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

[juanpmar]

I´ve been using lately a new hdd from WD, the Red one, for music storage. I even played music directly from this hdd and the sound is great. Although it was made mostly for operating in NAS and RAID environment I use it as a standalone hdd and works perfectly. So a new hdd to take into account if you need more hdds for music storage. Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/WD-Red-NAS-Hard-Drive/dp/B008JJLZ7G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356804937&sr=8-1&keywords=Western+Digital+2TB+3.5inch+SATA6+Internal+Hard+Drive+-+Red

Best regards,
Juan

[bdohmeyer]

Hi Juan,

I'm attempting to plan out my new PC.  I'd like to copy exactly what you're doing with all drives.  I'm worried that your setup is too complicated for me to operate even after initial setup. 

What are your thoughts?  I like your idea of keeping all things consistent -playback drive- so that SQ can be consistently optimized.  Thanks

Bob

[juanpmar]

Hi Juan,

I'm attempting to plan out my new PC.  I'd like to copy exactly what you're doing with all drives.  I'm worried that your setup is too complicated for me to operate even after initial setup. 

What are your thoughts?  I like your idea of keeping all things consistent -playback drive- so that SQ can be consistently optimized.  Thanks

Bob

Hey Bob, it could seems complicated but it is not. I´m going to let you know how I have the hdd set up right now. To operate this setup later is easy because XXHighEnd is doing it for you, the only thing you have to do is to configure XX correctly, which although it is not a minor thing you are going to find the necessary help here in the forum.

These are my hard drives:

1- The hdd with the OS and XXHighEnd (WD VelociRaptor 300GB. Looking at the pictures this is the only one horizontally placed))

2- One hdd with music that I always want have at hand. This hdd have all the albums that for one reason or another I want to have all the time at hand. I have a lot of albums here and are classified by genres. This is a personal classification but for me is ok (WD Green, 2Tb):

- Classic Piano
- Classic Piano concertos
- Classic Symphonies
- Classic Violin and Strings
- Classic Violin and Strings concertos
- Classic Voices and Opera
- Classic others
- Downloads (HDTracks, HDTT, Blue Coast, etc.)
- Folk
- Jazz (classic)
- Jazz (slow, all kinds of jazz)
- Jazz (modern)
- Rhythm and Blues
- Voices (men)
- Voices (women)
- Voices (mix)
- Other ones of interest
- Special selection
- Pop (groups)
- Rock (groups)
- Burning and test albums

3- One hdd that is hot swap connected/disconnected with a specific kind of music, e.g. Classical, or Jazz, etc. You can have as many hdd as you need and you can just take out one and put another with the music you want to listen at a certain moment and that you don´t have in the hdd nº2. Well, this is going to be the logical configuration that I´d like to have for this hdd in the future, depending of the amount of music I´ll have but in reality I only have so far one hdd full of music of all kinds alphabetically ordered. (WD20EFRX, 2Tb)

Let me tell you that as a general rule I use WAV files mostly for the albums that I use more frequently or that I like more, although of course I have a lot of music in flac files.

4- One hdd that I use as Playback Drive. This hdd is externally connected to the USB 3.0 PCIe card (WD RE4 WD5003ABYX, 500Gb). I used several different storage units as Playback Drive like an Usb 3.0 pen drive or different hdd but I ended up using the WD RE4 and I´m very pleased with the sound I get with it. The Playback Drive is important for two reasons, first because it eliminates the differences in SQ (if any) that the Flac or wav files could have and second the Playback Drive conditioned the SQ, I mean the sound is different if you use a pen drive or a ssd or a hdd and even the kind of hdd and more even depending the kind of connection. As could you imagine the number of combinations is infinite but as I tell you I´m very satisfied with the SQ of my WD RE4 connected via USB 3.0 to the USB 3.0 PCIe card.

5- An SSD for the Galleries. It makes a fast access to your albums but at this moment I don´t use it.


As you can see I don´t use a remote to control the Music PC but instead a keyboard, a mouse and a VGA monitor. To get better sound, once the music is playing, I turn off the monitor and also disconnect the USB 2.0 (keyboard and mouse) from the hub (see pictures).

About fans, I only use two of the three fans that I have at the bottom of the case (the middle one and the right one), no fans in the cpu cooler even when I use Ultimate Tweaks that are very demanding. My temperature oscillates between 29ºC and 40ºC (Room temperature 23ºC). That means less noise and less interference.


Here you have some pictures where you can see my Music PC with the hdd inside and outside. I also have a CD Rom but I have it disconnected and I don´t use it. When I want to rip a cd I use other computer and later I copy the file to the Music Pc.

Please ask whatever you need to know, I´ll be glad to help as much as I can.

Best regards

Juan

[PeterSt]

Your help remains impressive Juan ...

[juanpmar]

Your help remains impressive Juan ...

Thanks Peter. Those are gratifying words

Juan

[bdohmeyer]

Hi Juan,

Outstanding!  Thanks Juan.  I think I may copy your system almost exactly.  I was thinking of using two (tight voltage + or - 2%/ lower power) power supplies and two boxes so that the MB does not share power with any other components.

[juanpmar]

Hi Juan,

Outstanding!  Thanks Juan.  I think I may copy your system almost exactly.  I was thinking of using two (tight voltage + or - 2%/ lower power) power supplies and two boxes so that the MB does not share power with any other components.

Hi Bob, about the power supply I think it is still a pending issue although some people here have worked on it. If you have ideas about it go ahead, you might find something new and interesting to share. If I can make a suggestion I would go first to a simpler construction, perhaps like mine if you like it, and then I would work on it implementing other solutions.

Best,
Juan

[bdohmeyer]

Juan,

Here is part of my order below.  The Windows 7 Ultimate for sale at newegg.com does not indicate that it is 64bit.  Is it always 64bit?

They are out of stock on the sabertooth
I bought the i7 970 on ebay for $399

Qty.    Product Description    Savings    Total Price
   

Western Digital WD RE4 WD5003ABYX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822136697
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
Recover Your Data(expand for options)
-$10.00 Instant
$99.99
$89.99
   

Western Digital Red WD20EFRX 2TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822236343
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
Protect Your Investment (expand for options)
Recover Your Data(expand for options)
$119.99
   

Seasonic SS-760XP2 ATX 12V/EPS 12V, 760W, 80 PLUS PLATINUM Full Modular certified Active PFC Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817151120
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$179.99
   

CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9
Item #: N82E16820233141
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
-$2.00 Instant
$221.94
$209.94
($34.99 each)
Subtotal:   $599.91

Cheers

Bob

[bdohmeyer]

Juan,

I assume I need a third drive? (WD Velociraptor SATA II, 300Gb)

This is for OS and XX?

[bdohmeyer]

Juan,

I found the sabertooth on ebay.  Is this the right thing?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-SABERTOOTH-X58-SOCKET-LGA1366-DDR3-USB-3-0-INTEL-DESKTOP-MOTHERBOARD-/390578024696?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5af043b0f8

"ASUS SABERTOOTH X58 SOCKET LGA1366 DDR3 USB 3.0 INTEL DESKTOP MOTHERBOARD"


Thanks!

[juanpmar]

Hi Bob,

I see that you have decided to build your PC with almost exactly the same components as mine. As I say in the first post of this topic: as we all know, computers and its parts become obsoletes very soon, so it is important to understand that you should choose to build your music PC, as a general rule, the fastest possible processor with a motherboard appropriate for that processor. It doesn´t mean that you must choose the latest processor in the market but one of the previous ones that will be much cheaper.... The i7 970 is not the fastest there today but it can work at 3.2GHz-3.6GHz with 6 cores plus 6 virtual cores, so it is fast enough to run XXHighEnd with no problem. You got a very good price for the i7-970 so it is an excellent choice in my opinion.

Here is part of my order below.  The Windows 7 Ultimate for sale at newegg.com does not indicate that it is 64bit.  Is it always 64bit?

Windows Ultimate includes 32 & 64-bit versions, here you have a link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DHGMVY/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p65_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0SEVQG5RFZHX67HFXNNX&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846

The 64bit option is important because it has not limited the amount of memory to 4Gb and that is an advantage over the 32bit version.

I assume I need a third drive? (WD Velociraptor SATA II, 300Gb)

This is for OS and XX?

Yes, I use this drive only for OS and XXHighEnd.

I found the sabertooth on ebay.  Is this the right thing?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-SABERTOOTH-X58-SOCKET-LGA1366-DDR3-USB-3-0-INTEL-DESKTOP-MOTHERBOARD-/390578024696?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5af043b0f8

"ASUS SABERTOOTH X58 SOCKET LGA1366 DDR3 USB 3.0 INTEL DESKTOP MOTHERBOARD"
Thanks!

Yes, this is the mb I use.

Best regards,
Juan

[PeterSt]

A small notice from my side :

The i7 970 is not the fastest there today but it can work at 3.2GHz-3.6GHz with 6 cores plus 6 virtual cores, so it is fast enough to run XXHighEnd with no problem. You got a very good price for the i7-970 so it is an excellent choice in my opinion.

Generally it is not about the speed at all but how the processor can (quickly) deal with interrupts, memory and a lot more. For example, currently I run my i7/3930K machine at 350MHz per core (yep, that is 0.35GHz). No problem whatsoever with anything (also not track loading and FLAC conversions etc.). CPU usage during 32/705600 playback is still under 1%.

Peter

[juanpmar]

Yes, you are right Peter, I emphasized it on the processor speed while there are other important factors to take in to account, but if you have to choose a processor what is the specification to look for if the main one that defines the processor in the specification sheet is the speed?.

Juan

[juanpmar]

For example, currently I run my i7/3930K machine at 350MHz per core (yep, that is 0.35GHz). No problem whatsoever with anything (also not track loading and FLAC conversions etc.). CPU usage during 32/705600 playback is still under 1%.
Peter

Peter - If I remember well the reason to lower the processor speed is to minimize as much as possible the vibrations produced by the processor high speed. Could you please remember me how to lower the processor speed to such a low values?.

Thanks,
Juan

[bdohmeyer]

You guys are great!  Many, many thanks.

I just bought the Sabertooth, Win7 ultimate("takes advantage of 64 bit capable processor /Mb") and a passive videocard.

I found the TeckNet USB on Amazon but it's priced in Pounds and it says it does not come with "molex splitter".  Do I need that?
It gives an option to buy it with 2 other accessories. 

There are similar looking things on Ebay with 4 USB3.0 outs.

Help!:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-Interface-Expansion-Splitter-included/dp/B004S0Y9FK

Thanks again!