[randytsuch]

Follow up post.

My little PC is working well.  I really like the fanless Streacom case.  I am not using a HDD, so it is silent. 
My xbox power supply that is generating 12V for the PC has a little fan, otherwise there would be no noise at all.

So this configuration, with no HDD or SDD, just a USB stick for holding Daphile as the OS, is using just 24 watts of power.  I have seen spikes up to 40 watts, but almost all the time it draws around 23-24 watts.  The G630 processor I'm using is supposed to be a 65 watt processor, but I'm not asking it to do much, so its not drawing much power.  And this includes playing hirez files, dsd and 24-96/24-192.

Still, I was surprised how little power I am drawing.  If I had a HDD or SDD or CDROM drive it would probably go up some, but if you can keep it to a minimal configuration than you can use a small pico and a smaller 12V supply.

I also measured some temps with an IR thermometer.  Parts of the Pico are getting over 100F, everything else is under 100F at around a 70F room temp.

BTW, I have set up a pogoplug running arch linux and samba acting as a NAS for my music.  I can plug in external SSD's or HDD into the pogo, and then share the music with my Daphile PC. 
The Pogo is connected to my wifi router.  It took a little while to get it working right, but its nice now that it works. 

Randy

[shahed]

When I first got the Anker, I bought it to power the PPA card.  Because it had 2 outputs, I tested it powering both the PPA card, and the SSD.  The sound was horrible. I tried just the PPA card, and while the sound was better than powering both devices, it was still horrible.  Powering just the SSD with the Anker is magical. 

After Christmas, I'll have another battery pack to test if a separate battery on the PPA card will work, but previous testing seems to show my PPA card hates these batteries and loves the pico. 

The next step that could be interesting is to power just the CPU with a battery or linear.  I've read success stories with a couple of people, but I'm not sure if I'll try it or not.

While a battery supply worked with the Atom based CAPS severs, I'm not so sure that it's very practical with the higher powered machines.  But if you'd like to read a 400 post thread on the subject of linear and battery power for higher powered machines, here it is:

http://jplay.eu/forum/computer-audio/linear-power-supply-for-pico-psu-anyone-done-this/

Hi Terry,

Any updates on your experiment with psu? Are you still using the FSP smps to power your pico? Did you get a chance to try linear psu/battery with your pico? How about battery/linear psu for PPA and powering up CPU separately?

Thx,

[TJHUB]

Hi Terry,

Any updates on your experiment with psu? Are you still using the FSP smps to power your pico? Did you get a chance to try linear psu/battery with your pico? How about battery/linear psu for PPA and powering up CPU separately?

Thx,

I have no updates because I had experimented enough to find the best sound for me.  I still use the pico with the FSP, and the Anker powering my SSD.  I also moved last month, and I am renovating the room my audio setup is going into.  I am basically starting over, and I don't know how things will turn out.  I hope to be back up and running by the end of August. 

[randytsuch]

So I'm playing more with my PC.

I replaced my xbox power supply with a linear power supply this week, major improvement.  The linear supplies 12VDC to a pico.  I may look for a better pico, but with the one I have there was an obvious improvement.  The xbox supply is now retired.

I'm also playing with software, and will probably try to power the operating system ssd off of a battery, but I think the linear will be the most impact, and the tweaks after that will have a smaller effect.

Randy

[randytsuch]

So I ran into something new yesterday, a heat problem with my motherboard.

I noticed the PCH temp was way high, then found this
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/case-intel-s1200kpr-motherboard-19196/

I have played around with really quiet fans for PC's, so I looked to see what I had around.

I had a 120mm globin win fan sitting around, and a noise magic nmt-3 fan controller.
It sets the fans speed based on its temperature sensor.

With this setup, the PCH temp still gets up there, it was just measuring 81C, but at least it doesn't shutdown, and you need to be within a foot or so of the PC to hear any noise at all.

I may buy a better fan, the Nexus D12SL-12 is nice and not too expensive, I've used them before.

For now, I put fan guards on the top and bottom of the fan, and just kind of layed it inside my case. 

Randy

[dminches]

I went with a fully cooled case because of that motherboard. The chipset gets REALLY hot, as you know.

[randytsuch]

So because of my heat problem, made some major changes this week.

I had a HTPC that was collecting dust, so I decided to cannibalize it for its case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112229

I went to frys, and bought a new active heatsink.
http://www.frys.com/product/8046024

This heatsink is not too expensive, and it blows down, so it cools the northbridge too.

I am taking most of the stuff out of the case, like the dvd drive and some hard drives I had in it.

I started tweaking the power supply arrangement, I may start a new thread on that subject.
I think it makes a big difference in the sound, I'm very happy with how it sounds right now, and I'm not done yet.
Current power arrangement is a 12VDC linear driving a pico, but I am running 12VDC directly from the linear to the motherboard, bypassing the pico. 

The case is big enough so I can add a 5 and 3.3VDC diy linear supply. I still plan to use the pico to generate the logic signals, and maybe for -12VDC.

Randy