Source computer's HUGE effect on fidelity

[Jimbob54]

My bad, you are correct. Apologies for confusion.

No problem!

 

[Jinjuku]

If you want something with expansion and still totally silent:

and it's $263. I simply hit Ebay and get Windows 10 Pro licensing for $10 and it activates just fine.

This configuration has 3 PCI-E 2.0 expansion slots. One is 8X and two 4X. You could then go 10GBe fiber like I did. I put together a 10GBe fiber network consisting of a Cisco switch with 10GBe SFP+ ($65), a 10GBe card for my Dell R620 ($20 I kid you not), $29 PCI-E X8 SFP+ card for my PC ($29), all Multi-Mode fiber, Tranceivers ($100).

With my 'isolation moat' of 20 meters of MM Fiber I get 332MB/s. So I in JRiver I can literally RAM cache a typical 16/44.1 in ~1/10th of a second.

Much better than a $640 or $2000 'audio-phile' switch.

Mod Edit: affliate link removed. Please make sure the links you post are "clean."

 

[Sal1950]

I only recently built a new PC. My previous system with an Intel Core i5 2500K overclocked from 3.3Ghz to 4.3Ghz has run flawlessly for 10+ hours a day for around 10 years. I think that provided you make sure everything runs cool enough and you don't let your system fill with fluff and dust, they're pretty reliable.

With the exception of my first PC, I've always bought separate components, case, CPU, motherboard, etc. and built my own and I've only had one major issue that I can remember. The first 2.5" SATA SSD I had went screwy after a year or so and the system started randomly crashing. Nothing showed up using the drive checking software, so no clues, but once I replaced that drive, the system was fine again.

If I was to keep this box much longer I think it would be prudent to remove the CPU and cooler, and redo the Thermal paste. I used all the tricks when I built it, lapping the CPU and cooler, etc and the best paste of the time, Arctic Silver 5, but even then it'll dry out. I did use a big Arctic Freezer 7 Pro cpu cooler.

But it would be nice to get this monster CoolerMaster Cosmos case out of the room. decisions decisions. LOL

 

[Xulonn]

I like having a computer that boots in 15 seconds and transfers 2Gb files to a USB stick in well less than a minute.

To me, the key reason for going NUC8 or 10 is the high-speed USB 3.1 Gen2 ports. Fast? The transfer rate with all USB 3.1-rated ports and devices and my NUC8i7BEH is incredible. An internal M.2 SSD plus the USB 3.1 technology for the external ports has turned tedium into pleasure.

And of course, the 3.1 USB sticks are backwards compatible and can be read on other devices with USB 2.x ports. Such high speeds are important primarily if you copy video or other big files frequently, or do large transfers including backups regularly. Otherwise there are great bargains in the NUC6 and 7 series computers with slower USB2.x and 3.0 ports, which are now also called USB 3.1Gen1.

From the AVA Direct website (2015):

USB 2.0 was only capable of a theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 480 megabits per second, while USB 3.0 was capable of 5 gigabits per second, or over 10 times faster. ... The data transfer speed of USB 3.1 is incredible – 10Gbps. This rivals the speed of Ethernet and the original Thunderbolt.

Here's a LINK to a very good CNET article on USB standards.

 

[Sal1950]

I like having a computer that boots in 15 seconds and transfers 2Gb files to a USB stick in well less than a minute.

Amen, I bought my first SSD in 2009, cost me $189 for a 60g drive. It make an immediate believer out of me.
I'll never buy a spinner again.

 

[Jinjuku]

If you want something with expansion and still totally silent:

and it's $263. I simply hit Ebay and get Windows 10 Pro licensing for $10 and it activates just fine.

This configuration has 3 PCI-E 2.0 expansion slots. One is 8X and two 4X. You could then go 10GBe fiber like I did. I put together a 10GBe fiber network consisting of a Cisco switch with 10GBe SFP+ ($65), a 10GBe card for my Dell R620 ($20 I kid you not), $29 PCI-E X8 SFP+ card for my PC ($29), all Multi-Mode fiber, Tranceivers ($100).

With my 'isolation moat' of 20 meters of MM Fiber I get 332MB/s. So I in JRiver I can literally RAM cache a typical 16/44.1 in ~1/10th of a second.

Much better than a $640 or $2000 'audio-phile' switch.

Mod Edit: affliate link removed. Please make sure the links you post are "clean."

It wasn't an affiliate link. It was a wish list I generated on Amazon and made public. Also I believe a courtesy PM would have been in order before the moderation.

Here's the wish list, not affiliate link for pete's sake, again.

 

[Count Arthur]

If I was to keep this box much longer I think it would be prudent to remove the CPU and cooler, and redo the Thermal paste.

I don't think I changed the thermal paste in my system for about 9 years and it didn't seem to cause any problems.

You can keep an eye on your temperatures with something like HWiNFO: https://www.hwinfo.com/

You can also use something like CPU-Z to run a stress test, which will max out the CPU, so you can see how hot it gets and how well your CPU cooler copes: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

It wasn't an affiliate link. It was a wish list I generated on Amazon and made public.

That motherboard won't fit in that case.

Amen, I bought my first SSD in 2009, cost me $189 for a 60g drive. It make an immediate believer out of me.
I'll never buy a spinner again.

You can use multiple drives. For a long time I had a small 120GB SSD on which I installed Windows and my programs, so that the system booted and programs loaded quickly, but everything else was on a HDD.

SSD prices have come down a lot, so I now have everything except my music files and backups on SSD, but to be honest in day to day use I don't think this has made as big a difference as the first move from HDD to SSD for Windows and programs.

 

[Jinjuku]

I don't think I changed the thermal paste in my system for about 9 years and it didn't seem to cause any problems.

You can keep an eye on your temperatures with something like HWiNFO: https://www.hwinfo.com/

You can also use something like CPU-Z to run a stress test, which will max out the CPU, so you can see how hot it gets and how well your CPU cooler copes: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html



That motherboard won't fit in that case.

I thought that was a ITX case. Let me look. Glad I'm not making any affiliate money on it then ;-)

Here's a Mini ATX case that will work.

 

[Sal1950]

I don't think I changed the thermal paste in my system for about 9 years and it didn't seem to cause any problems.

You can keep an eye on your temperatures with something like HWiNFO: https://www.hwinfo.com/

You can also use something like CPU-Z to run a stress test, which will max out the CPU, so you can see how hot it gets and how well your CPU cooler copes: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Maybe you missed it but this build is 12 yo and counting.

 

[Count Arthur]

It certainly wouldn't do any harm to apply some new thermal paste, but those temperatures don't look like anything to wory about. What are they like when you stress the CPU?

 

[Sal1950]

I don't do anything that stressed it. LOL
I ran glxgears for about 10 minutes while unzipping 2 large audio files, playing a 5.1 channel DSD music file, and running firefox to write this. Composite CPU is running at about 60%. Core 0 gets to about 138f, the cpu fan speeds up to around 1750 and then holds the temp at 134f. Not too bad, that big Arctic Freezer cpu cooler does its job well. Board temps used to run a bit lower but I took 3 other fans off line, they didn't do a lot but make noise and suck more dust into the case. LOL
Still time stands still for no one, a fresh setting of the cooler and it's thermal grease couldn't hurt.

 

[Doodski]

If I was to keep this box much longer I think it would be prudent to remove the CPU and cooler, and redo the Thermal paste. I used all the tricks when I built it, lapping the CPU and cooler, etc and the best paste of the time, Arctic Silver 5, but even then it'll dry out. I did use a big Arctic Freezer 7 Pro cpu cooler.

But it would be nice to get this monster CoolerMaster Cosmos case out of the room. decisions decisions. LOL
View attachment 51282
View attachment 51281

Arctic Cooling MX4 thermal paste is guaranteed good for 8 years and it's non-conductive. I have a 5GHz overclocked i5-8600K CPU and it works great.
https://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/mx-4.html

 

[Sal1950]

Arctic Cooling MX4 thermal paste is guaranteed good for 8 years and it's non-conductive. I have a 5GHz overclocked i5-8600K CPU and it works great.
https://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/mx-4.html

I don't know, I was told that the SILVER 5 was better for a sound server application. The higher conductivity of silver make for better transfer of heat molecules and that the transparency and musical detail with the most extreme accuracy is best here.
HA HA HA

 

[Doodski]

I don't know, I was told that the SILVER 5 was better for a sound server application. The higher conductivity of silver make for better transfer of heat molecules and that the transparency and musical detail with the most extreme accuracy is best here.
HA HA HA

Arctic Cooling MX4 has better thermal specs and tests have proven it is between ~2C-5C better than Arctic Silver. There is no cure time, non-conductive and long service life. It is the best all around thermal paste. There is better if you want to sacrifice service life and cure time but the difference is tiny and you would probably need water cooling to realize the improvement.

https://www.google.com/search?q=arc...rome..69i57.7572j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[Count Arthur]

I used to a have a custom loop, water cooled PC. It was fun to mess about with and it worked well, but I eventually got fed up with the added faff and I went back to air cooling when the larger air coolers became available, some of which get pretty close to watercooling performance.

I've also overclocked most of my CPUs, with my Core i5 2500k I got an extra 1,000Mhz, about a 30% increase over stock speed, but with my current AMD Ryzen, I haven't bothered. Everything I've read about the latest Ryzen CPUs suggests that it isn't really worth it, You might get a couple of hundred hertz extra, but at the cost of a lot more power and heat and because of the the way the CPU boosts you get less single thread performance than at stock speeds.

 

[Doodski]

I used to a have a custom loop, water cooled PC. It was fun to mess about with and it worked well, but I eventually got fed up with the added faff and I went back to air cooling when the larger air coolers became available, some of which get pretty close to watercooling performance.

I've also overclocked most of my CPUs, with my Core i5 2500k I got an extra 1,000Mhz, about a 30% increase over stock speed, but with my current AMD Ryzen, I haven't bothered. Everything I've read about the latest Ryzen CPUs suggests that it isn't really worth it, You might get a couple of hundred hertz extra, but at the cost of a lot more power and heat and because of the the way the CPU boosts you get less single thread performance than at stock speeds.

Yes, the i5 2500K is a great overclocker for sure. I staunchly resisted water cooling for years because I don't like mixing liquid and electronics but I finally decided to jump in the pool. I bought a Corsair H115i 280mm sealed system w/ a 5 year warranty and so far it works great plus I got a major overclock out of it. I almost went with a big air cooler because it is good old reliable less moving parts and is easy to dust out. It was a close race for sure. I trusted the engineering and I hope that I am not proven wrong >@^_*@<

 

[Sal1950]

I used to a have a custom loop, water cooled PC. It was fun to mess about with and it worked well, but I eventually got fed up with the added faff and I went back to air cooling when the larger air coolers became available, some of which get pretty close to watercooling performance.

Some years back I was building a few boxes for friends. I didn't charge any labor and they could get a SOTA box for 1/2 the cost of retail, for me it was fun. I later decided I wanted to build a water buffalo for myself. But then just before I pulled the trigger on parts I started having dreams of the damn thing leaking and going up in smoke. LOL My next build will be silent.

 

[Sal1950]

I almost went with a big air cooler because it is good old reliable

In todays market, what would you consider a good air cooler?
I haven't played in the builder market or forums for years.

 

[Doodski]

Some years back I was building a few boxes for friends. I didn't charge any labor and they could get a SOTA box for 1/2 the cost of retail, for me it was fun. I later decided I wanted to build a water buffalo for myself. But then just before I pulled the trigger on parts I started having dreams of the damn thing leaking and going up in smoke. LOL My next build will be silent.

I like my fans Yes, they make noise a hushed sort of hum hiss sound but it puts me to sleep @ naptime ;P

 

[Doodski]

In todays market, what would you consider a good air cooler?
I haven't played in the builder market or forums for years.

https://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail
http://thermalright.com/product-category/heatsink/