Dedicated Music Servers - DIY Project?

[Jason36]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anybody on here has contemplated building their own dedicated Music Server. By this I mean a completely silent machine with no moving parts, energy efficient etc. Obviously most Laptops / PC's / Netbooks do not meet this criteria as they usually have Magnetc hardrives, CPU Fans and Power Supply Fans etc etc. Also for pure music playback the power requirements are considerably lower.

Just something I have been looking at myself over the last few days and have realised I could spend Circa £1200 on a dedicated PC based music server or build one myself using the following parts:

Motherboard - Jetway NF96FL525 LF - Dual Core 1.8Ghz Intel Atom, Fanless Processor and built in DC 12V power.

Memory - 2x2GB DDR2 800 RAM

Casetronic PW 12V 5A-L5 60W power supply

Disc - OCZ 120GB Vertex 2 Solid State Disc (could be increased dependant on cost - Alternatively I could fit a traditional 1TB Hard Drive and then include a SotM SATA Noise Filter)

Case - Wessen ITX6 Mini Case

I could then connect this via one of the USB's on the motherboard into my Asynchronous DAC...alternatively I could push the boat out and buy a SotM tx USB Card (PCI) owever these are £240.00

Total Cost of this including USB Card £659.00 but a silently operating machine with no moving parts.

Alternatively I could send my Netbook away and have it modified, Solid State Drive, Pasive Cooling, offboard Wireless, USB filter for about £450.00.

So now I ask myself.......what effect does my current off the shelf Netbook have on my music playback.....does it afect my listening, do I hear any electrical feedback or buzzing in my speakers when using the netbook to play music? and the answers to this is NO. So do I need to spend between £450 to £700 on something that may or may not make a discernable sound difference?

Just throwing this out there to see if anyone has done this and do they hear a difference??

 

[amcluesent]

The £ per Tb of SSD still seems unfavourable for a media- server.

 

[daveh75]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

 

[Anonymous]

The obvious question, when talking about network servers, is "why does it need to be silent"? It's perfectly possible to place your "music server" somewhere where it can make noise without anyone noticing and use a streamer to get the music into your listening room. But if you're going this route simply because you want better sound quality: don't bother. As long as you're using the same DAC, any differences you might perceive will likely be minimal.

Were I building a pure streamer now, I'd use something like the Fit-PC 2i. In many cases, for a server you're better off using one of the ready-made appliances (qnap, synology, thecus) because they support hdd hot-swap and have dedicated management software. If you're going the one-device route, your proposed solution will work fine. Be prepared to have your disk fill up quickly though, so a low-rpm large disk is advisable.

Let me share my setup here: all digital storage is on the other side of the house, nicely placed on a shelf in the study. It's not entirely silent as I do use magnetic drives, and in the summer the system fan kicks in as well, but it's silent enough to not be noticed. The NAS runs MiniDLNA server, which is enough for my usage. The HTPC is based on a Silverstone LC20 and Corsair (VX400?) power supply. This HTPC doubles as gaming machine so it has way higher specs than a simple streamer would need (AMD Athlon X4 45W and Radeon 5670). It's not fanless but still inaudible from my listening position. Going from memory, the whole thing (HTPC+NAS+disks) cost me about 1400 euro.

 

[Overdose]

After a large amount of testing and faffing, I found that moving parts in the Pc, caused no induced 'noise' in the system other than the low level audible whirring of drive or fans. Several DAC options were also investigated, with no major differences, if any at all.

I am now using a Mac mini, but for the money you have mentioned, you could also get something like the ASRock Vision.

 

[Jason36]

To a point that is my question exactly.....they say that music servers should have no moving parts and operate silently as this background noise and electrical feedback interfere with the music signal / sound. In reality is the everyday user likely to notice any difference from spending £400 on altering their PC / netbook server or buying a dedicated silent operating music server for £1200.

I have been using my £200 Asus netbook for the last 6 months as a dedicated music server and have had no problem with electrical noise from either the Netbook operating or the CPU fan kicking in occasionally.

Just trying to get other peoples impressions and feedback really......snake oil maybe???

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Jason36

I built a similar dedicated music server to the one you have described above. I got the instructions from the Computer Audiophile site. It's know as CAPS 2.0

Let me know if you need any input on sourcing parts.

It sounds great, so go for it

For anyone else interested here is the link;

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS-v20

S

 

[Jason36]

Hi Jason36

I built a similar dedicated music server to the one you have described above. I got the instructions from the Computer Audiophile site. It's know as CAPS 2.0

Let me know if you need any input on sourcing parts.

It sounds great, so go for it

For anyone else interested here is the link;

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Computer-Audiophile-Pocket-Server-CAPS-v20

S

Thanks for that, I have seen that and this is what kicked of my thought pattern. However I have quickly realised one or two things.....

Firstly that for the normal individual, HDD, Fans, on board wireless etc etc do not make any discernable difference to the sound output.....and I am not spending in the region of £600 just to get a silent machine with no moving parts and no sound benefits to my ears.

Secondly, my netbook is currently portable.....if I want to listen in the lounge I can......if I want it in the bedroom I can. A Music Server wouldnt exactly be portable even in a Mini ITX case.

So for these reasons I have ditched the idea and have just spent £100 on increasing the RAM from 1GB to 2GB and replacing the 120GB HDD with a 500GB HDD on my netbook.

 

[Anonymous]

The CAPS recipe is an awkward one: it's a lot more expensive than a standard build, but it doesn't go all the way to being a properly sorted transport, because it neglects to tackle the crucial issue of the power supply.

If you're looking to build something cheap, the netbook you already have is a fine place to begin: you don't need to spend more than a few hundred quid to get a perfectly serviceable audio computer. You might find these 'recipes' useful for improving a netbook:

http://www.itemaudio.com/index.php/forum/32-computer-audio-recipes

If you can, try to borrow to a modifed audio computer before getting into modifications: some still maintain that 'bits are bits', despite everything that happened in the 1990s. They definitely make a difference, though.

The CIS MEmory player project is another helpful open-source location for suggestions on improving the jitter and noise performance of a standard computer. They demonstrate numerically what you can expect to achieve.

If you intend to build something from scratch, it's important not to use that Jetway board, because it has much more on-board switching noise that one with an ATX input. The latest high-end Asus and all the Gigabyte boards are much better starting points for an audio computer. Ideally, you want to generate the three rails required in a purely linear fashion. Any noise pumped into the input is like trying to get clothes clean with dirty water . . .