DIY Music PC - Already in Progress

[pbowne]

Hi all!

 

Not having a lot of funds I started buying the components for my own dedicated music PC a while ago. I found this site too late to use all of the ideas in this website/forum, but I will be able to use some of them.

 

I would like to hear comments on where I can improve what I have while keeping the cost low (under $200). Not having an outboard DAC, I've been using an ASUS Xonar DS PCI soundcard on my regular PC which allowed me to upgrade the opamps for the sound I want.

 

The rest of my parts are:

 

MSI B75MA-E33 (Military Class III with solid caps) LGA 1155 MicroATX motherboard

Intel Celeron G1620 cpu with Integrated HD Graphics (so I don't have to use a video card)

Kingston SSDNow 200 64gb 2.5" SATAIII solid-state drive

Patriot Viper 3 DDR3 1600mhz 4gb (1 stick - I can add another if I need to)

Seasonic S12II SS-330GB 330w ATX 80 PLUS Certified PSU

 

I have two Hitachi hard drives with a lot of music (and room for more of it) one 3tb and one 2tb.

 

After reading through the forums, I am planning on purchasing an Anker Astro E4 13000mAh Portable Battery pack to use with the SSD drive (unless someone has a better idea). My plan is to try Windows Server 2012 and, if that fails resort to Windows 8. I have been using MediaMonkey 4 because I really like the interface and all it can do. If it would sound significantly better I could change to JRiver or JPlay.

 

If I had lots of money, I'd go for a fine outboard DAC, but as it is the ASUS soundcard does a good job with audio files up to 24/192 and I can play DSD files thru foobar2000.

 

Where is the greater danger of noise/jitter in this system? I am depending on your experience to assist me.

 

Peter

[Hifidelit]

I'd concentrate on enjoying the music and not worry about noise and jitter. I would give ws2012 a try like you intend and see what you think. You have a decent set of components there and you can try JRiver and JPlay at no cost.

[pbowne]

Here's a followup on my DIY build. Just about all of the parts except for the case and external battery pack had been purchased and received a couple of weeks ago. I picked up a used Antec case with big fans for $10 to put the system together. I hope to change to an Aerocool Dead Silence case in a month or two.

 

The build was easy and I installed Windows Server 2012 Standard. Turning off most of the processes using a script pulled off this site, I was ready to go. At this point I am not using the Server core edition as I am don't have it networked and am not adept at Command Prompt. I then installed MediaMonkey, Foobar2000 and JPlay as my software. Mediamonkey is real easy for me to use, has just about every option I want except for playing DSD files (which is why Foobar2000 is installed). I don't hear much of a difference between MediaMonkey, Foobar2000 and JRiver Media Center, but I am using the DAC in the ASUS Xonar DS soundcard not an outboard DAC. JPlay does sound different because of the changeable audio engines, but I'm not yet sure that "different" is better. This will probably be an ongoing experiment.

 

I let MediaMonkey do it's thing and load the music from two HDD's. Once loaded I tried to test it but no sound came out. Fiddled with it and Windows Server for a couple hours and still, no joy. After going online and reading thru a lot of this forum and others I finally found a couple of webpages that explained the problem. The default in Windows Server 2012 is that the audio is disabled. Although I tried to enable it through a few routes in the OS, I didn't try the right one until I found instructions on a website. What is needed is to go into Administrative Tools > Services > then right-click on Windows Audio for Properties and under the Gerneral tab change Startup type to Automatic, then click the Start button in the same tab. Do this for Windows Audio Endpoint Builder also. Voila! A working sound server/pc.

 

It sounded great and I was extremely pleased with the SQ, but then I received the Anker Astro E4 External Battery over Xmas. I ordered a special cable from MicroSataCables.com and it came two days ago. First I listened to a few songs with the system as is. Then I hooked the charged battery pack to the Sata SSD and listened to the same songs. An astonishing improvement. I really wasn't expecting too much but I was floored by all the changes.

 

It had the effect of the speakers completely disappearing, a much blacker background, all the voices & instruments clearly separated in space, greater solidity - where everything sounds much more real, loss of a slight glare I had when playing loudly or during robust and complex passages, and finally, stronger bass delineation, punch and power without overdoing it. This has probably become one of the two or three best digital systems I have ever heard. I can't begin to say how satisfying this has been. Thanks to all of you who have contributed ideas or conversation in the various forum threads of which I've made use.