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

[boleary]

(but in the mean time I am trying to see the difference between my speakers and the real woman singing. Okay, right. I see the difference. But I can't hear it anymore ... )

Don't know if I'll be able to take them getting any better than they are in my room right now....

 

[PeterSt]

Take them ?

a. my English is too poor to understand what you not mean;
b. your American is too strange to not tell what you are really talking about;
c. You bastard.

Okay, about stripper poles and stuff (other topic) ...

I have been listening for the 5th day or so to this machine, and I more and more run into albums I'm familiar with and hence can notice the enormous difference. I now, finally, hear the umpff which I recall from my ever back 100K+ chain (if it's a quarter of that today it's much) and more analogue setup. This time though, with all the sprankle "CD" carries.

Okay, never mind, because I can't explain it anyway. But what this is about is that apparently the PC may play the largest role of it all. This is not what I expected ... (don't tell this to cPlay users). On the other hand I can't imagine that just tweaking the PC for low voltage memory and what not can create this really huge difference. It must be something else.

Yesterday I have been "watching" very explicitly what actually has happened to my familiar albums, and the only real conclusion of it is "better". Well, nice, but fairly useless.

Maybe especially for pedal, might he read this :
I had to put up Made in Japan again. Remember, that quite heavy early 70's rock where cymbals are smashed around too much to really enjoy them because of poor quality. Well, the picture of that totally changed. The main thing what happened is that they are not in the mass of the sound anymore, and now stand out. But in the back (meaning : not too profound and out of everything they even sound fragile now). The hi-hats which was the first drum instrument which ever came to me as "hey, it's there !" now are right in the room and at a level which is quickly a real level while the music is more in the background. I don't know why yet, but I see similarities with voices being so profound now. Something with close micing which works out different from "a tad further away" perhaps (hi-hats always have the microphone *very* close). Could even be the recording engineer who dialed in all nicely while listening through monitor speakers while now that balance changed (for the better).

Anyway, yesterday I was thinking about opening a topic with a title "I declare my system ..."
(which I may do later)

Peter

[boleary]

Take them ?

= Women's Voices

Let me rephrase: If the women's voices get better than what I am lisytening to right now, I just might loose my mind!

 

[earflappin]

Peter, to use an iPad based remote for the NOS1 requires the PC server to have a hard wired network connection correct?  If so, are using one now as you evaluate the sonic performance?  If not, could such a connection degrade e performance substantively? 

I ask as my set-up really requires a remote control of the server.  Wireless from iPad to the router and then wired to the server from the router. 

Thanks.

[PeterSt]

Peter, to use an iPad based remote for the NOS1 requires the PC server to have a hard wired network connection correct?

David, no. Look here : http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2063.0

So ...

If not, could such a connection degrade e performance substantively?

Yes it does. But this is why this is solved differently with the due 0.9z-7 and those dongles do the job. Thus, no LAN, no WiFi in the server (audio PC) and still use the iPad to fully control XXHighEnd.

Btw, I think this is quite in here.
Regards,
Peter

[earflappin]

My apologies.  Thanks for the response.

[juanpmar]

I really don´t know if anyone has the same mb and case I have but, for the ones who are using the same system as me I´d like to post some considerations. I believe however that what it has to do with vibrations is applicable to everybody.

So far I had working in my case three 18cm fans in the bottom, one 12cm fan in the upper side of the case and one in the cpu cooler (the Noctua NH-U12P SE2). Now I took out all the fans but two, those that are in the bottom of the case.

This case, the SilverStone Fortress FT02, has 90-degree motherboard mounting design that makes a favorable effect for natural heat convection, the CPU fan is oriented in to the path of the coming air flow from the bottom fans. I took out the CPU fan but the two working fans at the bottom provide enough air to maintain the CPU, motherboard and North bridge at 41ºC, 39ºC and 66ºC respectively which is well into the safe side. The warm air goes out of the case for the upper part which is open. The room temperature is 23º/24º.
The speed of those two fans are fixed at 900rpm so the noise barely audible. The psu fan is never working because it has enough cool air coming from one of the bottom fans.

The hard drives don´t need any fan, they are in vertical position so the air is also naturally going upwards, also the rear part of the case where they are is open (you can see part of the WD Green label)

The case is closed but only in the front side, the rear side has no cover although this part is almost totally closed by the rear plate where the mb is attached, this open rear part allows a better refrigeration of about 4 or 5 degrees for the cpu than when it is closed.

I have also the case resting on four Vibrapods.

At the end what´s the situation now?:
-Just two fans vs 5 fans that I had working before.

That means:

-Less interference.

-Zero vibration in the mb because there is no fans in the cpu nor in the gpu which is passive.

As this has to do with hardware and not with software the improvement in sound that I can feel now, smoother and cleaner sound, are applicable at any XX version, including the next 0.9z-7 and in my opinion has to do, besides with less interference, mostly with the lack of vibrations. Even those cpu that are refrigerated by water has vibrations.

Vibrations are considered very important in the audiophile world but still need deeper consideration in the music pcs.

Here you can see some photos. The only working fans are the two at the middle and right side in the bottom of the case.

Best regards,
Juan

[phantomax]

Booleary said:

Last night I remembered the above exchange from earlier in this thread. I went into the ASUS bios and, in the Ai Tweaker (overclocking) section I played around with the memory frequency settings. I've always used the EZ Automatic overclocking function of the bios and have wondered why it automatically set the memory frequency to 1373 MHz when I have GSkill-1600, CL9-9-9-24. Anyway I set the Memory frequency to 1648, 1373, and 1098 and gave each a listen. There was a very significant change in sound for the better the lower the frequency. There is a 824 Mhz setting I've yet to try, but it seemed that the sound became so delicate and smooth at 1098 that it I really need to listen "here" for a while before changing this setting again.

Just an FYI regarding things I don't understand but which my button pushing nature and ears regard as worthwhile!



I can confirm this. Lowering the FSB ( underclocking ) improves the sound. More airy, more open, more all.
I couldn't change the frequency in the BIOS because mine hasn't this option  avalaible, so I had to change it via software. The only one that worked for me was SetFSB. You need to find your MOBO clock generator in the list and get the FSB, then lower it.
Two drawbacks in my case (or not) :
- I can´t go beyond 275 Mhz from initial 333 Mhz. (1.330 Mhz to 1.100 Mhz). But the sound is so good that I am satisfied with that.
- You have to adjust it every time you reboot the PC. This can be an advantage for people, like me, with two diferent boots, one for normal use of the PC and other for XXHighend.

You can see the effect in the image. The latency readings falls to almost zero. So thank you very much for the advice

[PeterSt]

Hi there !

I didn't fire up Latency Checker for a longer time, so I may have forgotton how it shows its data, but ...

Must I assume that where the latency drops (time passing by from left to right) it is where you applied the underclocking ?

If so ... INTERESTING !
But did you mean to explain it like that ?

Thanks !
Peter

[phantomax]

Hi, Peter! 
The latency drops instantaneously when I push the setFSB button and the change in frequency takes effect. The latency checker was only a visual constatation of what I have noticed before in the sound. I haven't use the DPLatency for a long time too and I am not sure about the connection with the underclocking, but the improving of the sound is clear to me.

Thanks
Maxi

[PeterSt]

Hey Maxi,

Now, if that only could be the absolute measure of how music will sound eh ?

Can you tell ... the value I see in your picture is 164us (max) when you didn't undeclock yet; If you "Reset", while underclocking is active, what is the maximum value then ?
(try to not incorporate one-occasion peaks which might happen)

Thanks again !
Peter

[phantomax]

Peter,

Yes, the 100us peaks  in measure are before the underclocking. After that, when I fire a program like XXhighend there is a peak of 1us as much. But apart from that remains at zero all the way.
Howewer (I am obviously in the normal PC boot session) I'll check it again when reboot  to XXhighend session.

Thanks
Maxi

[stefanobilliani]

This is is how it looks in my sistem if set in BIOS @ 1600 .... 

Couldn't test the Setfsb , but I can say that the LC shows increasing latency ( if little ) when the Freq in BIOS is lower .

Instead for the fun , with Throttle stop , I notice also encreasing the latency ( always with DPC ) when decreasing the chipset clock modulation .

I guess I will still wait . 

[stefanobilliani]

And this is Throttlestop in use now .

Pratically I pushed on Ram Freq by BIOS , and decreased a bit the Chipset Clock Modulation . Don't really know if it has some sense .But I am listening ,for fun and doesn't seem bad .
As it can be seen in the picture the actual CPU speed is also decreased from the 40x to 30x .
It does load every song in the previuous XX settings : SFS= 2MB(SC) , Buffersize 4096 , Q1=15 .

s

[CoenP]

Checked the latency on my music pc.

With nothing started by me, I get the following latencies:

35-57 for 1333
21-50 for 1066
37-60 for 800

Looks like 1066 is the sweet spot here. Seems to sound a tad more relaxed than 1333 or 800 also.

regards, Coen

Edit: with xx playing latency is around 350. Best sound, no contest, is with 1333 setting.