PC - HDD Based Transport, Music & Media Players

[moserw]

@suprateep - Firstly what s/w do you use for overclocking/underclocking? I used to use Riva Tuner in the past. The thing is I had a 3.2GHz P4 before that I overclocked along with my NVIDIA Graphics Card but I never had the desired results. To be honest I was not bothered about underclocking, but more in overclocking since I wanted a PC on steroids. However, I found going for a new Mobo and a dual core and a quad core worked out much better in terms of the performance boost I was looking for and overclocking did not give me that much juice. Sound is not much of an issue for me (I find my PC silent with the its local cabinet) and neither is power/electricity usage. Anyways I do not use my PC for movies except for ripping and conversion, but it's on 24/7 and blasting music for the most part. I use a standalone DVDP and a Blu-Ray player to watch movies on the TV and HT setup.

@suri - Do share with us what your requirements are (as they vary from person to person). I'm sure we can thrown in lots of suggestions based on your requirements.

dude underclocking is a good idea for an HTPC - a better processor gives you better flexibility wrt to rips etc. Underclock like i do (down to 800mhz for amd 7750 hence processor runs cool at 32-25C and good for music and 1200 mhz for dvd rips). HDD (seagate makes no sound), OD (just for ripping), the stock smps is decent in my case, graphics is inbuilt, optical out works great for my mobo Asus m3778em. Plus it can also pass 8 channel LPCM via hdmi.

A internal Xonar can beat a n external budget/middle range DAC even if you upgrade. Options are limitless. You can get a cabinet too that fits in the HT setup.

Flexibity is the name of the game here. For a DAC you may (usually does not happen) face some HW issues, repair etc - for a HTPC if a component goes wrong - just replace it. But seriously setting up a HTPC is work and requires patience. So tread on this slowly.

 

[iaudio]

Interesting reading. Though a bit dated still makes for very interesting reading. Will post more links/articles as and when I come across them...

6moons.com - industry features: An Evolving Scenario - Audiophiles embrace Hard*Drives

But this link suggests external sound cards as the way to go, as these dont have to deal with noise from inside the pc!

 

[moserw]

But this link suggests external sound cards as the way to go, as these dont have to deal with noise from inside the pc!

Like I said at the outset the article is a bit dated. By external sound card these days it means not the onboard but an external one you have to purchase and fix on the mobo. Only in the case of laptops does the soundcard really get to be external via the USB. These days the PC h/w is of another league. HDDs don't make the noise they used to make. In fact with their data transfer rates they are pretty much audiophile quality (from 2001 itself I think). Coming to external soundcard the Asus Xonar pretty much beats everything else out there. I've not had any noise issues with it.

 

[iaudio]

Like I said at the outset the article is a bit dated. By external sound card these days it means not the onboard but an external one you have to purchase and fix on the mobo. Only in the case of laptops does the soundcard really get to be external via the USB. These days the PC h/w is of another league. HDDs don't make the noise they used to make. In fact with their data transfer rates they are pretty much audiophile quality (from 2001 itself I think). Coming to external soundcard the Asus Xonar pretty much beats everything else out there. I've not had any noise issues with it.

Moser ji, the asus soundcard thats been getting rave reviews, is it essence stx or stk?
Also when using the essence stx, how much of a role do the rest of the hardware have? I mean is it ok, if we use the stx in a very budget pc? Will there be significant difference in quality? ( I am asking as you said most hardware these days is noiseless)

 

[moserw]

Moser ji, the asus soundcard thats been getting rave reviews, is it essence stx or stk?
Also when using the essence stx, how much of a role do the rest of the hardware have? I mean is it ok, if we use the stx in a very budget pc? Will there be significant difference in quality? ( I am asking as you said most hardware these days is noiseless)

It's Asus Xonar Essence STX at specs are at ASUSTeK Computer Inc.. Actually all Asus soundcards are good, but for stereo/2.0 output this card is something else. Will beat any CDP many times over it's cost, it's that good.

These are the system requirements -
One PCI Express 1.0 (or higher) compatible slot for the audio card
Microsoft Windows Vista(32/64bit)/XP(32/64bit)/MCE2005
Intel Pentium4 1.4GHz or AMD Athlon 1400 CPU or faster CPU
>256 MB DRAM system memory
>60 MB available HDD space for driver installation package
CD-ROM drive (or DVD-ROM drive) for software installation
High-quality headphones, powered analog speakers, or a Dolby Digital decoder, to enjoy the ultra-high fidelity sounds of the card

If you have this then that's it. In PC h/w there is hardly anything like expensive/budget etc. Some prefer AMD, I prefer Intel. Both are comparable evenly. Ditto for everything else so yes even a so called budget PC if it meets the system requirements will work great. You will need a great pair of powered speakers like Audioengine A5, Altec Lansing FX 5021, Klipsch ProMedia (I can vouch for them since I've used them personally) or maybe if you have a stereo amp and the right speakers.

And bro please drop the "ji"...

 

[gobble]

These days the PC h/w is of another league. HDDs don't make the noise they used to make.

I think the noise being spoken about is usually referring to EMI interference and smps quality power?


Regards

 

[moserw]

I think the noise being spoken about is usually referring to EMI interference and smps quality power?


Regards

The thing is all PCs will have UPS power supply (all my PCs have been protected with APC always) and this is even before the SMPS i.e. the SMPS/PSU is always connected to the UPS. Anyone using a PC will end up with a UPS since it's always better to protect one's h/w. For other electronic equipment like TV, HT unit, DVDP, etc. I've only used stabilizers but not a UPS since it's not recommended but for a PC a UPS is a must even if it does not give much backup battery time. This results in uninterrupted clean continuous power so I don't think there would much of an issue otherwise.

 

[psychotropic]

do the Xonar cards work on PCI slots? or only PCI-e? specifically the Xonar DX?

 

[moserw]

do the Xonar cards work on PCI slots? or only PCI-e? specifically the Xonar DX?

PCI-Express - Xonar Essence STX, Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe, Xonar HDAV1.3, Xonar DX, Xonar D2X

PCI - Xonar D1, Xonar D2/PM

I'm getting the Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe for a friend, shall post my thoughts when it's fixed and working.

 

[suprateep]

@suprateep - Firstly what s/w do you use for overclocking/underclocking? I used to use Riva Tuner in the past. The thing is I had a 3.2GHz P4 before that I overclocked along with my NVIDIA Graphics Card but I never had the desired results. To be honest I was not bothered about underclocking, but more in overclocking since I wanted a PC on steroids. However, I found going for a new Mobo and a dual core and a quad core worked out much better in terms of the performance boost I was looking for and overclocking did not give me that much juice. Sound is not much of an issue for me (I find my PC silent with the its local cabinet) and neither is power/electricity usage. Anyways I do not use my PC for movies except for ripping and conversion, but it's on 24/7 and blasting music for the most part. I use a standalone DVDP and a Blu-Ray player to watch movies on the TV and HT setup.

@suri - Do share with us what your requirements are (as they vary from person to person). I'm sure we can thrown in lots of suggestions based on your requirements.

dude actually its a combination of hw (proccy + mobo) and cooling that gives good results while overclocking.

Anyway I underclock - because while playing mp3 or flac I do not need the amd 7750 to run at 2700 mhz all the time resulting in heat and thereby fannoise. Therefore while i am not ripping dvds (standard hindi/english dvd takes 30 mins for h264.audiocopy 5.1 encoding) - i tune it down to 800 mhz using tools such as k10stat or phenommsrtweaker. Both of them are meant for phenom family of processors (AMD7750 is actually from the phenom family though marked as a athlon). They give the flexibility of declocking/overclockking each core, voltage supplied to proccy and North bridge etc. So while earlier my processor-mbo used to run at 45-55c at load now runs at 35-40C at load conditions.

:clapping:Me like it a lot

 

[suprateep]

PCI-Express - Xonar Essence STX, Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe, Xonar HDAV1.3, Xonar DX, Xonar D2X

PCI - Xonar D1, Xonar D2/PM

I'm getting the Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe for a friend, shall post my thoughts when it's fixed and working.

the xonar hdav 1.3 is a good card on paper at least. Try to get the deluxe version - its got all analog audio outs and can be used to not only passing true hd audio via bitstream through hdmi but easy connecvity via rca cable to stereo amp as when required.

Also sirjee if you can do a review of the same with pics - woudl appreciate that. Wanted to buy the card but at present 13k (2 months back) - its more than my htpc put together.

 

[psychotropic]

how much do the D1 and D2/PM cost?

PCI-Express - Xonar Essence STX, Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe, Xonar HDAV1.3, Xonar DX, Xonar D2X

PCI - Xonar D1, Xonar D2/PM

I'm getting the Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe for a friend, shall post my thoughts when it's fixed and working.

 

[psychotropic]

and Moser, Suprateep, Venkatji....what CD players have you compared your computer based transports to? and how do they fare?

Venkatji, what computer based transport do you have (which sound card etc,.?) and would you be game for us to include that in the shootout that we are planning to do?

 

[moserw]

the xonar hdav 1.3 is a good card on paper at least. Try to get the deluxe version - its got all analog audio outs and can be used to not only passing true hd audio via bitstream through hdmi but easy connecvity via rca cable to stereo amp as when required.

Also sirjee if you can do a review of the same with pics - woudl appreciate that. Wanted to buy the card but at present 13k (2 months back) - its more than my htpc put together.

I'm getting the Deluxe version, costing around 12K or so. Will post my thoughts (not that I'm a reviewer, but still).

 

[suprateep]

and Moser, Suprateep, Venkatji....what CD players have you compared your computer based transports to? and how do they fare?

Venkatji, what computer based transport do you have (which sound card etc,.?) and would you be game for us to include that in the shootout that we are planning to do?

CA DV 99
Pioneer 610/410
Philips 5996
Other run of the mill Samsung & LG

I have never experienced a Oppo 98X series fo dvd players before so cannot comment. But the ease with while certain files (video quality) can be fixed with htpc is infinite.

Case:
1. The Sincity DVD sold in India is marketed by UTV and is in 4:3 format - playing in a 16:9 Tv results in grey bars on either sides. For plasma its bad and results in poor veiewing experience. Using pan and scan in TV results in worse results. With a HTPC with MPC & ffdshow a lot can be recitified.
2. No noise - with a DVD ripped to HDD the sound of spin up spinn down for a scratched DVD/CD is not there - this is one of the biggest plus points.

 

[gobble]

Moserw

Can the Xonar be used as a pre-amp with analog out? Plug directly into main-in of my amp ie?

Regards

 

[spirovious]

how much do the D1 and D2/PM cost?

D1- abt Rs.4500
D2- 7500

 

[psychotropic]

and how do they compare to the DX and D2X in terms of quality? are they comparable? since the prices seem to be comparable....

D1- abt Rs.4500
D2- 7500

 

[spirovious]

and how do they compare to the DX and D2X in terms of quality? are they comparable? since the prices seem to be comparable....

Price of D2 can be more than 7500 in actual market,ebay offers D2X for 11k+
eBay India: Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 Channel PCI Express Sound Card (item 190307730409 end time 20-May-2009 22:30:00 IST)

Comparison & performance tests-

http://audio.rightmark.org/downloads/Xonar_D2_RMAA605_TestGuide_V12.pdf

http://www.hifivision.com/home-theater-pc-htpc-media-pc/3734-soundcard-performance-5.html

 

[moserw]

Moserw

Can the Xonar be used as a pre-amp with analog out? Plug directly into main-in of my amp ie?

Regards

I should think so. I've not tried connecting to an AVR or a stereo amp though till now seeing I've always used so called PC/powered speakers and my PC is in a different room from the HT unit.