HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

The sound of silence.

It really makes a huge difference, no fans, no disk-drives. Just music - and how!

This absurdly over-spec PC was designed for medical use. That means reliability and accuracy; lives can depend on this machine working properly. So we have no WiFi, no CD/DVD drive, no frills.

An Intel Celeron i7 CPU with 4 cores that can run into 'turbo' mode and get to serious processing speeds when required, without generating excessive heat that would need mechanical cooling. 120Gb of SSD storage. Multiple USB 2.0 and 3.0 sockets.

A plain aluminium case, easy to sterilise, with both side-panels acting as finned heatsinks. External 12V medical-grade switching PSU.

Problem was, it wouldn't connect to my monitor so I was running blind. Initial fire-up was with a USB stick to boot Volumio and I had a USB keyboard linked up.
Remembering that with the Acer I had pressed 'F2' to initialise the boot, I did that here and heard a beep from the PC.

Checking 'volumio.home/' on the browser of my phone, the new device appeared - ready for configuration. Hey, we're off! Damn, this thing's fast. Loaded my music library from the NAS in record time and then a quick listening-test. It works.

Time to take the plunge and install Volumio on the internal drive. Bye bye Windows 10 Pro. Didn't need it anyway. Boot stick out and Jitterbugs in. Now down to some proper audition work.

Did I say this PC is fast? Bloody fast. It's starting tracks before you have finished looking them up. Sharp and solid performance on the UI that makes the Tinkerboard feel sluggish.

And finally the sound. Incredible. Open, smooth, detail, definition. Whatever you want, this has got it. Depth, transparency, stability. Bucketloads of focus and imaging. The Acer PC had given me a taste of what the possibilities are but this box really delivers with truly stunning sonic performance and NO mechanical noise to distract.

I just hope they sterilised the case properly before it left the hospital. Starting to feel a bit funny ...

Sounds like a winner. And you've got Volumio booting from the SSD?

Yup. Works like a charm.

Although I haven't tried disconnecting the power lead. When I did that with the Acer it needed an F2 prompt on first startup.

Hmmmm. I must take another shot at mine.

Great work Fretless, I thought when you purchased the new pc it would make a good difference.

I also thought this PC would be a. big improvement over a standard domesic one.

Right then. I'll let you all in on where I purchased this oversized Tinkerboard for the measly price of 249 euro.

Here: https://www.hardware-expert.nl/refurbis ... 60016.html

They still have about 40 in stock.
What I don't know is how much they charge for shipping to the UK.
But you can mail them - almost everyone in Holland speaks excellent English.

Fretless wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 8:52 am Right then. I'll let you all in on where I purchased this oversized Tinkerboard for the measly price of 249 euro.

Here: https://www.hardware-expert.nl/refurbis ... 60016.html

They still have about 40 in stock.
What I don't know is how much they charge for shipping to the UK.
But you can mail them - almost everyone in Holland speaks excellent English.

As a matter of interest, how much would a new one cost? If a new Cisco switch is anything to go by it would be big bucks.

And here I thought the TB S was a bit of an overkill. This is a sledgehammer to a nut

Great job making it work.

Current price for a new unit is 1229 euro (ex. 21% VAT)

VAT brings it to 1485 euro - but then you do get the latest version Intel processor.




Just for clarification:

The Allo USBridge Signature player that I had in my sights has a new price of 271 euro.
Processing board there is from an RPi3. No PSU included.

Then the refurbished silent PC (including PSU) becomes a very attractive alternative.