Things have not exactly gone to plan. I was getting some random crashes, so I thought I would re-install the OS. Each time, with Ubuntu and with Mint I would get errors on the install. I thought it was the hard drive (it was saying input/output errors and a heat warning, but the CPU was cold), a 250gb Samsung EVO NVME. Anyway, I pulled it out of the NUC, no mean feat in a fanless install, and checked it, I even formatted and did a surface scan, all ok. ROCK installed ok, and just finishing that now. No errors installed ROCK, perhaps I will use it for a while and see if I get any issues.
I guess I need to think about a seperate HQ Player machine. Or a server perhaps with linux virtualised?? Dunno. Any thoughts on a low-ish power CPU but also powerful?
Yeah, itās all about how much you want to pay for increase in computing. If the OP, or anyone, has no budget constraints then I would agree that waiting for the M1x Mini is the way to go. But I expect it to be almost double the price of the now widely discounted M1 mini. Is the difference in HQPlayer upsampling worth that cost and can you perceive the difference in your system? Each person has to make that determination given budget and audio system resolution.
See the discussion we are having about using a new Apple Silicon Mac mini. Going to be the most powerful CPU you can get for the power budget. Upcoming M1x will be even better if you are willing to pay for it.
Iād say it is best to not make any assumptions about M1x (or however it will be called) until it is actually out and tested. If they cut at all on core clocks when adding more cores, it will be actually worse than M1ā¦
Bit of an update - I am back to where I started, sort of. The NUC fanless, is now in my server cupboard, due to its noisey spinning drive, however it had issues when I tried to run Ubuntu and then Linux Mint, the drive checked out ok, but something wasnt happy, so I have put ROCK back onto it, and its playing happily again. So no joing ROCK, HQ Player machine using the NUC.
Thinking about other options, I am not favouring a smaller machine, the Mac M1 or another NUC as an HQ Player machine but rather a larger desktop is my preference (to use away from listening room), but I donāt have lots of money to spend right now. So, I have a plan b, or is it c?? I have a HP desktop i3 6100, that I have tried out as a router recently not being used much, I have already swapped fans and added a new decent PSU. So I am wondering about going a bit futher and grabbing a second hand CPU, motherboard and ram and swapping them out. Perhaps an i7 9700 with 16gig of ram?? And until then, I was going to see how the current i3 fared with PCM. Sound like a plan?
Certainly! With this, it is certainly best option to use HQPlayer OS. You donāt need much RAM, no disk needed as you can boot from a USB memory stick, and should give you pretty good performance. Two build variants to try out from, āgenericā and āamdā. The āamdā one works also on bigger Intel CPUs (Core series).
Of course if you already have HQPlayer Desktop license, you can just install Ubuntu Desktop, Linux Mint or Fedora Workstation on it and HQPlayer Desktop there. Should give pretty similar performance, but needs some disk for the OS and some work installation work.
The i3 is running Linux Mint at the moment and HQ Player desktop. I have it running PCM at the moment, poly-sinc-mp, LNS15, upscaled to 76khz (and pipeline matrix - HAF filters). I have only adaptive checked. This is all going to my RME ADI-2 DAC. The PC seems to be around <20% load on the CPU and around 20-30c, so pretty good. I might try DSD in a bit. What are the more demanding PCM settings?
I downloaded the latest Ubuntu from their website this week, not sure which version now. The bios is up to date I think.
Install the HQPD control v4 app on your phone/tablet. You can change the settings there for testing. Or via web browser. This works for embedded, not sure about desktop.
I am not sure the i3 is up to these. I tried poly-sinc-gauss-xl(a) and poly-sinc-ext3 and got stuttering. However I am now using poly-sinc-ext2 quite happily, obviously still with PCM.
Ok, new, new plan, plan c? plan d? Not sure. Anyway, I like the i3, so obviously I am going to replace it. Officially, I am updating the PC, unofficially I am only keeping the PSU, and the fans. I am planning an i7 9700 cpu (from my gaming PC), a new but 1151 cheapish Gigabyte motherboard. New Samsung NVME, again, cheapish, 500gb. A second hand corsair water cooler, new Corsair 3200 16mg ram (2x8). Probably a new but cheapish roomy desktop tower.
I am still planning to run linux mint with Roon server and HQ Player. Any thoughts?
Interesting watch! I have a corsair next to me on the gaming PC, the H115i PRO and its not loud particularly. But it is in the PC I want to turn off when listening from the main zone. I do notice it at quiet points in music, hence this thread. I will have a look at air now too.
Iām using Fractal Design Define-series cases. Those come with sound proofing and quiet fans. PSUās are Seasonic fanless or hybrid fan (fan is off at low loads and increases speed as needed). Then I use the biggest Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler. BIOS fan profiles set to āSilentā. Iāve been happy with the results.
