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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: Fanless powerful PC
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on: March 10, 2010, 06:04:05 pm
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Hello Telstar Now I'm really intrigued, why do you underpower the cpu? Thanks Jack
I dont underpower the cpu, meaning that the frequency is always at 2.6ghz and that the drawn power varies with the usage. I suggest you to get Everest ultimate and monitor cpu vcore, cpu W and cpu current (A). I want to undervolt it of 0.1-0.2V (from 1.1v to 0.9v) to reduce the temperature (should lower at least 10°C this way). Just that. I prefer to be in control and this board let me do it. I haven't had the time to do it. I suggest OCCT, in particular the PSU test to stress the cpu which uses linpak (in <10min you can go to 80°C if you are fanless). I have two 5V and 3V curves to post, one with the mATX psu that came with my case and the second with the Winmate, but I plan to redo the test after I undervolt.
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333
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: Fanless powerful PC
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on: March 10, 2010, 04:59:35 pm
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Hello Mani I'm intrigued as to why you have gone for such a 'complicated' mobo. As Roy and Mani replied, I also have chosen this motherboard for several reasons: 1) possibility to undervolt the cpu 2) m-ATX size 3) stable, more than similar boards from ASUS for instance 4) integrated videocard that RUNS PRETTY COOL. Almost all other m-atx boards that i have looked at had much higher temps. 5) TI firewire chipset onboard. Save space and money to buy one if a firewire dac is to be used 6) 2oz copper tracks 7) well regulated PSU rails 8 ) lots of features can be disabled in bios Lastly, the intel videocard is powerful enough that i can play a video or even blue-ray if i wished. This leaves open a HT option, even i'm not using it.
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334
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: Fanless powerful PC
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on: March 10, 2010, 04:54:05 pm
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But I hadn't actually intended to underclock - it seemed the bios did this by default. In any event, there is no issue. Thanks for pointing this out.
Incidentally, underclocking the CPU (in my case by 20%) seemed to have little effect on how XXHE performs. The soundcard/interface/DAC drivers seem to have a bigger impact...
Mani.
This happens when EIST is active (default) in bios. I have disabled it so it stays at full speed (I needed this to test for stability and decided to keep it). At first i thought that this could cause latency. From realtemp screen, the cpu is both undermultiplied (6x instead of 8x) and underclocked (2 ghz instead of 3 ghz). The vcore is likely also reduced. This explains your excellent temps (I still dont know which heatsink you use). Intel did a very good job of energy saving. I wonder if and how this impact in audio performance - I think that in a highlevel system as yours you MAY perceive some differences if you disable the energy saving features of your cpu. You may then decide to underclock in a fixed way (easier is by reducing the multiplier, IF is allowed, reducing the bandwith otherwise, but this will reduce the memory frequency which is not generally desirable) There are two entries in the gigabyte bios for these: C1E and EIST. IIRC I have disabled both. But i plan to reduce the vcore manually. Anyway, hardware optimization for music playback is completely different as doing it to overclock and bench ))
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340
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your thoughts about the Sound Quality / Re: 0.9y-7
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on: March 09, 2010, 03:06:27 pm
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IMHHHO you have one of the best DACs around ... I probably would have chosen that, weren't it that, well, today they oversample (a little only). Peter, note that the Gold link is NOT the DAC III Platinum, which I finally heard a few months ago and it sounds REALLY good indeed.
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342
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: y6 in special mode awfully slow
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on: March 07, 2010, 01:47:02 am
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I did more tests and found out that it is NOT the KS/special mode that causes the player to respond so slow. It's just the new version (from y6). OK, exact same settings. y5-6 is fast and responsive, while y7 is terribly slow You can't make up your mind, can you ? uh? those two sentences means about the same thing. I'll make the cpu screenshots. Tonight i verified that the cpu is stable fanless under load. And, more important for you, irTRANS works in w7 x64 (yup i got it this morning yeah!).
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