19-Mar-2017, 16:19
Hi Swissbear,
There's so incredible much choice in available motherboards. See this post http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?t...0#pid58650 for more info why I chose the motherboard I chose. My previous build also had a more feature rich design like the one you linked to.
This time I wanted a minimalist type of board (thinking less stuff on it causes less noise, power usage etc. but of course the electrical design itself is very important too but this is almost impossible to check/evaluate) that directly accepted external 12V so I could power the system using my Hynes PSU. This limited my choices considerably to the thin ITX type of embedded/industrial motherboards. My motherboard has a direct 5.5x2.5mm DC input on the back and all power regulation is on board, so in my case no other stuff required.
I could of course also have chosen any other type of mainboard that has a standard 24 pin ATX power input and install a PicoPSU/Streacom type of DC-DC converter. (Also like in my previous build.) These are available in all type of voltage inputs/ranges. If you want to stick to the mini ITX format and depending on how you want to power the machine I'd have a look at HD-Plex, their 300W PicoPSU style DC-DC converter should be better.
See the other post I just linked to for the 35W CPU's I consider to be in the sweetspot at this moment. At 35W you won't be able to upsample to DSD512 using HQPlayer, not even with the i7 6700T/7700T. You'll need a more powerful i7 6700K/7700K for that. You should be fine though up to DSD256 with those. This wasn't part of my own requirements so I didn't look into it much.
Keep in mind that the onboard NIC's on your board are not supported in the Windows Server OS's. You'll have to 'hack' the driver for them to work. I had to do the same for my i211 on-board NIC. There's instructions on the Internet that show you how. My i210-T1 PCI-E card is supported as Intel has targeted that as an entry level server NIC. I also feel these discrete NIC's are of a higher quality BTW than anything on-board. Just last week I read someone has switched to discrete NIC's because of this reason and indeed confirmed it to sound better. (It's somewhere in Romaz's direct ethernet thread on CA).
There's so incredible much choice in available motherboards. See this post http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?t...0#pid58650 for more info why I chose the motherboard I chose. My previous build also had a more feature rich design like the one you linked to.
This time I wanted a minimalist type of board (thinking less stuff on it causes less noise, power usage etc. but of course the electrical design itself is very important too but this is almost impossible to check/evaluate) that directly accepted external 12V so I could power the system using my Hynes PSU. This limited my choices considerably to the thin ITX type of embedded/industrial motherboards. My motherboard has a direct 5.5x2.5mm DC input on the back and all power regulation is on board, so in my case no other stuff required.
I could of course also have chosen any other type of mainboard that has a standard 24 pin ATX power input and install a PicoPSU/Streacom type of DC-DC converter. (Also like in my previous build.) These are available in all type of voltage inputs/ranges. If you want to stick to the mini ITX format and depending on how you want to power the machine I'd have a look at HD-Plex, their 300W PicoPSU style DC-DC converter should be better.
See the other post I just linked to for the 35W CPU's I consider to be in the sweetspot at this moment. At 35W you won't be able to upsample to DSD512 using HQPlayer, not even with the i7 6700T/7700T. You'll need a more powerful i7 6700K/7700K for that. You should be fine though up to DSD256 with those. This wasn't part of my own requirements so I didn't look into it much.
Keep in mind that the onboard NIC's on your board are not supported in the Windows Server OS's. You'll have to 'hack' the driver for them to work. I had to do the same for my i211 on-board NIC. There's instructions on the Internet that show you how. My i210-T1 PCI-E card is supported as Intel has targeted that as an entry level server NIC. I also feel these discrete NIC's are of a higher quality BTW than anything on-board. Just last week I read someone has switched to discrete NIC's because of this reason and indeed confirmed it to sound better. (It's somewhere in Romaz's direct ethernet thread on CA).
PS Audio P3, Shunyata ΞTRON Alpha Digital and HC/Furutech power cables, Paul Hynes SR7EHD-MR4, DIY Roon Server & Roon Endpoint running AudioLinux Headless, Phasure Lush^2 USB cable, Audioquest Diamond RJ/E ethernet, Uptone Audio etherREGEN, Mutec MC-3+ USB, Shunyata ΞTRON Anaconda Digital XLR AES/EBU, Devialet Expert 250 Pro CI, Nordost Tyr Reference LS cables, Von Schweikert VR-5 SE Anniversary Edition, Anti-Mode Dual Core 2.0, JL Audio Fathom F112. More detail here.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands