Oh the voices in my head....thanks to all who have posted in this thread.

I went ahead and water cooled (Zalman Reserator 1 v2)and used a cheap (Boy....do I mean cheap, $39!) case with a Corsair AX650.

MB is an ASUS P9-X79WS witn 16 gigs of 1600 DDR3--3930kcpu.

Let me just say that my old Dell Core 2 Duo, 32 bit,  did a fine job, but  I now have MORE of every range. The bass, in particular, has gone to another league entirely.

However the best....I now have on the fly volume control, if nothing else that was my primary goal!

Again, thanks to all.

Hi Peter, just sent an email. I need a new activation code. Thanks. 

Let me try this again.....

Without using galleries, which I have avoided till now, how do I have music on multiple drives show up in the music root directory? 

When I started using XXHighend I had a laptop with all my music on one 500 gig external hard drive. The spinning up of the external drive caused numerous issues for me, so when I went to a desktop I moved the hard drive into the computer as a secondary drive. All the issues I had with the external drive went away. I will soon be replacing my core 2 duo with a six core computer. Though I can't believe the sound of my current system, I am limited in how I use straight contiguous mode for my split file size, hence the upgrade. I  am considering putting my main music drive(s) on an external USB3 hub, which Peter seems to have suggested several times. If I do this I'm wondering about the following:

1. Is there any difference in sound quality between an internal secondary drive and an external drive as the main music drive?

2. Is it possible to have multiple external drives on one usb3 hub that appear in XX as one drive letter? If so, can one control which of the external drives is used when ripping?

Thanks in advance,

Brain (oops)

Brian

Thanks Juan, now that is some sage advice. I'm afraid I'm a lot less technically experienced than most in this forum. I think I've settled on beginning this project with fan cooling, but having a case that can evolve into water cooling...on the other hand I can be a risk taker who jumps right into difficult waters (results vary, somtimes foolish sometimes brave!). However, given that my funds are a bit limited, your words really hit the mark.

Praphan, I very much appreciate your input too. As I'm all about function and don't care much about form, the open air test bench may be the alternative, if I do decide to run over the cliff.

Will be working through the weekiend in Nashville, so I won't have much time to put into the project, though I am excited about checking out the live music scene!

Hey Juan the 550  looks very nice, not like the cheap one I mentioned before, a kids gameing box..... BUT...I would think that a side and top vent would be necesary for heat transfer in a fanless box and I don't think the Silencio 550 has either. I'd also worry about the extra noise reducing padding as an impediment to heat transfer. I don't really know, just going on intuition here......any other suggestions from you or anyone else are certainly welcome!

Thanks Juan.

Here's one case I'm looking at. It's cheap but has everything for either water or fan cooling. Also, it has a top air grill as well as back/top air vent for a fan. The only problem is that the PS mounts on the bottom.

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=3009&product_name=HAF 912

Right. My thoughts exactly! I'm just wondring what others that have a desktop case and went fanless, if any, decided.

Hope this question isn't too elementary: Using a midtower, desktop case without case fans, but with a side vent, is it better to mount a fanless PS at the top or bottom of the case?

Hey Nick, any chance you could post a photo of your latest tweek? I think I need to generally "see" what you mean, and particularly what the "ATx supply" is. No technical knowledge here.....

Oh, and thanks to both you and Juan, my Startech card now works with the recomended driver. Very much appreciate. The sound is great.

Thanks Guys, I'll give it a try when i get home this evening.

Using a Startech card as suggested by Nick I have interesting results. Using either a standard USB 2 cable or a USB 3 with adapter, the NOS1 DAC driver is recognized (it appears in Device Manager), but when I try to play a song the OS crashes. However, I can use the standard Hiface plugged into the Startech card, then into a 24/192 Dac, my Denon 4806, and all works well.

Might my 32 bit system be an issue here?

Hi Peter, I just spent the last 4 hours glued to my couch. My wife came in at one point and asked me to please never change a thing again. Acording to her, "This is all I've been asking for all along, the sound is so sweet and detailed." She then described it as the sound of a two inch tape used in a recording studio. Never having been in a recording studio I wouldn't know, but the sound is the best ever.

I can't believe it still has to break in.

Thank You so very, very much.

Brian

Just wondering.....