Hope room 110 presents no significant acoustic challenges. Am sure you guys will blow 'em away!

Hi Praphan, its too early here to test right now, but as I recall, I wasn't getting any ticks or plops at stop or at changing tracks (Alt N) in the middle of one playing. Also I didn't test any other SFS. Will play around with different settings this evening.

Leaving the fade-out step at 3 and with the settings in my signature, the new Engine3 works well. Small ticks at volume changes and sometimes a small tick at the beginning of a playlist but that's about it.

  It was late and I was hurrying......

What Paul said...Really. 

Don't think its working here cause the max button sets both fields-actual and max- and vice versa. I should be able to set the MAX button, for example, to 430 and the actual SFS to 2?

In my last two computors running W7 I've activated Windows and have used minimised OS mode in XX. Other than the "this is not a genuine copy" message, I've never been asked to reactivate Windows. There is a procedure for activating Windows by telephone if you don't want to go online: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950929#Win7

I have never updated from 9Z-7. With PA engaged with High Res material I have to be very careful, as I can get some very loud ticks and plops if the volume is too high and I either hit stop or I try to change the volume. With 16/44 material upsampled 16x with XXHighend, the noises are minimal. The The High Res sound is exceptional though: classical music from High Definition Tape Transfers. What I don't understand is why 16X upsampling in the software results in such quite noises (ticks and plops) while native high res, not upsampled at all, gets a bit dangerous.

So glad to hear you've had a good experience! One of the things that I've noticed here is that anything other than a SFS of 2 doesn't sound right. 

Sounds good, but I can't guarantee results, especially with a different MB and processor. Sure hope it works for you!

Hi Juan, other than the ST3000DM001 being 50 dollars cheaper and warranty differences I don't know. My drive, STBD3000100,  has a 5 year manufacturers warranty if its made in Thailand, the Chinese version only has a one year warranty. Looks like the one you found only has a one year warranty.

Here's the hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148907
My cable came with my Corsair AX650 PS, but you can get them anywhere: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119473&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

The SATA 3 cables have a metal locking clip.

Yes

Sometimes it's a bit frustrating being a "button pusher" and having no understanding why one "button" sounds better than another, especially around this forum with all of you nerdy brainiacs! Please, don't take offense; I'm in awe and jealous of your collective knowledge on the subjects of electronics and audio. Thankfully, though,  the sensation of sound is just that; it doesn't require any special knowledge. So with that said I categorically state the following:

In my system, the sound of music ripped directly to the OS drive (3tb, 7200 rpm, UEFI interface, true SATA III cable) is better than everything I've tried as a playback drive. That includes creating a true 5 gig "playback drive partition" on the 3tb drive, as well as a standard 64 kb blocksize partition created to backup the "C" drive music folder when I recently reinstalled the OS. I copied/pasted (15 to 20 gigs at a time--this took an entire day) all the music onto the partition. Thankfully, that reinstall did not result in the loss of my music so the backup wasn't necessary. Other devices I've tried as playback drives were a 500 gig WD 7200 rpm drive and a seagate 1.5 tb drive. Both formatted with XXHighend. Everything I've tried, including the standard backup partition sounds dull or flat compared to music ripped directly to the "C" drive. Because earlier in this thread, Nick, who has the same MB as I, reported that his playback drive sounds better than music ripped directly to his OS drive (no UEFI-SATA III interface), I can only conclude that the UEFI interface has something to do with the incredibly rich, smooth and lifelike sound in my room. Interestingly, the difference between my preferred set up and everything else is very similar to the difference between PA engaged and not engaged--the music just comes alive like never before.

So. I really hope one of you crazies decides to see just how crazy  I am by duplicating my madness and reporting your findings.

A couple more things. The sound I'm getting seems so true that I am now able to notice differences in sound like never before--or I've gone completely batsh*t crazy! First, EAC rips are better than dbpoweramp. But, if you want that dull sound use dbPoweramp. Second, you may read that there is no difference between a true SATA III cable and a SATA II cable. Perhaps regarding speed that's true; regarding sound it's not--the SATA III cable, here on my system, makes a very big difference.

Thanks Mani. I guess i can return to a restore point if something goes wrong or SQ is changed for the worse. What concerns me are the number of base system devices that appear in device manager that are awaiting drivers (see pics-there are about 50), as well as other devices and controllers at the end of the list. I presume all these devices would be "enabled" if the drivers are installed. I was just  wondering if anyone had tried the drivers on the disk.

There's also several programs on the disc that interface with the bios that look really interesting. Specifically the overclocking software and the system monitoring/temperature software.

On the other hand, if it ain't broke don't fix it....I'm gonna just do some listening tonight. Damn, do things ever sound so fricken good, especially the ladies voices. Goose bumps everytime!