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

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by Pider

That sure took me into a whole world of obsession. Good info though.

Can someone tell me why I need more than 4 gigs of memory in my build, or perhaps what I'm not doing that I should. I have 8 gigs of memory right now in my "re-purposed" build and I've never seen it use more than 30% of the memory capacity, if that. I'd like to use less HDD and more of that memory.

I've removed the virtual memory, thinking that would help force things into memory, but no joy there. I have J River to use memory, and when that is running it's the largest user, anywhere from 75-350kb.

I do see that approximately 5mb is classified as standby, meaning that there is something cached there that is not actively in use. So does this mean that I am in fact using all 8mb but I see only what is actively being used?

Did I just answer my own question?

How do you like those silent PC cases that look like power amps?

My initial FLAC player build had 4GB Ram, latest one has 8, simply because ram is cheap. J-River ran just fine in previous versions with 4GB.

I do turn as many background tasks off as possible, but now that you mention it, I think I left the virtual memory enabled on this last build. Although I can't imagine any swap file activity is needed when running a single app. I'm trying to remember, I think if the swap file/virtual memory is on, Windows does report the swap file as "memory" and really doesn't identify if it's ram or HD..I could be all wet about this, I gave up years ago trying to figure out what Windows is doing with memory management.

I'll have a look at the memory info on my latest build just to see what's going on.

[-E-]

Windows is notoriously bad at memory management. As a general rule: you never want to minimize or disable swap or virtual - let the system decide for itself.

As far as quantity of memory, more is usually better (just for system 'smoothness'), but 4 gb is fine (and max if you are in a 32-bit environment), or 8+ for 64-bit. You mainly want to get low-profile RAM that is compatible with the CPU cooler you chose (if any) or RAM with the largest heatsinks out there (if you are running passive CPU). Lower voltage on the SPD is also recommended since that will also generate less heat. Rayoo said it best: RAM is cheap - so build to what you need. There is also absolutely no benefit for going to a 64-bit OS if you are only putting in 4gb of RAM, since JRiver and every other media player we use are 32-bit native environments (you see no performance gain either way).

In response to Elberoth's disagreement; noted. These drives are quieter, but I can still hear them (and in a considerable fashion). I also know how drives generate heat, and how they die off rapidly if that heat is not exhausted somehow. I would never, ever put in a single drive of important data without some sort of redundancy via RAID (whether it be local, NAS, SAM, or offsite). That, and 750gb just doesn't cut it in my world. Considering the work that I or any of my clients put into building a massive data library (whether it be their music, or other IT based highly sensitive data projects), it just isn't worth not doing it the right way the first time.

[Pider]

Ok. Update time.

Received the 2.5" 1 Tb HDD and installed it. Even with my ear to next to it, I can barely hear it when operating (copying files to it, nothing being read right now).

I will now load W7 onto the SSD, set it up as a minimal system as per suggestions elsewhere, load J River, load some sort of remote s/w to use it from the iPad headless (suggestions welcome), hook it all up to the HRT and see how it all sounds, both in terms of music and from a noise perspective. If okay and not annoying, I'll get a TV card and try to build a HTPC. If that all proves successful, then I'll purpose build one with all new components and turn this thing into a NAS.

You just can't have too many projects and too much fun!

[-E-]

Sounds good, Pider.

Keep us updated!

[Pider]

I certainly will.

So far everything is stable and performing nicely. I just need to get it all working in such a manner that there are no interface hassles for Mel using either the iPad or iPhone remote apps. Then I think I might just buy some more music and enjoy listening for a few months. It's time to be outside more.

Thanks everyone for all the help, but I must say that I can't wait for the final "start from scratch" build so I can get the NAS up and running. Having the 2.5" HDD is okay, and it really isn't loud enough to matter (you have to be REAL quiet to actually hear it at all), but I am already not happy not having a simple RAID / backup system in place. I've backed everything up, but I keep having a nervous, unsettled feeling.

Anyway, nothing like playing with big boy tinker toys!

[Rayooo]

Originally Posted by Pider

I certainly will.

So far everything is stable and performing nicely. I just need to get it all working in such a manner that there are no interface hassles for Mel using either the iPad or iPhone remote apps. Then I think I might just buy some more music and enjoy listening for a few months. It's time to be outside more.

Thanks everyone for all the help, but I must say that I can't wait for the final "start from scratch" build so I can get the NAS up and running. Having the 2.5" HDD is okay, and it really isn't loud enough to matter (you have to be REAL quiet to actually hear it at all), but I am already not happy not having a simple RAID / backup system in place. I've backed everything up, but I keep having a nervous, unsettled feeling.

Anyway, nothing like playing with big boy tinker toys!

Speaking of backup....I'm approaching 300GB of "high res" and it really has begun to set in that replacing it from a catastrophic failure in the NAS would be just about impossible. I've got an identical NAS now that Syncs with the primary one every night. Hopefully this will keep things safe, but, then again...

[-E-]

And people wonder why I run RAID10's with near-religious fashion...

The best backup is one you should never have to worry about.