green wire. All I did was short this green wire to a black (gnd) wire on the same 10-pin output.

Will report back on any changes to SQ using two separate PSs.

Mani.

[manisandher]

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.

Hi Nick, just wanted to let you know that I'm currently waiting for my CPU water-cooler and passive graphics card to arrive. Once these are here, I'll be able to take Le Monster completely fanless and apply all of your tweaks as a package. The only tweak I'll hold back on for a short while is the linear PS - I going to use a separate low-ripple fanless SMPS for the HDD for now. So, the mobo/CPU will be powered by one low-ripple fanless SMPS and the HDD with another. Both of these SMPSs will be powered from a 1KVA isolation transformer to stop grunge getting back into the mains.

I'll soon have a bunch of very, very nice Noctua fans and a CPU cooler sitting around doing nothing. Oh well, I'll add them to the collection of hifi separates, pro ADC/DACs and PC components I have gathering dust in my cellar. Somehow I think it's more hassle advertising, selling, and then packing and shipping them out than it is to just leave them there.

Mani.

[Nick]

Mani hi,

Great, I really hope it is worth all the effort for you, fingers crossed 

The extra SMPS sounds like a good way to test the hdd setup. It might be worth playing the earths between the two supplies a bit when the time comes. With my linear setup this made the different between just smoother sound and smoother sound with good bass.

Looking forwards to hearing how it sounds,

Best,

Nick.

[manisandher]

I was asked by something starting with 6 and ending with Moons to arrange for a nice - no, rather ultimate Win PC for XXHighEnd. Okay, so it had to be good ...

... maybe I can't get rid of PWM regulation which all is based upon officially.

Hey Peter, in case it's of interest to you, the mobo Nick and I use allows you to switch between DC and PWM power for the fans. My PWM Noctua fans seem to be totally happy with the switch set to DC. What I really like about these fans is that they're very, very quiet.

Mani.

[CoenP]

If the Megahalems cooler and cpu get a little warm I manually turn on my extra silent noctua 14 cm fan. This fan is super silent, though it seems to leave a signature to the sound when plugged into the motherboard. Yes, on my mobo you can also select between pwm and voltage fan control.

This SQ effect gets less significant when I tap the power from an unused molex and use a little rheostat to tame the rpm of the fan. Most heat is coming from the northbridge and cpu so I only need very little rpm to keep temps very low with the i5. Probably uneccessary low for a XX only PC.

Regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

Thanks Mani. At least I now know it can be an option.

Btw, just ordered the lot a few hours back, including such a nice Noctua. But the mobo is a different one, so I'll have to see about the PWM. But anyway it looks easy to just take a normal power line and stuff in whatever resistance ... (and then check whether all keeps nicely cool).

I (too) will inform further when (ok if) I have all running.

Thanks,
Peter

[PeterSt]

unused molex and use a little rheostat to tame the rpm of the fan

Haha

[boleary]

Well, based on recent emails, it appears that my updated NOS1 is currently over the pond and will be in the Philadelphia area early next week. Can't wait. So that I can use all the updates of the upcoming version of XX, I'm considering building my first computor. The Core 2 duo, though it sounds great,  doesn't let me use straight Contiguous in a normal way. Anyway, am thinking I'll go with the Asus P9X79 WS with the 3930k cpu instead of the 3960X. The K is around $500 (US) cheaper and is rated as only being 6% slower than the 3960X.....if this is a mistake please speak up!
      Never having built a computor before, I'm wondering about cooling and "noise." I want to use a Reserator 1 v2 for the CPU and a Seasonic 400w, fanless power supply, as well as a fanless, low end video card. Given how XX operates is it necessary to have case fans to keep memory and hard drives cool? Thanks in advance for your reply.

[PeterSt]

Don't you mean the 3930(K) ? I think so.
I wouldn't bother about that 6%. It's merely the topology (like 4 memory lanes and such - which both have).

[boleary]

Yes, my intention is to get the 3930(K).

[Nick]

I have the 3930 CPU, you can set the clock speed anywhere upto 4.2ghz with ease so I would not worry too much about losing out on the 3960.

 Running my pc totally fanless in the spec you outlined mobo temp reads 38 deg c, hard drives etc a get warm but are fine at about 45 c to the touch. Ambient room temp for these case conditions is about 18c

I think you should be fine. You can always add a small case fan from a wall wart supply if needed but I'm guessing it wont be needed.

For fun I put the resorator gpu water block on my passive gpu card which gets a little more heat out of the case but this was more because the  resorator kit comes with the gpu kit anyway.

Best,

Nick.