Help on Optimizing Dedicated PC as Music Server

Tboooe,
I will give Windows Server + Audiophile optimizer a try at a later time. Like to live with the freshly installed Windows 7 for a while before switching over to make a fair comparison between the two OS. Thank you.



Bill K,
I've changed the settings on my PC using Sweetwater's Optimization Guide. Thank you.

Goulsonc,
I have an ASUS Xonar STX sound card on hand. I will give that a try. BTW, what USB/Spdif converter(s) have you tried? Thank you.

I will post my findings as I run through all the different parameters and configurations as suggested. Thank you all for your inputs!

Norm, understood. Try out Fidelizer as it also optimizes your OS for better sound quality. I used it for my Win 7 install as well and thought it made some improvements. Not bad for free.

Hi Norm, USB straight out the computer has always been pretty horrid for me.

First, I'd recommend an interface to isolate the USB and reduce USB noise - the iFi iUSB and Schiit Wyrd do similar jobs.

In terms of USB-S/PDIF converters, there are so many out there at the moment, you could take your pick at any price level. A lot may depend on what your ML sounds best with. For USB-RCA, I'd recommend the iFi iLink, for USB-BNC, I'd recommend the Audiophileo, and for USB-AES, I'd recommend the Yellowtec PUC2 Lite, which I currently use with my NAD M51.

Here's something I am working on.

An Intel Celeron NUC with 8GB of RAM and 120GB SSD.

An HD-Plex Linear Power Supply

I'll see if there's enough juice to run my usual DSD2x up sampling. I suspect it might. My old Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz Mini ran that fine and I think the Haswell gen Celeron might even beat that.

Excellent comments by the others. And a nicely chosen build, Norm. (I believe, though, that there is a typo in the CPU part number you indicated; you probably meant i7-4770k).

Regarding whether or not to perform the Windows Updates, assuming you are accessing the internet with the computer at times, if only to download and install the software that has been referred to, I would not do that with an unpatched computer. Windows 7 SP1 is more than 3 years out of date with respect to security patches, and I've seen multiple instances of attempted installations of malicious software from the web pages of even via major and highly reputable sites, in those cases from infected third-party ad servers providing ads on the pages.

Regarding eventual installation of Windows Server, you may want to consider eventually doing that as a dual boot with Windows 7, so you can select and run either one at start-up. Since not much data will be stored on the SSD, I suspect that 120gB should be adequate for both. I would strongly recommend against using Windows built-in multiboot manager, however, for various reasons relating to the fact that it doesn't keep the two installations truly independent. I use Terabyte Unlimited's BootIt BM for multibooting, with excellent results. Also, it includes a partition manager that can resize a Windows partition (among many other features), and it can be purchased as a package with an excellent and inexpensive disk imaging program. No affiliation, other than as a happy customer.

Finally, given that you are using an SSD make sure that scheduled defragmentation is turned off for that drive. On several occasions when I've installed W7 onto an SSD I've found that Windows has by default scheduled a periodic defragmentation, which should not be done for an SSD.

Enjoy! Regards,
-- Al