novisnick
EmoPhile
CEO Secret Monoblock Society
Posts: 27,223 
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Post by novisnick on Jul 11, 2017 22:42:14 GMT -5
Thanks boomzilla , you and Shreveport are the closest groups.  |
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Post by garbulky on Jul 12, 2017 18:20:55 GMT -5
My living room PC is serving dual purpose as the primary music source as well as work The interesting thing I did was go with a watercool solution. I also got a beefy graphics card with dual fans which only turn on during gaming. The power supply was also one of the quiet ones. Result is that the system is very quiet. I also got a dedicated digital output card called the Musiland Digital Times. Sounds like an interesting setup, any pictures? Here is some pics of my setup.    |
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Post by boomzilla on Jul 13, 2017 5:50:15 GMT -5
Thanks boomzilla , you and Shreveport are the closest groups. Well then - Consider starting your OWN group. Publicize it well. At the first meeting - Pick someone else to run it. Then sit back & learn. |
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Post by LuisV on Jul 14, 2017 10:25:09 GMT -5
Nice setup garbulky... what kind of case did you use? Silverstone? |
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Post by RichGuy on Jul 14, 2017 11:17:13 GMT -5
For 2 channel I use an Asus Xonar Essence ST sound card using its digital coax out to my MHDT Stockholm balanced tube DAC. I have found the Asus Xonar Essence ST's digital out to sound better than other digital out sources I've used and also much better than USB to my DAC, I am using a WASAPI connection through JRiver. I have found this combo to be a far better sound quality than anything I have ever used from any music source. The sound is a very natural analog result that is much more musical and realistic than anything else I have ever used in my system, I really love the result. Asus Xonar Essence ST sound card   MHDT Stockholm balanced tube DAC  |
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Post by LuisV on Sept 7, 2017 15:49:07 GMT -5
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KeithL
Administrator 
Posts: 9,929
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Post by KeithL on Sept 7, 2017 16:23:08 GMT -5
Sounds VERY nice. Finally finished building my new NAS / Application / Media / Backup server. It's running unRAID for the server OS with Plex, PlexPy, and Unifi Video Controller as dockers along with a couple of Windows Server VMs for testing purposes and a bare metal Windows 10 VM for daily use. Decided to go with the following components: - AMD Ryzen 1800x 8 Core / 16 Thread CPU
- Asus Prime X370-Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard
- Cosair Vengeance LPX 32GB RAM
- 2x - Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD in RAID 0 for Dockers and VMs
- 5x - Western Digital Red 4TB Drives
- EVGA 650w G3 Power Supply
- EVGA GTX 1050 Video Card
- Noctua CPU Cooler and Case Fans
- Intel GB Dual Port Network Card
- Fractal Design R5 Case
- CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD UPS
System is whisper quiet... if it wasn't for the case LEDs, you wouldn't know it's on. unRAID was a bit of a learning curve and it was a bumpy road for the first couple of weeks as the system kept going into a sleep state, but after Asus released a couple of BIOS updates it's been stable. |
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Post by LuisV on Sept 7, 2017 16:59:49 GMT -5
Thanks Kieth. My 4+ year old Synology was running out of space and it couldn't handle much other than backup duties. This server should last me a while before I need to upgrade and due to the way unRAID handles disks within the array, I can add drives until I run out of room in the case. Yea, I'll need to add a SATA adapter card as I'm limited to 8 SATA ports on the motherboard, but I can add drives when needed. I'm very happy the way it turned out and it handled 8 Plex transcoded streams without issue.
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Post by gld3gld3 on Sept 7, 2017 22:31:18 GMT -5
I built a pc/media server about two years ago that has worked great for streaming Tidal and running Roon. My goals were for it to be small, draw less power than a typical PC, be silent, be aesthetically pleasing (look sleek and integrate well with other components) and be relatively low cost. Right when I was thinking about the build AMD came out with a new socket (AM1) and processors. These were low power processors and looked like they would work well in the server I envisioned. I picked up a 5150 processor (not the highest specked, but cheap and lower power draw). For the motherboard I picked up an Asrock AM1H-ITX. The cool thing about this processor/motherboard combo is I could power it via a DC input, rather than the 24-pin connector that is typical of most PCs. This kept the footprint of the server much smaller. Some RAM and a 250gb SSD and that was it for the internals. I didn't need tons of internal storage, as most of the music I would be listening to would be through Tidal. Pretty simple. I initially purchased a quieter heatsink/fan for the CPU, but it wasn't really as a quiet as I wanted it to be. It looked like Noctua was developing a heatsink/fan for the AM1 platform, so I waited for its release. Well, after months of waiting it never came to production, so I looked some more. Finally I found a company making a fanless heatsink for this AM1 processor! I installed it and it worked beautifully! It's barely warm to the touch even when streaming HD music. I picked up a black aluminum Streacom case and that was pretty much it. I installed a low latency version of Linux (Lubuntu) and Roon Core. It's worked flawlessly delivering those 1s and 0s to my DC-1! Which Streacom case did you go with? Those are very nice... any pictures? I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of my music server/streamer. It's simple, draws very little power, is quiet and gets the job done quite well.  |
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Post by jefft51 on Sept 7, 2017 22:52:08 GMT -5
I have my gaming pc also acting as an HTPC. Fans are a little noisy, but as a htpc and with the ambient sounds around me is generally not too noticeable. I also have an Intel NUC as an HTPC, quiet, small. I have a remote desktop app on my phone that I can use, but normally I grab the keyboard.
My router has the ability to attach a drive for access across the network. I haven't tried it yet, but plan on doing so as I have lots of music files.
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Post by LuisV on Sept 8, 2017 10:47:20 GMT -5
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Post by LuisV on Sept 8, 2017 10:57:32 GMT -5
I have my gaming pc also acting as an HTPC. Fans are a little noisy, but as a htpc and with the ambient sounds around me is generally not too noticeable. I also have an Intel NUC as an HTPC, quiet, small. I have a remote desktop app on my phone that I can use, but normally I grab the keyboard. My router has the ability to attach a drive for access across the network. I haven't tried it yet, but plan on doing so as I have lots of music files. Not sure what kind of fans you have, but look into Noctua as they are dead silent at idle and push a ton of air... at full load, they are obviously audible, but not obnoxiously loud. They have more of a whirling sound than your typical fan whine. |
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Post by jefft51 on Sept 8, 2017 12:45:50 GMT -5
I have my gaming pc also acting as an HTPC. Fans are a little noisy, but as a htpc and with the ambient sounds around me is generally not too noticeable. I also have an Intel NUC as an HTPC, quiet, small. I have a remote desktop app on my phone that I can use, but normally I grab the keyboard. My router has the ability to attach a drive for access across the network. I haven't tried it yet, but plan on doing so as I have lots of music files. Not sure what kind of fans you have, but look into Noctua as they are dead silent at idle and push a ton of air... at full load, they are obviously audible, but not obnoxiously loud. They have more of a whirling sound than your typical fan whine. Thanks I might look into those. I can barely hear the fans in a quiet room and are easily drowned out unless the graphics card fans kick into high gear. But quieter is always better. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2017 13:45:17 GMT -5
LuisV doesn't plan to watch the NASA channel, he plans to host it. lol
Very nice
I just got a Ryzen 1400/x370 PC & it out-performs the wife's i5 machine
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Post by LuisV on Sept 8, 2017 14:04:51 GMT -5
Ha... thanks! Right now, Ryzen is tough to beat based on performance vs cost.
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Post by AudioHTIT on Sept 8, 2017 16:15:03 GMT -5
Another Mac mini user here, I added a 1TB SSD. Small, quiet, relatively inexpensive, includes all the basics out of the box (depending on your requirements) - HDMI, TOSLink, USB. Nice interaction with AppleTV. Unlike boomzilla and Bonzo I wish it was black. Works for me! |
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Post by LuisV on Sept 8, 2017 23:22:01 GMT -5
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Post by AudioHTIT on Sept 8, 2017 23:43:46 GMT -5
AudioHTIT skin it... I'm sure there are other sellers and or products out there: Hey, never have seen those, great idea! Thanks LuisV |
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Post by LuisV on Oct 7, 2017 6:14:02 GMT -5
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Post by AudioHTIT on Oct 7, 2017 8:23:35 GMT -5
I’ve been building a new cabinet for my gear, it’s been both ambitious and difficult (I’ll try to get around to making a post about it). I’lll check out the skins before I move the equipment into it. Do you know how they affect heat dissipation? The mini’s normally don’t run hot, but can get pretty warm when they’re working hard. |
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