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274
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: W10074 won't install
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on: July 15, 2015, 12:38:23 pm
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Hi Coliny,
It is hard to diagnose from distance, but I recall having trouble with using Acronis backup software back in 2012 when we received 15 Lenovo Twist laptops at the office. I can't remember what we had to do then, but it had something to do with protecting the system from tampering with another OS (Acronis is made with Linux).
We were finally able to use Acronis for booting (with a USB key) after unblocking something in the Bios (or the UEFI), but I would recommend to go to a local store where the technician will be able to unlock that protection feature, unless it has to do with something else ?
At least it you decide to try different things in the Bios, you should note on a piece of paper what the settings were before, just in case. It would not be fun if your laptop does not boot anymore, even with W7...
Regards,
Alain
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279
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Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd PC / Re: And now my sound is SCARY
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on: June 24, 2015, 07:31:00 pm
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Hi Juan,
Having a Sabertooth X79 (I got mine in 2012), I can't lower the CPU clock below 1.3ghz, no matter what I try. At some point, the PC refuses to start. I can see the power light fluctuate as if it was attempting to start, but then it shuts...
Alain
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282
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: New NOS1 dedicated PC. Less terrifying thanks to you. All help still welcome!
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on: June 09, 2015, 01:38:09 am
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HARD DRIVES: IN OR OUT? It is really strange that after two months of reading about the subject, here and elsewhere, that I should feel the need to revisit this topic. Hi Rakesh, The whole idea of externalising hard drives makes so much sense that in some ways there can be no controversy. As Alain said above, the objective is to reduce variables and the demands on the power supply in the "audio pc."
I mentioned in one of my previous posts that at a certain time I found it practical to have the OS drive in an enclosure, but that it is not required anymore. I was swapping between two drives at the time, so having the OS drive outside of the box was making my life easier. I also power my OS drive with a linear power supply, but even this can be adapted, as I will have a cable inserted into the PC to still power the SSD (from the LPSU). So it will stay independant from the PC PSU. Reinserting the SSD inside the PC will also reduce the length of the sata signal cable. Having an external sata (Esata) cable requires a certain length and though the Esata cable is shielded properly, it is still a lot longer than what would be required if the drive was inside the PC. As you see, putting back the OS drive inside the PC chassis and still have it powered with linear power will only bring good things, unless it can be shown that the SSD will add noise (electromagnetic or else) inside the chassis. I doubt I would be able to hear the difference, but who knows... Another point is that a mechanical drive will bring some vibrations in the PC chassis. I am entering in an unknown territory here, but Peter would be better than I to explain what this could be about. Of course, there are ways to prevent these vibrations, but in a PC chassis it will probably be more complicated. A mechanical drive in an external enclosure, the enclosure being suspended with some rubber bands with a "U" shaped piece of wood (or else) - that is quite easy. (My OS drive being a SSD, this is not a problem). As for the music drive, I really appreciate that I can move it in different places or even swap drives (the enclosure I have allows for this very easily, as it is a "trayless" enclosure. I use this: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707329&cm_re=startech_drive_enclosure-_-17-707-329-_-ProductBy the way, the external music drive is also powered with a linear power supply and suspended. I agree with the idea in principle but maybe we should stop for a moment and consider the consequences of our desire to reduce demands on the main "audio pc" to as close to zero as possible.
By getting rid of hard drives from the main system, are we not creating a monster further along because the PC or NAS where the audio files will be held will itself have a power supply which will be itself spurting all its electronic noise and RFI into the lines where the rest of the whole electronic playback system draws power? Peter advocated this solution as well but perhaps he has his music files in single enclosures which do not draw much power?
Linear power supply  I am surprised that the accepted consensus seems to be to have two computers linked over a LAN. Unless one has the luxury of being able to plug the second pc over a separate mains circuit (I ran a separate circuit from the external power source for the house which was dedicated to my audio system years ago but that is not a common solution I think), are we not just creating a multi-headed monster after spending so much time and effort subduing the first one? And this right where we have the rest of our playback?
On the other hand, if we have our music hard drives in the same case as our "audio pc," don't we find that these drives spin down into inactivity once the audio files have been transferred (I am assuming to Playback partition in Ramdisk) and the PSU, faced with the very low demands made on it as a result of the operation of "XXHighend," is taken, blissfully for us, out of the picture as far as is possible?
This is a matter of trust. I do trust Peter, even when I do not follow his path in all details. It was easy for me to implement the two PCs configuration and it also will allow to use a tablet to control the server through which I can access the audio PC with RDC... In some way, there is a "split" of work and I believe it can be for the better. But you will be able to test these different configurations only once you have you PC built. I suppose you already have another PC for the frequent internet access or for any other task. It will be easy for you to determine if the two PC configuration is worth it or not, depending on your experimentations. You may (or may not) find this useful for you. Like they say, "Your mileage may vary" (YMMV) You have many good questions. Many of them will be answered by yourself Some of them will require that you spend some money, but as many of us have discovered through time, there is an evolution and this journey can be very interesting, as they will also be "ear openers" Only you may fix the limits but from what I have seen up to now, you are preparing "the ground" quite thoroughly. But no matter how many questions you will ask, you will discover a lot of things by yourself. And then, we will ask you questions too Regards, Alain |
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284
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: New NOS1 dedicated PC. I am quite terrified. Help if you can!!
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on: May 28, 2015, 08:05:07 am
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Hi Rakesh, Sorry for the delay... Many questions and in the meantime many things happening here... Suddenly days are getting shorter First allow me to tell you that most (if not all) of what I did with the PC comes from Peter and our fellow audiophiles. Sharing our discoveries, then having them analyzed and/or tested by Peter really helped me to implement aspects of what I listen to today. Most of the things (they are not many) I did that are not documented here because I don't really think they could be considered really useful SQ wise. The external OS drive I use is connected to the music PC motherboard with an Esata connection ("External" sata). For the sake of the understanding, I shall say that it is the same as if it was installed inside the music PC, but it is connected with a longer cable. SQ wise, it is not the ideal, but at the time, it was practical for me to have it that way. Like I mentioned before, I could now remove it from its external enclosure and put it back inside the music PC. "Incremental improvements" are of two natures: the ones that I can't really hear (but I have confidence in the persons that say it is worthwhile) and those from which I perceived some improvements. There are not many, since XXHighEnd takes care of so many aspects of the computer. There may be some that will come out through time, but it does not prevent you from building your computer as you actually see it. These incremental tweaks can be added later. Since you know people you trust and you take some advice here and there, you know that our perceptions will be biased by what we will hear from them and the amount of trust you put ni them. When I chose to listen to Peter (I know he would like that I listen more haha), I never regretted it. There may be some aspects I prefer not to go as far as he does, but that has nothing to do with distrust. It has more to do with personal needs, limitations, finances and what I consider ractical. As I previously wrote, the simpler and less loaded the PC, the better. I learned it here. Some put their music drive(s) inside the computer, some put them outside. It is again a matter of practicality. There are "plus" and "minus" to this. All depends on the level at which you you want to go. An external hard drive may be driven with USB or an Esata cable. What I like to think for example is that Esata could be better because it does not have to be converted from USB to Sata inside an external enclosure. But an external enclosure requires a longer cable. The best is to test it yourself, since your ears will always be the final judge. As for galleries, it is a personal choice. I never really attached importance to this aspect of things. Some people can spend a great deal of time in tagging their music files (the origin, date the album was issued, some info that brings interest to that recording, people involved, genre, etc...), looking for album covers. I do now, but in the beginning, all I wanted was to rip my CDs. The same applies for a tablet that I could use to access the Control PC. I tried a few times and will eventually come back to it someday, but for the moment I do not feel it necessary for my personal usage. Not having a permanent keyboard, mouse and screen is yet another matter of practicality for me. The music PC is located at a place where it would be troublesome for me to install these peripherals permanently. I use Remote Desktop Connection instead, knowing that in doing so it may affect SQ (this with the NOS1, not with the NOS1a). But I also know that having these peripherals connected may affect SQ, depending on their usage, if I apply "unattended", if I shut all services or not, etc... So you may need to make your own comparisons for your convenience, ease of use, SQ vs practicality... While I like to understand what happens "under the hood", I do not dig far to reach all the details. As I grow older, there are aspects that are of less interest for me, so I tend to try sometimes or I simply apply something with trust to the person that suggested it. I have my own personal biased tastes also - this will always influence me of course. You may eventually read other themes around a PC, but you have yet to build your computer and have it working Sorry if I did not follow the path of your questions. Please feel free to ask if I missed something. I am also aware that I can be vague in my answers, but when it will come to aspects I have omitted for the moment, I will answer the ones I am more involved and knowledgeable. When time will come Finally, about the OS being installed on a "distant" PC, like the music disk... Peter will be better than me about this, but from my inquiries and research, the conclusion was that the requirements were cumbersome. It would bring more questions and unexpected situations than benefits. This also requires a Control PC that would have a Server OS (I think), so more expensive, licenses to pay for, a "hit and miss" for many of us also and maybe too frustrating to be of real value. Maybe some day there will be an "empty" PC without any disk, taking its software from distance, but for the time being, we already have a wonderful journey to continue Again, sorry for the delay... Regards, Alain |
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285
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Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: New NOS1 dedicated PC. I am quite terrified. Help if you can!!
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on: May 23, 2015, 02:54:12 am
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Hi Alain,
Thanks for taking the time with the thoughtful and highly instructive post. In all honesty, I do not know how this build has come to be regarded as a "super powered pc."
If it is indeed a "super powered pc," this was not my intention and the whole thing is a darned mistake. Given how little I know about computers generally, it is not at all the situation I was aiming for. And a mistake of the worse kind, because I have already acquired quite a lot of the parts required for this project. This is what I have bought as things stand:
2 x E5-2648L v3
Hynix 64GB DDR4 Ram (4 x 16GB)
Intel 750 SSD 400GB PCIe NVME, to use as bootable drive for Windows 8 64bit OS and XXHighend
2 x 300GB Western Digital Velociraptor WD3000BLF 2.5" (SATA 3Gb/s)
I am planning to add these parts:
Supermicro X10DAC motherboard or Supermicro X10DAX based on what Peter has said above
Silverstone EC04-P PCI Express Card
Palit Geforce GTX 750 ti Kalmx
Samsung 256GB PCIe ACHI SSD to use for Galleries
I imagine it is never really too late and I could always just leave out the Supermicro board, use only some of the RAM and go for something simpler.
But Alain, I thought the idea of having two cpus, which are both low powered and have 12 cores each, made a lot of sense (the CPUs are rated at 75W each, half of what many here are using). I never intended using Windows Server OS but rather Windows 8 64bit that I thought most people over here use. I did not know that the RAM could be too much, I had read in a thread somewhere that Peter worked out for high resolution and upsampled music one would be looking at 24GB and Juan also seemed to have added to his Ram to get to 24GB. I thought 32Gb was fine but because I had two CPUs, I thought let me make sure each CPU can access 32Gb...Maybe the reasoning above is "rubbish," using Peter's helpful terminology , but that's where my thinking got me.
I clearly have a choice. Rethink the whole thing and go for a single processor motherboard or since I have advanced so far, bite the bullet and see what comes out of it.
What would be great would be if I could meet someone who has bought Peter's XXHighend's PC that I could listen to so I would have a benchmark and could then see just how much I have messed it up. So if you Alain are not too far, and you do not mind, please let me know and I could come and listen to your system if not too inconvenient...It is about time I get to listen to someone's well settled Phasure NOS1/1a + XXHighend PC system. I will bring along a nice bottle of wine for your effort. I am in SE England and often in Alsace in France where my family lives...
Best regards
Rakesh
Hi Rakesh, I live in Canada, a little far from where you live  Maybe someone else will raise his hand and offer the hospitality ? Since you already have the parts, I would probably "bite the bullet" too I won't say that I am not curious about the results that will emanate from your choices. Peter may remember that some years ago, when I was about to have a dedicated PC for XXHighEnd, I mentioned "a server motherboard and a xeon processor". At the time, it seemed to me that this kind of PC would be simpler for the task. I finally settled for the Intel 3930k i7 but alas I bought an Asus Sabertooth X79 mobo and I can't get my CPU lower than 1.3ghz... When I see that Peter can go a lot lower than this... Grrrr Alain  I also understand that you have at least thoroughly studied the components and have done a lot of reading through the different threads. Somehow you have done your homework and there is nothing negative with that. My word of advice would be like this: do not put too much stuff in your PC. Keep it simple. Raid ? No need for that. Each thing that you add is taking power and adding another variable. If I understand correctly, you may have 4 drives in your PC ? My music PC even has its system disk in an external enclosure. This was for personal reasons but I will not require that anymore soon. The music drive is a silent 4TB drive connected on another PC (my "all purpose PC" -> older), the 2 PCs connected with a direct LAN connection. No monitor, no keyboard, no mouse is connected to the music PC (only when needed). I access the music PC from my all purpose PC through the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC). For the moment it is not the perfect combination since I don't have the NOS1 upgraded to the "a" version but it is also a future project for me too The reason I don't need more than 2 drives has a lot to do with my habits. I do not use pics and graphics (no gallery) and I also play only a few songs at a time, so the music drive does not need to be very fast. I also have my songs in WAV format (no FLAC) so no conversion is necessary. You will need to have a backup strategy to not lose all you will rip (and download), but for the moment it is a little too early for this Keep on ok ? Regards, Alain |
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