Ali Alizadeh Weshky

first of all, i wuold like to thank everone who has contributed by advice or suggestions in this and various forums. the goal off this build was to create a silent pc that was suited for general use (browsing, text editing, photoshop) and at the same time had to serve as an htpc system. below you can find my chosen parts and why. case: streacom silver fc10 ( large, flexible to future updrages with hdd, larger mb,...) + it can dissipate 95W of heat mb: gigabyte H81N ( simple mb with standard connections and a dedicated DAC usb port cpu: intel i5 4590s with a TDP of 65W (powerfull enough for photo editing and heavy multi tasking ram: 8GB crucial ballistix sport 1600 ( standard value ram) hdd: intel 120GB ssd + 500GB 2.5" spinning hdd disc drive: apple macbook pro 2012 slim cd/DVD drive (for ripping my cd collection) psu: dell 240w laptop adapter (from alienware m17x R4 laptop) + HDPLEX 250W Hi-Fi DC-ATX Power Supply accessories: arctic silver 5 thermal paste + slim sata to sata adapter + arctic silver thermal paste remover total cost: +-800 euro the packaging of the products were very good. the installation was not as easy as i thought, it would be. i had a difficult time setting the heatpipes correctly and applying the paste correctly. with 2 people it is a lot easier. the thermal paste that was included with the streacom case was really bad, the temps were reaching 90°C during stress test. by replacing the paste with the hi quality paste from arctic silver the temps droped dramaticly. 35-37°C during dle and 66-70°C during full load. the performance is great, no lag in hd and blue ray playback with red october enabled. the audio qualty is EXCELLENT with uncompressed wave and AIFF playback. it is connected with a usb dac (chord chordette) via the dedicated usb dac port. The placement of the 250W DC convertor is optional, there is plenty of romm with a itx mb. although i have trouble with mounting the psu input to the case. (the screw holes of the psu inpu don't match the holes of the plates from streacom. everything works perfectly and i am really happy with the end result. future upgrades could be a linear psu, intel wireless card, a mini pcie to internal usb 3.0 port, and maybe a GPU i hope it was a ok review, (it's my first one ) , if you have any questions, please don't hesitate regards

hi i purchased a streacom fc10 to build my own caps system, the psu that is mentioned is a lpsu and a dc/dc card. because my budget doesn't allow this configuration, i am looking for alternatives. i know that streacom offers psu's (150 and 240w), but they are pricy to. so my uestion to you, what can i put insie the fc10? for strting out and later upgrading to lpsu? here are some links that i have found that may be suitable thanks Seasonic or a 240w dell laptop adapter with the hdplex 250 conv card = price as the original fanless streacom psu link below ZF240 – Fanless 240W ZeroFlex PSU | Streacom

hi james the first argument you are refering to is for me not so important, i rarely do scool work and at the same time watch a movie or listen siriously to music. and if i do, it is going to be wave or aiff files that are ripped from my cd collection. so not a heavy task i presume. the second one is rather suprising to me, i ave never hear that people had "problems" with their intel 4600 igpu , to be honest, i really want to add an gpu to my system, but don't know wich one and the extra cst is always an issue to some people . i am currently running photoshop from an 5 year old i7 laptop with an ssd, so i think it will run just fine on my chosen system. though, i was considering to buy 1 module of 8 gigs in stead of 2 sticks of 4gb. regards ali

thanks for the reply in the past i had a lot of corresponens with larry from hdplex, he helped me a lot with some audio hardware info. if i am not mistaken, the new caps v4 pipeline has a 250w psu from hdplex, how is this possible? hdplex doesn't offer this products at this moment, odd. anyway the keuboard you have is a solid option, but due to my work, college,... i need a pc monitor. about the power needed, i am going to go with 240w , and according to my calculations, i will be way below that around 180 ( future upgrades included, such as extra internal hdd, vga,)

i know the title seems odd, but i am currently in the market to build a new pc for general use (web, office, some photoshop ) AND use it at the same time as an htpc hooked on my phillips tv. case: streacom fc10 (already ordered it) mb: GA H81N with a dedicated DAC usb port ( i don't know if it really works as they claim) ram: crucial 2x 4gb cpu: intel i5 4590s psu: streacom 240w internal fanless psu that connects to the sidepannel for heat dissapation OR an external 240w dell adapter with the hdplex 250 dc to dc convertor hdd: an intel ssd from my laptop, and later i am plannng to add wd red drives. right now i have a lot of external hdd, is it a good idea to strip them and put the drives in the case? DAC: chord electronics chordette gem amp: marantz pm6004 paired with triangle titus ex speakers remote: ipad with JRemote installed my goal is to buil a pc that is 24/7 on (like an htpc) , but where i have the possibility to drag and drop files into it, and offcourse run jriver on the tv and the normal desktop on an external monitor. i love to run my movies at high settings, and my music sound solid with the dac. so what do you guys think? is it a good idea? what components are good or have to be changed? thank you

ok, nvm guys, i stepped down from the NUC idea, the dedicates usb port for dac on my chosen motherboard was the selling point for me. and the nice case from hdplex. so i am going for a caps build, i will post my setup proces and pictures here.

i have my chord chordette now, and it sounds amazing, BUT, the sound of the laptop drives me crazy. an noise mostly. now, my next step was to build the caps, but i saw a intel nuc with thunderblt connection, i am interested i must say. what do you think is best for me? a hifi/htpc usage, no hires streaming, just cd rips in wav. i was going to take the DC3217BY model, but couldn't fnd any fanless cases for it. what do you guys think? the caps build that i mentiond or the intel nuc? in think the nuc is going to be cheaper too.

ok, so the dac is certain that i am going to buy, and than i wanted to purchase a hdplex h1 case with the following components. a gigabyte ga-B85N as motherboard, GIGABYTE - Moederbord - Socket 1150 - GA-B85N (rev. 1.1) , wich has a dedicated usb port for a dac, is it a good motherboard? for cpu i'm going with pentium or celeron and for storage a msata card with 30 gb and 4 gb of ram i think i am going to go with windows 7 and jriver, but thre are no apps on the microsoft app store (for windows 8.1 RT) to remote jriver. olny IOS? so i have to get a ipad? what do you suggest?

hi i know i am asking to much question here in this forum, but i can't help it, sorry. when building your first caps system, you have to think about alot of thing that will make a difference in performence in your system. and because every system is not the same, you can't really pinpoint a list or build guid for everyone. however, there are things that you have take in concideration when building one of these. i my case, a beginner audiophile, or rather a good audio lover have been playing my music through the 3.5 mm jack of my laptop. ( i know ) now, by buying a dac and replacing it, i would get a more clear and better sound of my laptop. But when build a new system, caps, i'm going to use a dedicated usb port for the dac, and no spinning hard drives and no fan noise, and ultimately a linear psu. All these thngs are steps to make my system better. (the cost goes up). So bascly my question is going to be: where would i start? known the fact the i come from a 3.5mm laptop jack. what benefits or elements should i implment in my system to APPRECIATE my system? or is a intel NUC or brix system just good enough? and by that i mean, is the linear psu really a must at the beginning? thank you

hi there i have a simple but also confesing issue. i will be buying a chord chordette gem DAC with usb and bluetooth connectivity. but i am lost what kind of system i should buy for my hifi system. i own a marantz pm6004 and triangle titus x speakers. option 1: htpc (haswell celeron, 4GBram, hdplex case, linear psu, gigabyte mobo with dedicated usb port for dac B85N, msata ssd) option 2: microsoft surface, with a external hdd that connects to the tablet. option3: mac mini, ..... , what you guys suggest budget is somewhat important, the first build is going to be around 500 euros, but if i can achieve the same result with less cash, why not? thanks

hi there i have found about the C.A.S project that you computer audiophile did, it's fantastic. i was actually begginning to assemble the hardware to build one for myself. in almost every build here, there was a integration of a pci card that offerd a usb 3.0 , a external power input and a power switch that costs about 350. my goal was to build a stabdard system and connect a usb dac ( dragonfly v1.2) or something in this price range via usb. another option was to by a optical dac. computer audio advices to not to do this due to bus protocol, and that there will be some noise because the usb port has to power the usb dac. is that really the ase? even if i use a external linear psu? and is it only in combination with a external harddrive by usb? i thaught to just buy a simple pci to usb card and connect ether my dac or my perepherils on it, like, bluethoot, wifi, mouse, external harddrive,... OR just using internal hdd by sata 6ports? or just connect it by optical, i listen to internet radio and aiff/wave cd ripped audio. so i assume 41 khz what should i do when there is a tight budget? ty

hi i own a large flac music library on my external HDD, i'm looking to play it through a seperate device rather my currently using lapop without DAC. what is the best/cheapest way? i though of these solutions: media player+dac + monitor (lacie lacinema, apple tv1, popcorn hour, dune, .....) all in one (olive system) HTPC + monitor+ dac mac mini or imac (old models) + dac any thoughts? budget is not important to a certain level, if it's on the high side, i can save and work my way up, it's about to having a plan, a good solution.

wow, thanks a lt you guys, the reason i deleted totem of my list is the price. due to a suddden buy of a dac, my budget of speaker shrank a little bit. btw, i buy tem second hand. now a dac was very impotant because i only use uncompressed flac files via a media player (lacie lacinema mini connect). it(sotem, xavian a atoll dac100). paired with atoll in50 and speakers..... now the game had changed a little bit: for my new budget i can afford the epos, quadral, triangle, linn index, focal and NOT totem, xavian

room is about 6meters by4 , and listening position would be couch , a bit low , now i made my decision of the amp, it's neutral amp with no characteristics. atoll in50 , 50W 8ohm and 70W 4ohm i thought about these speakers: epos m5, focal 706v, quadral rondo, triangle titus 202