[drez]

Forget voltage regulator - any decent PSU will do this better.  Modern PSU's have DC voltage regulation which is far more accurate than AC voltage regulation.
 
Ditch the graphics card.
 
Use the simplest motherboard available such as:http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-DH61AG-Mini-ITX-Motherboard?sc=8&category=1177
 
Ditch the i7 and go with a low power i5
 
Chose ram for low latency not clock speed.
 
Use a power supply with lower ripple - somthing like this: http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/.f
 
If you must go full power Antec CP-850 has lowest ripple available.
 
If you can go fanless and power peripherals from external power supply (eg external hard drive, external DVD-ROM)
 
Buy JPlay

 
You definitely don't want to over-specify a music PC - less is more, and more is less for sound quality.
 
You could always just buy one of these instead: http://www.auraliti.com/Store.html

 

[Szadzik]

 
Quote:

Forget voltage regulator - any decent PSU will do this better.  Modern PSU's have DC voltage regulation which is far more accurate than AC voltage regulation.
 
Ditch the graphics card.
 
Use the simplest motherboard available such as:http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-DH61AG-Mini-ITX-Motherboard?sc=8&category=1177
 
Ditch the i7 and go with a low power i5
 
Chose ram for low latency not clock speed.
 
Use a power supply with lower ripple - somthing like this: http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/.f
 
If you must go full power Antec CP-850 has lowest ripple available.
 
If you can go fanless and power peripherals from external power supply (eg external hard drive, external DVD-ROM)
 
Buy JPlay

 
You definitely don't want to over-specify a music PC - less is more, and more is less for sound quality.
 
You could always just buy one of these instead: http://www.auraliti.com/Store.html

I think you mis-read my post. 
 
I am not buying a PC JUST for audio. It is going to my home PC so it needs to be powerful for graphics editing and stuff like that. No graphics-ditching will be happening.
 
I will take your advice about PSU as it seems reasonable, thanks. 
 

 

[drez]

No worries - yo can still get some good results from a workstation type build as long as you don't go nuts with heaps of peripherals, graphics cards etc.
 
Makes it really difficult to troubleshoot when something goes wrong with audio if you have too many drivers running.
 
Worst things for audio latency though are wireless card and bluetooth, as well as antivirus.
 
Depending on your budget MAC are quite good for audio - they just suck for gaming.
 
Good luck with your build!

 

[NamelessPFG]

Are you planning to do any gaming whatsoever on this machine, or is it purely for media production and general use?

 

[Szadzik]

Quote:

No worries - yo can still get some good results from a workstation type build as long as you don't go nuts with heaps of peripherals, graphics cards etc.
 
Makes it really difficult to troubleshoot when something goes wrong with audio if you have too many drivers running.
 
Worst things for audio latency though are wireless card and bluetooth, as well as antivirus.
 
Depending on your budget MAC are quite good for audio - they just suck for gaming.
 
Good luck with your build!

 
No Bluetooth will be installed, WiFi will be there for sure, no options here.
 
I have been using MSE since its release and I think it is the best choice for antivirus ATM.
 
I do not enjoy any Apple products, too much brainwashing coming from that company and I like to customize my PC the way I like and Macs do not give you that option.

 

[Szadzik]

Quote:

Are you planning to do any gaming whatsoever on this machine, or is it purely for media production and general use?

No gaming. Mainly HD video, graphics, general use.

 

[loopfreak]

I suppose you are using a stopwatch, sorry I did not know.
Quote:

Totally untrue. 
 
When you have an SSD you disable Prefetch ans Superfetch as they are both less effective than using an SSD. I have 8GB RAM in my laptop and that had little effect on the overall speed of opening applications. When opening appliations like Nikon Capture NX, Excel, Word I still had to wait a few moments for them to start up, even though they are used frequently and certainly remembered by Prefetch. When I changed to SSD the difference in the speed is enormous and other things like searching, opening windows and everything else. An unbelievable performance boost. And I am talking about a laptop with good specs too.
 

 

 

[Szadzik]

 
Quote:

I suppose you are using a stopwatch, sorry I did not know.
 

 
 
Not using a stopwatch, but if you use applications that are slowed down by the HDD, like editing RAW images, you will see a huge difference.

 

[loopfreak]

 
If you are displaying your picture library then alright but for editing e.g. adobe needs ram as much as you can put on your mobo primarily...
 
EDIT: And you 60gb ssd will have plenty of space for OS and storing RAW images, I highly suspect that.

 
Quote:

 


 
 
Not using a stopwatch, but if you use applications that are slowed down by the HDD, like editing RAW images, you will see a huge difference.

 

 

[Szadzik]

Quote:

 
If you are displaying your picture library then alright but for editing e.g. adobe needs ram as much as you can put on your mobo primarily...

And what keeps all the cache? 100MB per file, the drive of course. And you will see a huge difference reading and writing to that file on an SSD over and HDD.
 
Please stopp telling me that SSD is useless as I have been using it for 5 months now and see huge improvement in overall speed of my laptop.
 

 

[loopfreak]

Sorry again....

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

 
The specs will be something like this:
 
Intel i7-2700
8GB RAM DDRIII - 12800
Some mid to high-end GPU
SSD for OS and HDD for data
USB 2 and 3.
 
 
Thanks in advance for your input,
Szadzik

I'm currently building a dedicated PC to use as a JPlay music server, so I can make some suggestions. For the motherboard, I went with the MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3). I used to be 100% ASUS, but their QC has been slipping lately from what I've seen. The MSI also uses very high quality caps and components (part of their "Military class" range) and has a very good warranty. Processor is up to you. For RAM, I've had good luck with G.skill. For your SSD - Intel 320 or 510 series, or the Crucial M4. Avoid Sandforce based drives, and OCZ especially. Platter hard drive is up to you, Seagate and WD are really the only ones left, and high capacity drives are pretty much a crap shoot in terms of whether they will work at all and for how long. Sad state of affairs, but that's how it is. Backup software is your friend.
 
The Seasonic X series gets my highest recommendation for power supply. Voltage regulation and ripple are extremely tight, much better than anything made by Antec or just about anyone else. Further, Seasonic is an OEM, you're not buying some CWT or FSP rebadge. The X-560 is the best of the lot in terms of ripple and that's what I went with, but it may not be enough power depending on how powerful your graphics card is. The X-660 and X-760 are still incredibly good power supplies, though.
 
For audio, you can go with a Lynx card and a custom AES/EBU output cable, but the best option IMO is the SoTM USB card, and a USB converter or DAC. The JKMK3 Hiface, Audiophilleo, and Empirical Off-Ramp are all great choices for converters.

 

[Szadzik]

 
Quote:

I'm currently building a dedicated PC to use as a JPlay music server, so I can make some suggestions. For the motherboard, I went with the MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3). I used to be 100% ASUS, but their QC has been slipping lately from what I've seen. The MSI also uses very high quality caps and components (part of their "Military class" range) and has a very good warranty. Processor is up to you. For RAM, I've had good luck with G.skill. For your SSD - Intel 320 or 510 series, or the Crucial M4. Avoid Sandforce based drives, and OCZ especially. Platter hard drive is up to you, Seagate and WD are really the only ones left, and high capacity drives are pretty much a crap shoot in terms of whether they will work at all and for how long. Sad state of affairs, but that's how it is. Backup software is your friend.
 
The Seasonic X series gets my highest recommendation for power supply. Voltage regulation and ripple are extremely tight, much better than anything made by Antec or just about anyone else. Further, Seasonic is an OEM, you're not buying some CWT or FSP rebadge. The X-560 is the best of the lot in terms of ripple and that's what I went with, but it may not be enough power depending on how powerful your graphics card is. The X-660 and X-760 are still incredibly good power supplies, though.
 
For audio, you can go with a Lynx card and a custom AES/EBU output cable, but the best option IMO is the SoTM USB card, and a USB converter or DAC. The JKMK3 Hiface, Audiophilleo, and Empirical Off-Ramp are all great choices for converters.

Wow, Dave - that is a lot of good advice. I will make sure I re-read your post when looking at the PC to be bought and use some of your advice. 
 
As for SSDs, I have no preference right now, even though I am very happy with OCZ Vertex 3 at the moment I will not be making any assumptions. AFAIR, Intel 510 is a series of very good SSDs and I might buy one of them. For HDD I will go for whatever is available as the same as I have no trust in any fo the current manufacturers. 
 
Also good advice about PSUs, this is something I am not very up to date with as I have not used a desktop PC (apart from work) for a long time.
 
Audio is going to be USB>SPDIF>DAC.
 

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

Also good advice about PSUs, this is something I am not very up to date with as I have not used a desktop PC (apart from work) for a long time.
 
Audio is going to be USB>SPDIF>DAC.

Jonnyguru.com is probably the best resource on the web for computer power supplies. Basically you're looking for good build quality, good capacitors (Seasonic uses all Nippon Chemi-Con), efficiency, and a firm grasp of voltage and DC output, which should remain right up to 100% of the available power and beyond. Here's their review of the X-760: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=235
 
The new Empirical Off-Ramp 5 is probably the best USB>S/Pdif converter on the market, but it starts at $1099. The JKMK3 Hiface and the Audiophilleo 2 are still very good and are around $500 or so.
 

 

[drez]

Quote:

I'm currently building a dedicated PC to use as a JPlay music server, so I can make some suggestions. For the motherboard, I went with the MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3). I used to be 100% ASUS, but their QC has been slipping lately from what I've seen. The MSI also uses very high quality caps and components (part of their "Military class" range) and has a very good warranty. Processor is up to you. For RAM, I've had good luck with G.skill. For your SSD - Intel 320 or 510 series, or the Crucial M4. Avoid Sandforce based drives, and OCZ especially. Platter hard drive is up to you, Seagate and WD are really the only ones left, and high capacity drives are pretty much a crap shoot in terms of whether they will work at all and for how long. Sad state of affairs, but that's how it is. Backup software is your friend.
 
The Seasonic X series gets my highest recommendation for power supply. Voltage regulation and ripple are extremely tight, much better than anything made by Antec or just about anyone else. Further, Seasonic is an OEM, you're not buying some CWT or FSP rebadge. The X-560 is the best of the lot in terms of ripple and that's what I went with, but it may not be enough power depending on how powerful your graphics card is. The X-660 and X-760 are still incredibly good power supplies, though.
 
For audio, you can go with a Lynx card and a custom AES/EBU output cable, but the best option IMO is the SoTM USB card, and a USB converter or DAC. The JKMK3 Hiface, Audiophilleo, and Empirical Off-Ramp are all great choices for converters.

 
Sound advice to avoid OCZ, but are the latest Sandforce also a problem?  They seem to claim pretty high MTBF and warranty.  It is a shame that platter hard drives have gone to cr4p - they don't seem to last more than a couple of years max.
 
Not quite better than CP-850 in terms of ripple from Jonnyguru test, but better voltage regulation.  Seasonic is more expensive, but more functional with fully modular cables and normal form factor.  p183 + CP-850 probably cost $260 altogether, so Seasonic could end up around the same with a cheaper case.  Seasonic do look well built though.
 
I'm not sure how these measure against picoPSU (for dedicated music server) - how did it compare when you were researching your build?
 
What are your results with the SoTM - in my setup I could not get it to sound as good as the onbaoard USB - only thing I can think of is IRQ is shared with all other PCI divices and I'm not sure this can be fixed...  Also shares a bus with lan adapter.  Will see how it turns out when I build a dedicated music server.