New Project: The "SilentCUBE" High-Res Audio Playback PC

[-E-]

Originally Posted by 'cisco

cost?

Just looked at the spreadsheet, ~$2050 for all the hardware of the PC, the LED screen, and a surge protector; and ~$1350 for the NAS with the 4 drives and a UPS. Software is additional (Windows/JRiver, etc.).

[blacsno]

Sweet!! Very....very nice. When I built my MDS1000 I had to split of the RAID/server off. Since I made my case out of wood (silent), and my home is wired with 1Gbit network. I was trying to maintain the McIntosh look. I agree with you about the use of SSD over conventional drives. I can't explain it.... I have the MDS1000 (SSD) and PC (HDD) both have RME hammerfall in them. The PC is Intel Quad, MDS1000 is a lowly AMD. Yet once the SSD was installed, it is more musical. I did look at the Lynx..... nice!!! May have to try one day!!

[Victor]

WOW, that is one kick ass PC music server! Congrats on a beautiful build!

With labor and software this would come in about $3500 less than my Sooloos system (also configured at 4tb). I love my Sooloos, but if I didn't already have it I'd be sending you a PM asking about getting one of these built for me.

[Masterlu]

Great Job E, you are the of computers.

[-E-]

Originally Posted by Victor

WOW, that is one kick ass PC music server! Congrats on a beautiful build!

With labor and software this would come in about $3500 less than my Sooloos system (also configured at 4tb). I love my Sooloos, but if I didn't already have it I'd be sending you a PM asking about getting one of these built for me.

Victor - thank you for the kind words. The goal was to basically... "destroy SoolooS" - and this is coming from someone (me) that is a HUGE SoolooS fan. I absolutely love their interface - but their mistake is and has been the marketing and design of their hardware side.

I'm also willing to bet this sounds better than any SoolooS playback device - just the nature of the beast, we've got a lot of choices out in the market right now for how we want to send our digital (or analog) feeds out from our computers.

I'm actually at dad's right now as I type this, and I can even say that streaming MP3's over shoutcast is a massive improvement from before (it is actually tolerable to listen to now).

I'm very impressed how JRiver handles the database with such ease and for how it is so perfect to configure (menu toggles for Memory Playback, WASAPI+Event Style, pre-buffering, actual buffering, etc.). Ron_C get's kudos for turning me onto this little piece of software, even though the 3D album list is still glitchy - it's cool to mess around with.

If I had opted for a touchscreen LCD this would basically be a SoolooS on crack at half the price - but the wireless keyboard and mouse will do just fine.

[Victor]

Originally Posted by Vesuvius

we've got a lot of choices out in the market right now for how we want to send our digital (or analog) feeds out from our computers.

It's a fun time to be an audiophile.

['cisco]

Originally Posted by Vesuvius

Just looked at the spreadsheet, ~$2050 for all the hardware of the PC, the LED screen, and a surge protector; and ~$1350 for the NAS with the 4 drives and a UPS. Software is additional (Windows/JRiver, etc.).

Thanks E for the info....Sounds like you da man for computer know-how.

[AudioNut]

I'm in awe and envy of the job you've done, E. Beautiful!

Been reading your posts about wine, women, beer, boats, McIntosh, etc. for a long time now
and never dreamed you had such talent and intelligence.

Congratulations to you and to your father.

Wish one of my sons would read your posts and do something similar for their dear old dad!

[1KW]

Nice ! Well done

[Face]

Very nice! I have something similar planned in the future, I already have a hot rodded gaming/music server PC and am using a gTablet as a remote, but a NAS is in my immediate future.