[viggen]

I am browsing amazon for mitx motherboards and found here:

https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/GA-B75TN-rev-11#ov

https://www.asrock.com/ipc/overview.asp?Model=IMB-1212#Specification

These motherboards have DC inputs.  Are there advantages of using these as part of a music server?  I imagine the immediate advantage is to power the entire PC with an ebay off the shelf LPS with such ratings: 180W = 19V / 9.47A , 150W = 19V / 7.89A

However, is the perceived benefit in using a MB with DC input realistic?  The obvious drawback is the 180W limit which I am recommended 280watt PSU by cooler master's website:

http://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

[randytsuch]

For a DC input motherboard, there will be a bunch of DC to DC converters on the MB to create all of the different DC voltages required.

For a "normal" motherboard, there would still be DC to DC converters, just not as many of them.

For an audio PC, I would try to keep it low power.  I think my PC uses around 30 watts when its playing music.  Use slower, lower power processors with built in graphics (no external graphics card) and you should be able to keep the power low.  I think those cooler master numbers are a bit high compared to what you'll see in real life, but they make power supplies so I'd expect that.

BTW, I power my audio PC with linear PS's, but I had to find a motherboard that would work with my DIY'ed PS.  When I was playing with this way back, I remember I thought a 12V linear providing power to a little pico PS sounded better than the standard ATX PS I had.

Randy

[WGH]

Are you going down the dedicated music server rabbit hole? It's a lot of fun.

You have a lot of options, even my lowly JetWay JNF96FL-525-LF Intel Atom D525 (1.8GHz, Dual-Core) Mini ITX Motherboard has a DC input using a 12v, 60W, 5A power brick. The advantage of the AtomD525 is it is low power and easily passive cooled, the server is silent. The disadvantage is it is slow but still runs hi-res flac files, Windows 10 with JRiver just fine. If you plan to do a lot of DSP then a faster CPU would be suggested.

Motherboards and chipsets generate noise so it doesn't matter if you get the best LPS for the server, the internal noise will compromise the sound. The best solution is separate linear PSU's (3) for the motherboard, USB card and SSD. The easiest solution is to get a Paul Pang PSU for the USB card and SSD:
http://ppaproduct.blogspot.com/2014/03/120w-linear-psu.html

And while your there get the excellent Paul Pang USB card, I use the V2:
http://ppaproduct.blogspot.com/2013/07/audio-grade-usb-30-pcie-card.html

The best USB cable I have heard in my system is the affordable JMaxwell, whenever I switch to another cable all the magic is gone
http://www.jmaxwellusb.com/

Ken, JMaxwell's designer, just built a regulated self charging battery supply for his server using the latest battery technology (think Tesla). I heard it recently and it is excellent. Inquire at the JMaxwell website.

Wayne

[viggen]

My current set up is a Lenovo M700 used as an HTPC that sends a video signal to a panny tv and an audio signal to a dac.  The M700 is powered by an ebay LPS seen here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-100VA-12V-6A-Low-Noise-R-core-DC-LPS-Linear-Power-Supply-display-L165-26-/121996730768?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

What I had intended to do, since I just moved and need a change space wise, is to move my speakers from my tv to where my desk is.  The PC I use at the desk is mainly for photoshop.  And, I want to build a pc that is above average for both photoshop and audio with obvious compromises to the audio since the itx motherboard would need to have a decent cpu with an external quadra gpu.

I suppose, based on what's said above regarding the DC to DC converters etc., moving from the M700 HTPC which is essentially a PC with DC input to a PC with mother board that has a DC input is essentially a wash and maybe even a step backwards.

Doing an all out audio pc is out of the budget at the moment.  I was just considering using the existingLPS PSU I have and use the startech USB adapter card which I think is the stock Paul Pang unit before he does his magic to it:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ITJ7X9K/?coliid=IHURA1RX00EG5&colid=3P4QQVF7CRLLV&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

[WGH]

Since you are going for an above average graphics computer then stick with the 280W PSU, the more the better. A high end GPU, lots of RAM and a couple of spinning back up drives will suck up a lot of power, spontaneous re-boots in the middle of a project is no fun (and damn hard to track down but it's always the ps). An full size ASUS motherboard, Crucial ram, and the fastest Intel i7 you can afford will give you a very solid system. Working with Photoshop with large files open, email in the background, Firefox hanging out, while watching a downloaded blu-ray movie with VLC player would bring an underpowered computer to it's knees.

You have to make sure your GPU will fit on an ITX board and leave a slot open for the USB card. Your case has to be tall enough too. I like the Antec Silent mid-tower cases, lots of room and easy to work in along with PC Power & Cooling Silencer power supplies.
https://antec.com/product/case.php#

[viggen]

The PC I use for my photo hobby uses an i7 4750T processor with 12GB ram.  I would most likely carry these over to the new PC.  And, I plan to get a Quadra 3800 card.  These don't draw a lot of power, so I was planning on getting this corsair PSU:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CGGOXWQ/?coliid=IO7RVME3ZQDLO&colid=3P4QQVF7CRLLV&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

However, I would prefer to have a more audio friendly "clean power" psu so that is why I started looking at the MB with DC input.

My case should be tall enough.  It's the NCASE which I bought like 3 years ago but never got around to do anything with it:

http://ncases.com/

With that said, I am leaning on moving my stereo to it's own space to my wife's chagrin and move the M700 there to do the audio serving.  And, use something else for HTPC.