Finally, a decent passive NUC case (from HDPLEX)

Keep it up boys. Thread comprehensively trashed. Mission accomplished.

i opted for the internal HDPLEX 400W Hi-Fi DC-ATX Power Supply which is fed by an external AC adapter. that way you can use can an inexpensive SMPS and evaluate ā€“ switching to a LPS at a later time if desired.

one note: converting the portion of you network that supports you music chain to fiber optic ethernet will pretty much make the LPS unnecessary.

Assuming what youā€™re trying to do is electrically isolate your endpoint / DAC from your server, WiFi does the same thing, usually works just as well for our use case (well, unless thereā€™s people simultaneously streaming 400 channels of DSD512, that is, in which case SFP+ would make sense), and is much cheaper. A stereo stream of DSD512 is 45Mbps-ish, and thatā€™s something any modern, reasonably-priced, consumer router should be able to provide (yes, I know, big houses and reinforced concrete wallsā€¦ but then, maybe thinking about spending the optical converter money on a contractor and a few hardwired access points might allow you to improve stuff that isnā€™t just audio-related).

Assuming that thereā€™s electrical gunk being transmitted through the ethernet port, and that itā€™s audible, you still have an electrical connection between your optical => ethernet bridge (no matter whether itā€™s audiophile or not) and your DAC through your endpoint, so thatā€™d be a place where, assuming thereā€™s a difference to be had, you might want to power put a high quality PSU. Good news is itā€™d probably be a 1A-2A 5-volter, so thereā€™s plenty of options that arenā€™t horribly expensive. Bad news is a nice PSU for both an optical converter and an endpoint is more expensive than just powering an endpoint.

Where @Henry_McLeod and myself probably agree is that electrically isolating the audio chain from the server is generally good practice, though Iā€™d add it isnā€™t always necessary.

Thank you all for the input and advise!
It was not my intention to stir up trouble, but I am aware now that this is a controversial subject :wink:

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Just wanted to post a HDPLEX H1 V.3 case pic. Yes, expensive when you add it all up, but a fantastic high-end looking solution for a silent ROCK NUC. Of course, the NUC board install will look a little different. Think I posted one with an actual NUC board in a thread called ā€œShowing off your ROCK setupā€; the second (or bottom) photo. If you visit the HDPLEX site, youā€™ll see a lot of other good visuals!

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