Hi Peter,

I am in a cafe and using my smartphone to type so please excuse the brevity of my response.

I understand that Ramdisk is actually a virtual disk that takes advantage of the very high speed access the CPU has to the volatile memory contained in Ram. I read what you wrote about the requirements for Ram for storing high resolution/ upsampled music and accordingly went for 64MB of ram. From my understanding of the requirements of XXHIghend and the audio files transferred to memory, this should be amply sufficient.

I am also fairly sure that the volatility of ram memory means that one inevitably must have the XXHighend software on hard disk, and this is why I have gone for the Intel 750 PCI-e for Windows OS and XXHighend, as this is nvme and therefore capable of being used as a bootable drive with the X10dac motherboard according to Supermicro and their distributor here in the UK.

I understand that Galleries can be considered as the metadata pertaining to what we want to play, somewhat like a synopsis and table of contents but not the audio file itself. This should be apparently/preferably on a separate drive and I am thinking of a separate Samsung SM951 AICH SSD which at 256GB should be able to deal with my expanding flac music/potentially ripped DVD/bluray collection over many years to come.

So I do not think I am incorrect in my understanding of what Ramdisk is - in the XXhighend PC, it is partitioned to accommodate both XXHighend itself and the Playback drive.

But I was confused and almost certainly incorrect about a different aspect of how your music pc operates. I thought that the music files and the Playback drive were different things. Now I think that in fact the Playback drive is simply where the music files reside during playback. On this basis there is no need for a separate SSD for the playback drive? The playback drive source the music files from wherever the music collection is stored be it a SATA drive or as will likely be the case in my PC a combination of 10k Velociraptor drives and 15k sas hard drives which can have a transfer speed of 12Gbps when used with the LSI raid card incorporated in the Supermicro motherboard.

Is the above about right?

Thanks
Rakesh

Since I last posted here about my proposed build, I have tried to take what would have been an ideal short-cut and order the XXHighend PC from Peter directly built per the specifications he posted on this site.

It is most unlikely that this will now happen but irrespective of this, there are a few issues that I need to consider regarding my build based in all likelihood on the Supermicro X10dac, which is at this moment my favourite solution going forward although no one here or elsewhere has commented on the wisdom or otherwise of this choice.

My post here is a specific call for help and advice regarding the hard drive configuration of an XXHighend PC source. I have ordered the Intel 750 400GB PCI-e SSD (I will call this SSD1; had to order this in the US as it is difficult to find in Europe at the moment) and have also bought some 300GB 10000rpm Velociraptors hard drives on ebay.

Running XXHighend in Ramdisk, I am planning to use the Intel 750 SSD for Windows OS and XXHighend. I am also thinking of using another cheaper SSD like the Samsung SM951 (AICH) (I will call this SSD2) 256GB for Galleries. Is this the way to go about this? Can anyone comment?

Another issue regards the Playback location. My understanding is that this should ideally be in Ramdisk as well. But should this be stored on SSD1 or SSD2 or ideally on a separate SSD (such as another Samsung SM951)?

Obviously I do realise that these issues must have been considered in other threads and I have tried to go through these but I have found them less than conclusive. So any help or advice or just a note of your own experience would be appreciated.

I have some further questions regarding the hard drives where I will be storing my music and maybe some music dvds/blurays but that will be a question for another post.

Many thanks
Rakesh

P.S. I am in the UK (Berkshire)/France (Alsace/Germany border) so if any kind soul with experience building an XXHighend PC would be willing to let me listen to their rig or offer some advice/help with my build, please feel free to get in touch.

Addendum 4:

I now have the reply from Supermicro's distributors regarding a motherboard that, on paper, I prefer to all the other solutions I have looked at in terms of dual CPU motherboards.

It is the Supermicro MBD-X10DAC.

Specs can be found here:

http://www.supermicro.co.uk/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10DAC.cfm

Again for those who are interested in such matters, I have the reply from their distributors which I received this morning which I post here:

Morning Rakesh,

 ...
 

I can confirm that we can boot from the 750 SSD on the X10DAC.

 

Please advise how you would like to proceed.

 

Regards

That's it for now.

rgds
Rakesh
 

Well, I am not completely surprised if nobody has tried a dual cpu motherboard set-up as a PC source for the NOS1/1a.

With the little real knowledge that I have in such matters, I can think of the following grounds which will count against the viability of such an option:

1. Cost involved. A dual CPU motherboard costs more but that's not always true. For example, I have noticed that the Asus Tuf X99 motherboard costs in excess of 400 Euros but the Asus Z10PA-D8 WS can be found for less. I imagine one does not need more memory. The case required may or may not be bigger but some dual CPU motherboards are ATX size.

2. Complexity. I imagine this must be true. From the reviews that I have read where dual cpu systems were being used, clearly this is considered an issue as not all (in fact few) applications are able to take advantage of the dual cpu configuration. In such cases however, where the application can take advantage of the additional headroom (as seems to be the case with XXHighend), rather substantial gains are made on the singe cpu solution.

3. Power requirements. The motherboard itself will consume presumably more power than its single CPU counterpart but this is unlikely to be by that much. More problematic is the doubling of power draw from the additional CPU. However, if one considers that the power draw of the high-end multi-core CPUs used by some NOS1/1a owners is in the region of 130w peak, then surely two low-powered Intel Xeons consuming 70W peak each is not altogether such a different siuation.

4. Cooling requirements. Whilst the use of two low powered CPUs do lead to lesser cooling requirements (individually) compared a heavyweight 130w CPU nonetheless, the presence of two CPUs means the positioning of one affects the flow of coll air to the other. How much of a problem this is I do not know but I imagine with low powered Xeon CPUs, the issue might not be an insuperable one.

5. Upgrading power supplies. As someone who does not like the effect of poor mains electricity on playback, I can only admire those who hav tried to address these issues within the PC. I have read about different proposed "solutions" by HDPlex for example but here again I am not too sure about the gains to be had here. If I understand correctly XXHighend make minimal power demands during playback. So it is arguable that a solution which is not mainstream and maybe rpovide so little gain is an irrelevant consideration.

6. Sound quality. Glad you ask. I do not have the foggiest and there is only one way to find out!

Best
Rakesh

Addendum 3:

I am quite impressed by the EP2C612D16-2L2T motherboard.

It has 3 x PCIe x 16 slots and 3 x PCIe x 8 slots, has onboard USB3.1 type A (not type C unfortunately but I am pretty sure this can be added via an AIC) as well as Thunderbolt.

The EP2C612D16NM-2T8R adds an LSI3008 card (shock, horror the purists might say) at the expense of a few PCI slots and on-board Thunderbolt header...

Would anyone care to say what they think of these as potential candidates for a source PC for the NOS1?

Rakesh

Addendum 2:

A quick online search shows that Asrock have already posted the specifications of this EP2C612 motherboard (and other workstation/server motherboards which are part of their new 2015 lineup) online. The specs can be downloaded here:

http://www.asrockrack.com/general/Catalog2015.pdf

Rakesh

Addendum:

The Asrock dual CPU motherboard EP2C612 WS mentioned above by Asrockrack is not commercially available yet but should be shortly. I do not know the specs but if it is like other Asrock motherboards, it should be very competitively priced.

Best rgds
Rakesh

Quick post:

I sent an email to a few motherboard manufacturers last week. I have the reply from Asus regarding their dual CPU motherboard (e.g. the Z10PE-D16 WS) but that was somewhat negative. The questions and answers were:

    Question1: Is it likely you will be updating the bios uefi of your dual cpu workstation motherboards so one can boot frpm Intel 750 SSD from the PCIe slot?

        Answer[from Asrockrack]: we use OCZ RevoDrive as our PCIe SSD validation, and yes, we will support PCIe SSD for sure. And our dual CPU workstation product will be called EP2C612 WS, which you may see it on our official website soon! (Need samples?)

    Question: So the answer, to be absolutely clear, is that one will be able to use the EP2C612 WS and boot from an Intel 750 SSD located in the PCIe slot?  When will this product be launched? When will it be in the shops? I have quite soon. Can you please send me the relevant spec sheet if you have one presently?
    Question2: Also, do you know when the Asrock X99 professional/USB3.1 will be available to buy?
        Answer: this product line belongs to ASRock, and we will be glad to introduce you to them, therefore, could you please let me know your location and the way you most likely to purchase our products - via disty or  on-line purchasing?

And the last email was:

Hi Rakesh,

Yes, absolutely!

This EP2C612 WS can boot from Intel 750 PCIe SSD located in the PCIe slot @UEFI mode with Windows 8.1 Pro, and it has been verified.

As for the purchasing questions, I will asked our sales department to contact you via proper channel and hope that you will get what you need soon!

Thank you very much for your feedback!

Cheers,
ASRR TSD Team.

It is certainly of interest to me and maybe of interest to others so I took the liberty of posting this here.

Best regards
Rakesh

It has been quiet here recently so I thought I might as well chip in, if anyone is interested, with where I got to with my project. Not very far at all but I have made some "progress", although I hesitate to use the word.

It has been nearly two weeks ago since I last posted on my self-proposed plan to build my own music pc. In that time, I had to learn a lot not only about building a music server but also understand what my own objectives were. Without clearly defined objectives, no sensible decision can be made.

I realised quite soon just how little I truly knew but from talking to friends, people in IT and companies that actually build servers and workstations to spec, knowledge did not necessarily lead to wisdom and true understanding...The reverse of the coin was that with this greater understanding, essential as it is, I did not really get any closer to knowing why a choice should be made as opposed to another. Like with nearly anything, there are so many opinions and so often conflicting that it is not clear that there is any sort of agreement about anything. It felt a bit like walking down the aisle in Sainbury's looking for a bottle of wine for the evening meal. How does one come to a rational decision when placed in front of such a large number of equally plausible alternatives?

I came very close to just giving up and simply try and order Peter's tested and proven solution. There were however a couple of issues. Quite apart from the cost involved, I really did not want to be tied up to the Asrock X79 motherboard...I wanted to buy some relatively inexpensive processors and upgrade to something more decent eventually from the current V3 Haswell generation (generally more cores for less power consumption). Ideally, I would have liked to move away from Sata III drives, use up and coming tech like USB3.1, maybe Thunderbolt II to connect to a NAS, use really fast PCIe based "NVME" hard drives to boot from, reduce power consumption and increase core count by using CPUs like the Xeon E5-2650LV3. Ideally I wanted a bigger case since clearly that would enable better and more efficient cooling and open up the possibility of a dual cpu LGA2011-3 motherboard.

You may ask: what has any of this got to do with sound? In fact, my understanding is that all the considerations enumerated above have implications both in terms of sound and ease of use and keeping open the possibility of future upgrades.

I however know my limitations and whilst I have a better idea of what I want to achieve and how to get there, I know that I need and will seek help. Some invaluable assistance, Peter, Juan and others who posted in this thread have already given. I hope you will not hold back and help with both advice or blunt criticism.

I have however very culpably digressed from the opening and teasing first line of the post which suggested I had made progress. Part of that progress is understanding what I am doing and where I am going and hopefully that came through above. Maybe my situation will correspond to people joining the Phasure club. The other part of that progress is that I have actually decided on some essential aspects of my build and ordered the parts, but it is the Athletico v Real Madrid Champions League derby in a moment so that will have to wait.

Best rgds
Rakesh

Hi Bert,

I went on Atlas Solutions' website and I must say that by the time you have upgraded some components, you are paying in the region of £1000-1200 for a PC with little in the way of upgrade path.

As you say, it is esthetically very pleasing indeed and it looks like it is an excellent XXHighend source. I imagine you have the NOS1a and I have read that this newer version of Peter's dac is more forgiving of the source computer. I will have the NOS1, at least for a year or so. So I need to be more mindful of following the advice given by Peter when designing a PC source for the NOS1. At the moment, I do not think I have departed too much from his recommended specifications.

I like the fact that you are using a tablet to control everything...I would certainly like to do that as well. But one step at a time...

Many thanks
Rakesh

Hi Peter,

Many thanks for your response. This was indeed very educational. And it of course has practical implications in that if anyone was to find a dual CPU motherboard, then this does not seem a bad choice although the case might be an issue.

The case that I have just dragged down from the loft to take a look inside will take an ATX-sized motherboard.

There are also some really quiet fans in there that I could use.

So existing components are:
1.a 500GB hard disk Samsung HD5021J
2. a blu-ray rewriter (I think LG or Pioneer)
3. a dvd-rewriter
4. a Lynx Studio 2 AES16 PCI card
5. a  Thermaltake TR2-470 PP PSU
6. 2 x 250GB SSDs (somewhere)
7. The Audiolab 8000DT media HTPC case (must have been a prototype as Audiolab never brought out this product)
8. I also recently bought an ESI Juli@ PCIe soundcard as I realised some motherboards did not have legacy PCI slots anymore
9. Some quiet fans

I also have the recently purchased Xeon E5 socket R processors. I should receive them from Germany over the next few days. I hope that they are not "chinese fakes"...The seller seems to be a legitimate seller. If they are genuine, I may end up buying 2 more; if not my credit card company should be able to refund me. We shall see...

All in all, there must be in the region of a thousand pounds worth of components lying around. I would have loved to have ordered your XXHighend PC but it would have meant wasting and paying twice over for components (especially given that some of the stuff here is not half bad) that I already have.

So I will deal with my PCPhobia, swallow my pride, ask stupid questions as and when required and supplemented with some research, come up with a plan of action over the next couple of weeks. Given the time I have, this will take me two months...

Many thanks
Rakesh

Hi Juan,

Thanks for the help and advice.

As you suggested, and as I was planning to anyway, I have done a little more reading about the LGA2011 Motherboards (why Intel would want to have three versions of this socket God in all his wisdom must find hard to fathom), and found out what I needed to know.

My processor is "socket R", so that the very latest V3 processors would not fit in the motherboard that I need to buy for my current processor. Well, that's good to know. For now I need to get the motherboard, memory, and graphic card if required...to start with.

Best regards
Rakesh

I am afraid you misunderstand me, Gerard. I meant the NOS1 has not reached me yet as I decided to go for this only a few days ago on Peter's advice.

I know next to nothing about servers and dual cpu motherboards and applications. But  this is what I think...

Clearly XXhighend is CPU intensive and is actually capable of making use of as many cores/threads as are made available to it.

However, presumably, some applications would I think need to be coded specifically so that they can take advantage not only of multiple cores and hyperthreading but also of multiple CPUs.

Now let me guess. At the time Peter wrote the software, he would not have envisaged the situation where anyone would be foolish and absurd enough to use a dual CPU motherboard. So the answer is probably no.

Best regards
Rakesh

Many thanks. The cpu I have here is a LGA2011 socket R. E5-2680. I have two of these CPUs.

QUESTION: Is there anything to be gained to use these two CPUs in a dual server board. That would be 16 cores! Can XXHighend take advantage of this?

I have got a a blu-ray drive and some hard disks that I would like to use. This means I cannot really get Peter's PC as I would like to use some of the parts that I already have.

Best regards
Rakesh

Hi,

I do not know if such a thread is appropriate for this site as I have not seen anyone start one like this where they ask for help as and when they need it. If it is not appropriate, please remove it.

I have bought a NOS1 recently (not here yet) and need some help and advice with the PC side of things. I have done a lot of reading here but I still have one zillion and one questions.

I am really a newbie in the worse sense of the word and am literally terrified at the prospect of embarking on a PC build, especially one dedicated to get the most out of Peter's XXHighend's software.

This is hopefully the thread where I can ask some idiotic questions and some kind souls with more expertise and experience than myself can offer some advice.

I hope there is no problem with creating such a thread in the first place?

Best regards
Rakesh