roh008 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Hi acg, Thanks for the information. My current hardware set up will limit me on this. Am going to pm you with some questions that is not directly related to this/ appropriate for this thread, but would like your opinion on for my hi-Fi build path Roh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKay Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 We can fix the background fan noise easy enough. Post a couple of pics of the guts and I'll offer some suggestions. thanks, at the moment this is a temporary solution, so I don't want to invest too much time with this PC. I like the look of some of the fan less heat sink versions going around. I also want to have a look at the moon streamer. I have seen some reviews of the Aurender but that is starting to get up there in price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicprObe Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 I had 32GB of RAM just waiting for something to do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKay Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 That PC is the old ddr2 ram. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damhooligan Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 I had 32GB of RAM just waiting for something to do! Can you fit 32g in a laptop? As far as i know laptops got 2 slots for ram, and ram memory comes in 8gb max. so, how do you get 32...¿ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nada Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Notebooks with quad core i7 can have four SODIMM slots but they would be noisy beasts for audio service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicprObe Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Can you fit 32g in a laptop? As far as i know laptops got 2 slots for ram, and ram memory comes in 8gb max. so, how do you get 32...¿ Not a laptop fan. I use a watercooled full tower. If I played games..........it would be called a gamer's rig............but I only run a single graphics card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acg Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Guys. I would not recommend a laptop if you want the best audio. Their design is compromised around space and heat and component selection and expandability. Of course if our dacs were immune to computer noise it would not matter a pinch, but in my experience a full size pc gives the best results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicprObe Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I tried it using the on chip graphics when I first built this thing and it went OK but I could notice the slight lag when it redrew the screen. So, I installed one of my favourite cards before they went out of production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nada Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Thans for the great guidance guys. Now being so naive I have some beginner questions please: Has anyone compared XXXhighend/Win8 vs 2012R2/optimiser/JPlay? Is XXXHighend on one PC an integrated solution to achieve everything that 2012R2/optimiser/JPlay-Streamer aims for using two PC's? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acg Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Thans for the great guidance guys. Now being so naive I have some beginner questions please: Has anyone compared XXXhighend/Win8 vs 2012R2/optimiser/JPlay? Is XXXHighend on one PC an integrated solution to achieve everything that 2012R2/optimiser/JPlay-Streamer aims for using two PC's? I have had the two working in my system Nada, but not at the same time. In the end XXHE was the only realistic option because of my dac, but from what I heard I would go with XXHE if I had a normal dac. Yes, XXHE on its own (in w7 or w8) does everything and more that Jriver/Jplay/AO/Server2012 does. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKay Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 What is the minimum ram and processor you need for XXHE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primare Knob Posted April 26, 2014 Author Share Posted April 26, 2014 What is the minimum ram and processor you need for XXHE? 8GB is recommended but the processor doesn't matter to much. It rather likes more cores than more speed. I think a quad core would be a good starting point. Perhaps the AMD's 6 or 8 cores would be of good use here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primare Knob Posted April 26, 2014 Author Share Posted April 26, 2014 (edited) It has been a while since my first post, which I have updated with all the links and more, mentioned in this thread. For the last couple of weeks I have been tweaking and learning a lot about Windows. I now have managed to find the minimum necessary services needed to run Windows Server and JRiver with Network Control App. (Updated Excel list in the starting post). There are more services in the Registry than I can find using the commands in the Command Shell, which is only giving me all the services in this Excel Sheet, and I am not sure what they all do. But at least I know the ones that I need. Besides this list of services I just discovered a list of installed Features which a couple of them, can be disabled. But it seems that I have to do this in a certain order. I also discovered if you go to Minimal GUI that kernel streaming is still working, and I now know which Server Features are related to GUI, Minimal GUI and Core mode. I am getting close to a bare minimum installation of Server Core to include in the listen test, but at the same time I am working to put it all into a script which has me side tracked. I am thinking about including XXHighend with a basic Windows installation to test what it can do. But this will probably need a better machine, than the two dual cores that I am using now. I do have a similar machine like the dual cores in a quad core version but then it will no longer be an equal playing field. So a Dual Boot System might be the way to go for a test. At the moment more into Computers than into Audio, but I hope the come back from the dead anytime soon. Edited April 26, 2014 by Primare Knob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nada Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I am thinking about including XXHighend with a basic Windows installation to test what it can do. But this will probably need a better machine, than the two dual cores that I am using now... I installed XXHE 1.186 demo on my WIN7 Ultrabook that is an i5 dual core with 4GB. Id recommend you give a go. Very nice sound with Kernal streaming. The demo version doesnt allow the advanced features of shutting down the OS but you will still get an idea. I found it complex and time consuming to set up and think it would be best to use on a dedicated audio machine. It was by far the trickiest set up Ive done and I guess that comes with its sophistication and advanced choices. I still havent found how to oversample but maybe thats deactivated on the demo. I found it sounded better then Stealth and Foobar which were both better for me then JRIver. I still prefer using Bug. It just draws me into the music. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nik.d Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 ... I still havent found how to oversample but maybe thats deactivated on the demo... 'Upsampling' is very specific here. Use AP (Arc Prediction - should be active already, red 'led' lit) and simply move slider to the max sampling rate your DAC acceps. BTW, 'upsampling' is possible up to 16x (with NOS1 DAC) so 44.1 would become 705.6 and 48 base goes to 768. This because NOS1 is non-oversampling and filterless DAC. Clicking (top middle window) will throw you to "Settings" area. At "Memory Organization" choose "Straight Contiguous". Return to Playlist display by clicking [P] Party begins by clicking [Q] parameters... Let's leave this for later stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nik.d Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 And while we are at "Computer Audio and Tweaks" topic, lot of W7 / Server2012 / R2 optimizations are described on this Irish forum: http://www.tirnahifi.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2456 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nada Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 I cant open that dialogue box. I could on acg's machine but his XXHE was the older version and was activated. I will PM Peter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acg Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Nada, that is part of the front screen of XXHE. Perhaps the screen had been changed so that it is not visible anymore. Near the top of the screen you should see a little 1 in a box...grab that 1 and drag it to the right to open up the left part of the XXHE screen where the sample rate stuff is located. Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicprObe Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 I'm tempted to feign illness and stop building my stairs to put my new SSD in and reload a new O/S! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primare Knob Posted May 6, 2014 Author Share Posted May 6, 2014 the CPU clock to lowest figure BIOS accepts, lowering the MEM clock etc. But XXHE will lower the CPU clock down further. If you look at PeterSt's signature: Core i7-3930K is running at 0.43GHz only. Do you know what the power draw would be on such a system with 2 ssd at startup. There is an interesting thread going on about the Keces liniear power supply. http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/65016-great-big-power-supply-shootout-teddy-pardo-diy-wallwart/ It can give 19v with 6a, but I don't know what number I needfor an underclocked PC. In combination with the pico, it could be an affordable PSU. http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-160-XT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primare Knob Posted May 6, 2014 Author Share Posted May 6, 2014 http://ppaproduct.blogspot.tw/2014/02/clock-upgrade-module-for-main-board.html This little thing has cought my interest. An upgraded clock for your motherboard. I wonder how good or stable this clock will be. If I can find the clock on my test motherboard I'll give it a go. I have an USB card from him with the same clock and transformer and I am wondering if it would be beneficial if you feed the MB and the USB card with the same clock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicprObe Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 Very interesting. The clock always looks the same. It's usually the only thing that looks like it on the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiomuze (R.I.P) Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 Guys, while you're doing some comparative listening to the various systems and tweaks any chance ytou could throw a Wandboard Squeezebox into the mix and let us know how it goes? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicprObe Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 I'm tempted to feign illness and stop building my stairs to put my new SSD in and reload a new O/S! I've loaded Win 8.........upgraded to 8.1 and Opera 20. I'm not liking it much...................even though I've used 8 since it came out. I might go back to 7 ultimate and try it then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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