Article: Computer Audiophile Pocket Server C.A.P.S. v4 Cortes

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[Audio_ELF]

Sorry but this is really disappointing ...

 

Just an advert for a bunch of randomly chosen components.

 

"The 6TB drives are configured as a RAID1 / mirroring set." How? How about some step by step instructions on how you built and configured it all?

 

How about some details on how you setup J.River?

 

Sorry Chris ... I'm really disappointed in this as the first of the CAPSv4 articles.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Sorry but this is really disappointing ...

 

Just an advert for a bunch of randomly chosen components.

 

"The 6TB drives are configured as a RAID1 / mirroring set." How? How about some step by step instructions on how you built and configured it all?

 

How about some details on how you setup J.River?

 

Sorry Chris ... I'm really disappointed in this as the first of the CAPSv4 articles.

This is far from an advertisement for "a bunch of randomly chosen components." i wish I kept logs of all the research hours and purchased components that didn't make the final build.

 

CAPS isn't about a step by step how-to for everything related to the concept. This article would have been about 10,000 words and bored most of the readers if that was the case.

 

I think if you were really interested in how I configured the RAID1 set you would have asked the question rather than rip me for an article you don't like.

 

Please accept a full refund of your $0 purchase price for reading the article. i can't refund the time you'll never get back.

[Audio_ELF]

Sorry Chris but in the past your CAPS articles have been much more informative (IMO) and component choices more justified. This feels more like "trust me I'm an expert".

 

I should have said this "appears to be just an advert for a bunch of randomly chosen components".

 

There are dozens of companies who would but together these components if I asked for a "Windows Server" ... what makes your suggestions special? There is nothing specifically audio based except you adding J.River to it.

 

Just my opinion of course and I won't charge you a cent for it, nor all the help and assistance that I've given your 100s of readers without which you wouldn't have a website.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Sorry Chris but in the past your CAPS articles have been much more informative (IMO) and component choices more justified. This feels more like "trust me I'm an expert".

 

I should have said this "appears to be just an advert for a bunch of randomly chosen components".

 

There are dozens of companies who would but together these components if I asked for a "Windows Server" ... what makes your suggestions special? There is nothing specifically audio based except you adding J.River to it.

 

Just my opinion of course and I won't charge you a cent for it, nor all the help and assistance that I've given your 100s of readers without which you wouldn't have a website.

Perhaps you misunderstood the reason for the Cortes server? It's a true server, not an audio-grade anything. Sending audio over Ethernet doesn't require anything specific for audio playback other than the right application(s). If people want to add a linear PSU, low latency RAM, or anything else they are free to do so. I just don't think it will matter. Something tells me that if I would have added those parts you would be all over me suggesting they aren't needed. Oh well. It's hard to justify components that don't need justification beyond what I've said in the article.

 

This is a server that I use every day and I assumed others would be interested in a NAS replacement as well.

[joelha]

Audio_Elf,

One of the the differences between what you offer the readers of this site and the help Chris offers, is that Chris offers his services without an attitude.

Something to consider.

Chris, I happen to think that these pieces you post, as I've told you before, are the best part of your site and I'm grateful for them.

I will happily pay the exorbitant price of "free" to continue to benefit from all your time and effort.

Thanks a lot for that.

Joel

[firedog]

Elf - being a little harsh, I think. But I do think Chris should have given us a bit more detail.

Chris, a few questions:

 

1. Sorry for being dense, but I'm not sure I understood the general idea. This is intended to replace/be instead of a NAS AND what we usually think of as an audio PC (such as a CAPS3)? In other words, serves, processes, and plays back your music over the network to a network audio device (streamer) so you theoretically don't need another PC or server in the playback chain, even if doing lots of processing on the audio, e.g. on the fly upsampling? Or am I missing out on the idea entirely?

 

2) Noise. How loud is it? CAN in be put in the same room as the audio system without disturbing listening?

 

3) Cost/assembly. No individual or total parts costs are listed by the links at the bottom. Sure I can slowly work through the description and figure it out, but seems like it would be helpful to have a price listed by each component and a total cost at the bottom.

 

4) Recommendation for someone to build it. Not everyone wants to/can build their own. Especially since this type of computer is different than the PCs many are familiar with.

 

Thanks, though. I think this is a fascinating idea - a server with power to do whatever audio related task we might want.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Elf - being a little harsh, I think. But I do think Chris should have given us a bit more detail.

Chris, a few questions:

 

1. Sorry for being dense, but I'm not sure I understood the general idea. This is intended to replace/be instead of a NAS AND what we usually think of as an audio PC (such as a CAPS3)? In other words, serves, processes, and plays back your music over the network to a network audio device (streamer) so you theoretically don't need another PC or server in the playback chain, even if doing lots of processing on the audio, e.g. on the fly upsampling? Or am I missing out on the idea entirely?

 

2) Noise. How loud is it? CAN in be put in the same room as the audio system without disturbing listening?

 

3) Cost/assembly. No individual or total parts costs are listed by the links at the bottom. Sure I can slowly work through the description and figure it out, but seems like it would be helpful to have a price listed by each component and a total cost at the bottom.

 

4) Recommendation for someone to build it. Not everyone wants to/can build their own. Especially since this type of computer is different than the PCs many are familiar with.

 

Thanks, though. I think this is a fascinating idea - a server with power to do whatever audio related task we might want.

Hi firedog - Great questions and the type of questions that will help all the readers.

 

1. This is intended to be a NAS replacement only. However, it's the most flexible and in my opinion best "NAS" for our purposes you can get. I use it every day and have stopped using my Synology, QNAP, and Thecus NAS drives. Yes, if sending audio to a network streamer / renderer you don't need another PC for anything.

 

2. It's too noisy for placement in the audio room, but fortunately there is no need to have this server anywhere near the listener or audio system.

 

3. Good point. I believe I spent about $2,200 on this server.

 

4. I believe Small Green Computer will build these, but I haven't received confirmation.

 

 

Thanks again for the good questions.

[Audio_ELF]

Perhaps you misunderstood the reason for the Cortes server? It's a true server, not an audio-grade anything. Sending audio over Ethernet doesn't require anything specific for audio playback other than the right application(s).

[snip]

Oh well. It's hard to justify components that don't need justification beyond what I've said in the article.

Then why would someone spend this money on just a bunch of components rather than buying an off the shelf Dell server (for example)?

 

The only real advantage in any of your chosen components (that I can see) is the IPMI on the motherboard.

 

I would however have thought that the big advantage of this over a standard NAS would be the ability to have inbuilt ripping. You also mention Backup in passing ... would not some recommendations of proper backup software not also be a good idea if you are creating a server.

 

No I didn't misunderstand the reason for the Cortes server ... but perhaps I missed the reason for the CAPS articles. Perhaps (in this case) a tutorial how to turn a general server into a music specific server was what I was expecting. In fact perhaps I was generally expecting these articles to be more tutorials than "just a list of components" as I put it before.

[beetlemania]

nor all the help and assistance that I've given your 100s of readers without which you wouldn't have a website.

 

Wait, Chris is endebted to YOU for the success of his website? Is that what you're saying?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Then why would someone spend this money on just a bunch of components rather than buying an off the shelf Dell server (for example)?

 

The only real advantage in any of your chosen components (that I can see) is the IPMI on the motherboard.

 

I would however have thought that the big advantage of this over a standard NAS would be the ability to have inbuilt ripping. You also mention Backup in passing ... would not some recommendations of proper backup software not also be a good idea if you are creating a server.

 

No I didn't misunderstand the reason for the Cortes server ... but perhaps I missed the reason for the CAPS articles. Perhaps (in this case) a tutorial how to turn a general server into a music specific server was what I was expecting. In fact perhaps I was generally expecting these articles to be more tutorials than "just a list of components" as I put it before.

Eloise - 99% of the people who read CA have no idea what to even order at Dell. CAPS is but one formula or one platform from which to expand or contract. Your knowledge may be way advanced compared to the average CA reader, but I can't write articles directed specifically at you or the 1% of CA readers in your knowledge bracket.

[Audio_ELF]

One of the the differences between what you offer the readers of this site and the help Chris offers, is that Chris offers his services without an attitude.

Sorry you're right there was a bit of "attitude" to my response to Chris's first reply to me ... but actually Chris has a LOT of attitude in his "Please accept a full refund of your $0 purchase price for reading the article. i can't refund the time you'll never get back."

 

He asked for comments saying "I encourage members of the community to post questions, concerns, and comments below." yet obviously didn't like my comments.

 

For example ... his statement "The X10SL7-F supports Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v3 processors that are much more geared toward data crunching than the Core i7 series of CPUs that have integrated video for multimedia playback. Thus, I selected the Intel Xeon E3-1241 v3 (BX80646E31241V3) ($273) as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) for Cortes." while true is somewhat abstract. Perhaps if he had something solid like "compared with the i7 series of CPUs the Xeon allowed faster processing of DSD files to DSD" that would have been more useful (if true).

[Audio_ELF]

Wait, Chris is endebted to YOU for the success of his website? Is that what you're saying?

No, he is indebted to everyone who contributes! And he started with the cost attitude!!!

[joelha]

Audio_ELF,

Your attitude was demonstrated in response to what I consider to be a gift from Chris to the rest of us who frequent his site.

Chris' attitude was a response to your ingratitude for his article.

If you want a different kind of response from Chris, you might reconsider your tone.

Joel

[Audio_ELF]

Eloise - 99% of the people who read CA have no idea what to even order at Dell. CAPS is but one formula or one platform from which to expand or contract. Your knowledge may be way advanced compared to the average CA reader, but I can't write articles directed specifically at you or the 1% of CA readers in your knowledge bracket.

That sounds a strange response (to me) Chris ... if people don't know what to buy at Dell (or another manufacturer) how would they know how to build the CAPS.

 

I'm saying that your article is not really written to people who are looking to build a UPnP server / NAS as you have no details about how things are configured etc.

 

It is (as I say) a list of components in the abstract. Maybe you have tried 100s of components and these are the best ... but it is just a list of components. At a hardware level yes it is a NAS replacement; but (to my thinking) what makes a NAS a NAS is about the configuration of the software.

 

For example ... once someone has put everything in the case, do they have to configure the RAID before installing Windows, or is the RAID configured inside Windows? Yes people should read the manual, but the manuals are often confusing and in deep technical details and you say you are writing for people who are not technical.

 

As I say maybe I have assumed wrongly about the purpose of the CAPS articles - I thought they were somewhat tutorials for people but it appears not as someone who cannot build and configure a computer already have no real chance of learning anything new.

[Audio_ELF]

Your attitude was demonstrated in response to what I consider to be a gift from Chris to the rest of us who frequent his site.

Chris' attitude was a response to your ingratitude for his article.

If you want a different kind of response from Chris, you might reconsider your tone.

As I say I thought Chris was writing somewhat a tutorial how to build a Cortes server. Instead all I read was a list of components that Chris has used to build HIS Cortes without (to my reading) any guidance how people can replicate it unless they are already experts in configuring Windows and J.River.

[Markhh2]

Hi firedog - Great questions and the type of questions that will help all the readers.

 

1. This is intended to be a NAS replacement only. However, it's the most flexible and in my opinion best "NAS" for our purposes you can get. I use it every day and have stopped using my Synology, QNAP, and Thecus NAS drives. Yes, if sending audio to a network streamer / renderer you don't need another PC for anything.

 

2. It's too noisy for placement in the audio room, but fortunately there is no need to have this server anywhere near the listener or audio system.

 

3. Good point. I believe I spent about $2,200 on this server.

 

4. I believe Small Green Computer will build these, but I haven't received confirmation.

 

 

Thanks again for the good questions.

 

I worked out a BOM with a price of $1775 sourced from either newegg or Amazon Prime including Windows Pro full edition and Jriver. I did drop the hard drives down from 6gb to 4gb to get that price.

 

I also noticed that Corsair makes a "quiet" version of the CPU cooler which I also includeded in my BOM. Chris, did you use all 3 fans provided with graphite case?

[Antoine]

The general idea is a good one but I've noticed often that people with some IT affinity are already running something like this (or something way better, more purposed to pure NAS usage with ZFS or FreeNAS for example) and the average Joe can't be bothered, they much rather buy an off the shelve pre-configured NAS without any maintenance required.

 

I threw my slow and annoying QNap TS-210 NAS out of the window a long time ago and have been running a similar setup (functionality wise) for years. Currently I'm using a "re-purposed" old Intel i3/H77 chipset (with built-in RAID support)/8GB RAM/128 GB SSD OS/2x3TB HDD RAID 1 setup as a NAS (Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit) and put this inside a cheap case but with a high quality, efficient Seasonic G Series 360W low ripple, low noise PSU.

 

It's of course not anywhere near my music listening system (different room). Besides for storage I also use it as a mail server, AirVideo video transcoding server, SickBeard/Couch Potato download server. It completely outperforms all low/mid end NAS models, for example I get to enjoy 120MB/s network copying out of the box, simple and cheap.

 

The parts for this Cortes machine are way, WAY overpowered IMO for a home NAS.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I worked out a BOM with a price of $1775 sourced from either newegg or Amazon Prime including Windows Pro full edition and Jriver. I did drop the hard drives down from 6gb to 4gb to get that price.

 

I also noticed that Corsair makes a "quiet" version of the CPU cooler which I also includeded in my BOM. Chris, did you use all 3 fans provided with graphite case?

Hi Markhh2 - Very cool that the price is much lower than when I purchased the components. I used all the fans because I wasn't concerned about noise (the noise isn't really that bad however).

[The Computer Audiophile]

The general idea is a good one but I've noticed often that people with some IT affinity are already running something like this (or something way better, more purposed to pure NAS usage with ZFS or FreeNAS for example) and the average Joe can't be bothered, they much rather buy an off the shelve pre-configured NAS without any maintenance required.

 

I threw my slow and annoying QNap TS-210 NAS out of the window a long time ago and have been running a similar setup (functionality wise) for years. Currently I'm using a "re-purposed" old Intel i3/H77 chipset (with built-in RAID support)/8GB RAM/128 GB SSD OS/2x3TB HDD RAID 1 setup as a NAS (Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit) and put this inside a cheap case but with a high quality, efficient Seasonic G Series 360W low ripple, low noise PSU.

 

It's of course not anywhere near my music listening system (different room). Besides for storage I also use it as a mail server, AirVideo video transcoding server, SickBeard/Couch Potato download server. It completely outperforms all low/mid end NAS models, for example I get to enjoy 120MB/s network copying out of the box, simple and cheap.

 

The parts for this Cortes machine are way, WAY overpowered IMO for a home NAS.

Hi Antoine - Thanks for the comments.

[Antoine]

Also: Let me google that for you

[The Computer Audiophile]

Also: Let me google that for you

Ha! Love the sense of humor.

 

The problem I found with most of the DIY NAS units I've built is that they all run operating systems that don't enable me do install any application I want. For example, I love FreeNAS but I stopped using it after I got frustrated with the limited number of apps for it.

[Antoine]

Ha! Love the sense of humor.

 

The problem I found with most of the DIY NAS units I've built is that they all run operating systems that don't enable me do install any application I want. For example, I love FreeNAS but I stopped using it after I got frustrated with the limited number of apps for it.

 

I agree, I also prefer to use Windows as it enables you to run anything creating a true multi-purpose 24/7 up&running machine and RDP is still the best remote management tool.

 

It's also very easy and cheap to expand functionality to completely different area's as well like home automation (or the mail server I purposed it to be as well) Of course most of it can be done with a Linux setup as well, but the vast amount of available software and usability exceeds that of Linux (for me).

[dtb300]

Nice server build Chris for $1500 - 1800 (quick glance math - LOL). I have always believed in a minimum computer build to run/play my audio files (not interested in video at all), and then my main machine for all the other workhorse tasks. Ripping, mass conversions, drive cloning/backup, etc. Why waste $$ on the music server when it is designed for playing music. While there are a few extra steps involved having these two machines, I feel I get the best bang for my $$.

 

I may do the NAS thing one day but not enough files/data yet to warrant the $$ outlay at this time for me.

 

While my main machine is nowhere near the power and quality of what you built, I agree with the path you are taking down this version path.

[monteverdi]

why ist it called CAS? Dimensions 592mm x 265mm x 507mm. Does not fit my pocket