Hey everyone, as I finish listening and writing up the second part of the 3e Audio Class D amplifiers review probably correlating with the release of the product soon, I thought I'd put a "quickie" post up this week on an update to my home SERVER computer.
As discussed in 2017, here at home, there are 3 main computers (WORKSTATION, SERVER, GAMING) that form the foundation for my day-to-day "digital" life and to some extent for the family as well. Over time, each of the machines get upgraded as needed. Last year, I stuck in the nVidia RTX 4090 GPU into my Workstation for AI/LLM work. Plus I upgraded the Gaming machine CPU (GPU upgrade soon 😁).
Other than replacing aging hard drives and updating the 10GbE network card, the Server really hasn't needed much attention over time. With the release of Windows Server 2025 OS in November, I figure this would be a good time to update the workhorse.
I suspect many of us are not just audiophiles but also tech geeks to some extent. This likely means we have computer parts hanging around to put together; a perfect project when upgrading Workstations and Gaming PCs would be to use those bits and pieces in the Server machine which doesn't have to be the latest-and-greatest. In fact, we probably want to prioritize lower 24/7 power use over processing speed. Here's what the inside of the Server looks like:
As you can see, I have a number of SATA hard drives, in total 30TB of storage now. The machine is still powered by the Intel i7-7700K CPU that I put in in 2019 and the same Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 motherboard examined in 2016. 32GB DDR4 RAM. In this machine is my whole music collection since I bought my first CD perhaps in 1989 (all ripped CD's, digital downloads, multichannels, DSD, vinyl needledrops, meticulously tagged of course!), all the measurements and data from "experiments" done for this blog, backups of family & travel photos, home videos, ripped movies, and other data backups from family members. This hardware is what I run my Roon Server on and I have a Linux virtual machine for Logitech Music Server as discussed before [Lyrion Music Server - as per comments]. Oh yeah, I also host my work website off this machine with online streaming videos and lectures.
[No, subjective-only audiophiles, doing all this stuff behind the scenes by the CPU does not impact Roon/LMS sound quality from a server unless you're frequently hammering the processor at almost 100% leaving inadequate cycles to serve the data - Bits Are Bits, no FUD. This is why I see expensive dedicated computers as discussed seem so wasteful and ridiculously neurotic among certain audiophiles!]
So even though this machine doesn't have the latest and greatest hardware, in a fire, assuming everyone is safe, if there's one thing I would want to save, it would be this machine with all my music and digital memories!
I know many of you run servers with some variant of the Linux operating system. Obviously, it's very popular to use Linux in audiophile music servers since there's quite a bit of functionality available and free to implement in commercial applications. Out of convenience, I started with Windows Server and I must say that it has been very stable for more than a decade. Sure, every few years, it's reasonable to refresh the operating system and I don't mind paying Microsoft some money for the latest license. Since installing Server 2019 in 2020, I skipped over Server 2022 and I thought it's reasonable to upgrade to Windows Server 2025 Standard now. Since this is just a consumer installation and in fact I won't be using many of the Server features, the main benefit is to get the kernel and drivers up to the current Windows 11 level of compatibility with higher security, data-server robustness, faster data transfer speed (IOPs with NVMe) and reliability. For example, I can now use the latest Marvell 3.1.10.0 version of their AQtion 10GbE network driver which previously installed but refused to work on Server 2019 (currently running GigaPlus AQC113 card in the machine).
While early still, I've had no issues with the OS update, smooth UI, no speed concerns and stable after many hours running benchmarks through the 10GbE network, multi-device audio/video streaming, and other torture-testing.
A disappointment I know many users had with Microsoft when they released Windows 11 was that even with a motherboard implementing TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, they refused to support 7th Generation "Kaby Lake" CPUs (2016-2020) including the Intel i7-7700K I have here (see CPU list). Not sure why this was. There have been conspiracy theories about forcing users to upgrade hardware. Others have said that internal data showed high hardware failure rates with the i7-7700K CPU - maybe because it was popular with overclockers squeezing out every MHz?
Well, there's no problem installing Windows Server 2025 on the Intel i7-7700K CPU:
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| Speed Shift dynamic frequency scaling doing its thing with GHz bouncing around... |
Windows Server 2025, as Microsoft's latest Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release, is scheduled to have mainstream upgraded feature support to 2029 (5 years) and extended support to 2034 (another 5 years) for security issues/bugs; this Server install could be good to the mid-2030's. Based on previous history, I'll probably have long upgraded by 2034. 🙂
Arguably, "Moore's Law is dead". When it comes to the needs of most users, the demand for an incessant doubling of computing power (or cell phone upgrades, or storage capacity, or WiFi speed, or RAM capacity, or Ethernet speed, etc.) with anything close to the gains and rates of hardware upgrades we experienced back in the '90s and early '00s has significantly reduced. As such, it makes sense unless we see "killer apps" come our way that we won't need OS upgrades too frequently either. In fact, these days, those "killer apps" probably are more likely cloud-based like ChatGPT than complex software we need to run on local hardware. So when it comes to OS upgrades, it makes sense to just hold out for maybe every two LTSC releases - like maybe Windows Server 2031 for my next upgrade around 2030?! I would not be surprised if in 2030, other than replacements to the hard drives/SSDs, this current 32GB DDR4, Intel i7-7700K CPU, 10GbE network card machine is still all I need on the hardware side.
Well, I couldn't just do an update without some hardware improvement, right? 😏
Let's stick the OS on a new WD Black SN850X 1TB NVMe SSD for speed and reputation for reliability which can be had for less than US$90 currently - look for holiday deals. 1TB NVMe prices have dropped since the inflationary 2022-2023 period and as usual, these things get cheaper with capacity and competition:
Prices bouncing around but very reasonable for the last year. I suspect there's a high risk of a deflationary recession next year globally so if you want to buy more expensive stuff, you might be able to pick up good deals in 2025.
A quickie post... Have a great week ahead, friends!
Hi, Archimago
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post - I've been running a server on Linux NAS myself, with a 500GB (also meticulously tagged) music collection. I have not tried LMS (it's discontinued I believe), but I've been using MinimServer and UPNP, and I find it sounds better than Roon and RAAT (not a change in the "I now have a liquid midrange" department, but a slightly more clear sound, less veiled). If you have all your music properly tagged, Roon does not offer the same advantage as for people who don't, so have you ever compared Roon/RAAT to LMS/UPNP or other server and UPNP? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts, if you also find any sonic improvements or if my head is playing tricks on me (which may well be, as we know).
Thanks for all the interesting writings!
Greeting jorge,
DeleteA Linux NAS works well and certainly will get the job done :-).
Before I consolidated everything on this Server computer, I also had a Linux-based NAS and at one time also had the HP Home Server box. Back then I was purely based on LMS. Everything sounded good then.
Through the years I have done testing with LMS as well as Roon/RAAT and I've always found that lossless transmission never made an audible or measurable difference through the hardware here at home. As usual watch out for digital processing that might be happening like ReplayGain for volume normalization or whatever effect digital volume control might be changing.
Otherwise, "Bits Are Bits" on my end! 🙂
LMS still exist but with a new name : https://lyrion.org/getting-started/
ReplyDeleteThanks, Claude - I will check it, but I've been very happy with Minim Server!
DeleteThanks for the update Claude!
DeleteI see this transition just happened in late November. I'll have to update the old version I'm using on the VM.
Just updated my LMS Linux VM to Lyrion v.9.0.0. Seamless and no issues coming from LMS 8.5. Long live the Squeezebox system and lineage! ☺️
DeleteArch-
ReplyDeleteJust curious as to why you run WS and not just regular Win 11 Pro. What's the advantage?
I also didn't know about Lyrion - am installing it now.
Hey Danny,
DeleteI guess there's some basic comfort and familiarity there by this stage for me. I started putting the Server together I think around 2012-2013 which means it was the time of Windows 8 for most consumers and I just hated that interface for a server system plus wasn't impressed by the stability issues and driver concerns. I suppose I could have gone with Linux but given my familiarity with Windows and the ability to share software with my desktop computers, decided to try out Windows Server 2012 (I mentioned my Server 2012 R2 machine in 2015).
And so it just evolved from there I guess.
I could try a Win 11 Pro set-up today and I think it'll be totally fine, although if I stick with the i7-7700K CPU there are those installation issues. But a decade ago, Windows Server was definitely a much more stable installation with reliable speed through the network, not as many resets with updates every week, etc.
"Server 2025 recommends that the machine has TMP 2.0 but this is also not strictly enforced." Should this be TPM?
ReplyDelete