Amir's Music Server Build Thread

[Soniclife]

I also hate PC-fans, even in their quietest incarnations. What would be good recommendations for commercial complete package PCs or Macs that run completely fanless and absolutely without any noise at all?

There a quite a few silent PC vendors, mine came from https://www.quietpc.com, there are lots of others, e.g.
http://www.fit-pc.com
https://www.tinygreenpc.com/

I'm sure there are lots more, the trick is to be honest with yourself about how much processing power you need, and buy more than you need so it lasts a while.

 

[Deleted member 65]

There a quite a few silent PC vendors, mine came from https://www.quietpc.com, there are lots of others, e.g.
http://www.fit-pc.com
https://www.tinygreenpc.com/

I'm sure there are lots more, the trick is to be honest with yourself about how much processing power you need, and buy more than you need so it lasts a while.

Couldn't agree more.
There's one catch you need to be aware of if buying a new PC now. All current Intel & AMD CPU's are affected by the Spectre&Meltdown vulnerabilities. Intel is due to release new CPU's not affected. Timeschedule unclear right now.

 

[oivavoi]

Thanks guys! Very useful. So if I can hold off buying a new computer for at least some months, it might be a good idea then, it seems.

 

[maxxevv]

If its purely for music streaming, 4~8 Gb of ram and an i3 chip would be more than sufficient power.

If fanless and quiet is desired, one of these would be suffice. Just need to add a small touchpanel monitor.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Big...3778-4bef-975f-40fa400bcaf3&priceBeautifyAB=0

 

[svart-hvitt]

Thanks guys! Very useful. So if I can hold off buying a new computer for at least some months, it might be a good idea then, it seems.

FWIW, the Mac Pro is 12dB in idle and 19dB under load:

https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/index1.html

 

[amirm]

If its purely for music streaming, 4~8 Gb of ram and an i3 chip would be more than sufficient power.

That is definitely true. In my case though the conversion from DSD to PCM in Roon taxes my i5 CPU to the limit. It can sometimes fall behind and create a pause. So my suggestion in general is to get an i5 (although that is a moving target in each new CPU generation).

 

[Fitzcaraldo215]

That is definitely true. In my case though the conversion from DSD to PCM in Roon taxes my i5 CPU to the limit. It can sometimes fall behind and create a pause. So my suggestion in general is to get an i5 (although that is a moving target in each new CPU generation).

Interesting.

I play a lot of DSD files via PC with conversion to PCM at 176k, PC Dirac Live, JRiver bass management, etc. mostly in 5.1, all on the single PC with no clients. Using JRiver (32 bit) with an I7 that is at least 4 years and several generations old, all that processing load only seems to take between 8-15% of CPU. Memory utilization is fairly constant at 4 GB. There is no skipping or buffering except for a few seconds at playback start. I do not use JRiver's play from memory options.

 

[amirm]

It obviously depends on the resampling algorithm. Roon has two of them and both are very CPU intensive.

 

[Soniclife]

Thanks guys! Very useful. So if I can hold off buying a new computer for at least some months, it might be a good idea then, it seems.

The problem with this is it's always true with computers, you need to be careful to avoid analysis paralysis. I say if you need or want a PC now, buy one now.

An i5 is probably the sweet spot for chips unless you know your needs inside out.

I don't know what to suggest for RAM, I have 16GB and I've never used it all unless I spin up virtual machines, I wish some apps would use more.

 

[Deleted member 65]

Thanks guys! Very useful. So if I can hold off buying a new computer for at least some months, it might be a good idea then, it seems.

You should only listen to me being aware of my background & philosophy when it comes to computers.

Having built netbanks (private & corporate) since it all started in the 90's. Learnt some lessons the hard way, especially when it comes to availability and being able to handle extreme peaks, be it peak customer load end of month or attacks (happens regulary). Anyway applying my work philosophy on what I build for home use renders following:
Size for much more then you currently need, you don't know what's around the corner or new load you may want to put unto your computer eg PCM to DSD conversion aso. Sizing for the unknown may also prolong life expectancy of your computer & give you some peace I expect.

 

[oivavoi]

You should only listen to me being aware of my background & philosophy when it comes to computers.

Having built netbanks (private & corporate) since it all started in the 90's. Learnt some lessons the hard way, especially when it comes to availability and being able to handle extreme peaks, be it peak customer load end of month or attacks (happens regulary). Anyway applying my work philosophy on what I build for home use renders following:
Size for much more then you currently need, you don't know what's around the corner or new load you may want to put unto your computer eg PCM to DSD conversion aso. Sizing for the unknown may also prolong life expectancy of your computer & give you some peace I expect.

Sounds wise, even though I know from experience that @Soniclife is right that obsessions with waiting for the perfect product is a recipe for losing peace of mind. But when buying a computer now, I would ideally like to keep it as my main working tool and roon/music center the next 10 years - and perhaps be able to upgrade only some of the internals when that time comes. I was able to borrow a laptop from work today, which means that I will get by for now, so I can wait a bit. At least until October/November.

Btw, what's the name of those new processors that are on the way?

 

[Soniclife]

FWIW: http://www.hyperacusis.net/what-is-it/4-types-of-sound-sensitivity/

Those are interesting conditions, none describe how i process sound, or hear, my best guess is mild tinnitus from birth is something to do with it.

 

[Wombat]

Thanks guys.

 

[stunta]

$1000 plus on a fanless PC for serving music seems like rank overkill to me. I bought this i3 barebones https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883218036 4 years ago with 4gb of RAM and an SSD all for around $400 and it’s still good enough. It’s running Roon with DSP (room eq) and CPU usage is single digit %. A faster CPU shouldn’t add $600 to this.

As for strorage, I have an external HDD tethered to my main PC upstairs and that’s always on anyway. HDDs die, so I always get one when there is a sale and have a backup external HDD. I pay for cloud backup. Cloud storage systems generally follow the same process - cheap commodity hard drives with redundancy; in the long run this is more economical. A NAS, for me is one more thing I have to maintain, so I avoid it.

 

[watchnerd]

All this emphasis on silence...

With modern playback software like Roon, why the need to have a full power quiet PC in the living room with the audio gear?

Just put a server, noisy or not, wherever in your house you want to, do it all over WiFi and/or ethernet.

(that's what I do)

 

[maxxevv]

Wifi to DAC without jumping through hoops?? Share and tell please. I've been looking for something like that for a while! There is a ready alternative in BT 5.0 receivers with Co-axial output. (I have one on order and should come in in a week or so.)

Ethernet direct to DAC is not available to everyone, at least to the vast majority of DAC's out there.

 

[stunta]

There are "Roon-ready" wifi DACs - https://roonlabs.com/partners.html. If they don't have wifi, you could always get an Ethernet-Wifi dongle but those need their own power supply. I've looked at a few and they all were very expensive except for rPi HATs.

 

[watchnerd]

Wifi to DAC without jumping through hoops?? Share and tell please. I've been looking for something like that for a while! There is a ready alternative in BT 5.0 receivers with Co-axial output. (I have one on order and should come in in a week or so.)

Ethernet direct to DAC is not available to everyone, at least to the vast majority of DAC's out there.

My Devialet Expert has built in Wifi and Ethernet and shows up as a Roon endpoint in Roon. No hoop jumping needed other than it be on the network.

Prior to that, I used a Raspberry Pi as a Roon Bridge, SPDIF out, to (my then) DAC/preamp. The Pi + digital IO hat was ~$100.

The Pi is tiny, like the size of 2 packs of cigarettes, no fan.

 

[restorer-john]

Roons and Pie Hats. I love it.

 

[restorer-john]

This is what I use and have done for several years. It's very small, more than fast enough for what I need, very quiet and cute as a button. Runs from a 19v SMPS.

A Dell Zino HD 410. 6GB/1TB/AMD quad core/BluRay/DVD/CDR drive pulling files from anywhere on my network. I used to have a tiny twin HDTV tuner and use WMC until I realized there was nothing worth recording anymore. Logitec wireless K830 touchpad/keyboard.

HDMI out and SPDIF into a Rotel D/A converter for audio. Don't do surround anymore- just 2 ch in the home entertainment rig.