Yes, but also in theory a modular PSU would be less ideal than a prewired one because of the slight potential losses/connectivity with modular designs. Can’t win with audio lol
If you’re getting fancy internal wiring, just build your streamer already
So I’m learning this is very important haha. I’ve been trying to solve this coil whine issue ever since I upgraded.
Surprise surprise surprise. The Seasonic Noctua Prime has the lowest. I can still hear it, but it is faint when PC is under load.
I’ve also tried the Corsair HX1500i. Louder slightly
I’m wondering if the JCAT would bypass this coil noise since it would use its own power supply.
Yes that’s a big immediately apparent one, there have been cards people complain about coil whine with, and a decent amount of the time it’s honestly down to a subpar psu lol
So by coil whine are you talking about an audible whine like standing near it (sometimes variable depending on what you’re doing on the pc), or a whine in the signal path through headphones/speakers/etc
So i hear it through my headphones when im playing something at 120fps.
I thought initially it was my card, but then I switched to an older graphics card, and i hear that incessant buzzing. It changes tone everywhere I look 
Beef further fiddling with my PC. The SOtM card made a difference in an unexpected way. The SOtM internal USB card, was a markedly improved experience over the built in MB USB. The Ethernet upgrade is simply removing noise, it is dead silent to the point that I wasn’t aware of there being noise before and I was doubtful that I’d see much improvement.
Unlike the USB card where there were sonic improvements, this is just DEAD quiet, unsettlingly dead quiet where it would take a > $2K streamer to match. It hasn’t been easy as I’m using a very space saving PC case and a mini ITX MB; installing stuff has just required a lot of customization, supremely careful cable routing, modification of card brackets and all sorts of adapters and extensions. But that’s my problem for using a pint sized case.
That said, it’s been a worthwhile effort. I don’t have to think while using my PC, WASAPI drivers have come a long way, zero issues switching or having applications take exclusive control of audio playback and priority.
I will be upgrading from the iFi wall wart PS I’m currently using. Waiting on cabling but looking forward to see what improvement I can get from better external power to the internal cards.
The biggest improvement has been a quality of life, I don’t don’t have to think about PC sound vs. listening to music on the PC. It’s just one activity.
I’m just not going to do it, but I can help but think of the improvement gains should I remove the GPU and move that to an external eGPU chassis with its own PS. I can’t entertain that because my current MB doesn’t have USB 4.0 but it would certainly be a consideration when I upgrade my existing MB.
I would highly suggest a JCAT or if not at least a basic USB isolator like an Altor/Jack or anything based around that chip to start, pick your preference with linear psu and see if that helps to resolve the issue
I would be really curious if you do that, since you’d have a big win in terms of removing immediate noise and reducing system load, but I wonder how the load on the motherboard USB and how the underlying differences to make that work would play a part
I know that was the thought. The biggest hurdle right now to anything PC related is the fuckinggodamanedmutherfuckershitdickpiss price of anything with memory in it. I currently have 64 Gb of DDR4 and it would be over $1k to get that much of DDR5. I swear I paid $300 bucks for the 64 Gb when I originally got it.
Correction, purchased Dec 2023:
LOLOLOL
I shouldn’t be laughing because I feel your pain 
I figure, right?
I was thinking that earlier. $700 for a PSU… I might as well buy the JCAT
Dollar for dollar I think it would take me farther
I think your system would be a good fit for the JCAT, on the PSU side of things, I’d either personally go for a Fidelizer Nikola or an upgrade to that an Uptone JS4, I personally liked both more than the Optimo3 for the price, but it does depend on what way you want to lean your system.
The JCAT PSU was more on the warm, rich, darker side of things that chilled everything out, and I didn’t really like the sound in my setup even though the bass and body was really nice. I thought the JS4 offered largely better technicalities with a more even overall signature, but maybe more forward than true neutral was the main tradeoff (I also feel like it has the potential to feel slightly congested in some tracks, but not to a worrying degree for the price). I really liked the Nikola2 for the price for really great timbre and texture, although it’s not as much slam or space as some of the others and maybe not as speedy sounding as I’d like.
I’d really like to try a Paul Hynes or Sean Jacobs psu with it, that might be really killer, but I’m happy enough with the UpTone that I don’t want to mess with it (and would rather put that money elsewhere right now)
I had a SOtM switch fall on my lap. It had been up for sale on USAM a good long while for $850. I asked the guy to give me his best price cause I didn’t want to insult him with a low ball offer. This one is full tilt with the caps, shielding, cabling and the EX clock so $1750. He asked me for $500 plus 20 bucks for shipping. I said, okay. lol
Been continuing to implement best practice not super high dollar improvements to my HP/desktop set up. addressing vibration, all of the power etc. But this writeup on cleaning up the PC got me working on not just the PC but the networking around the desktop that also includes my work laptop and all of its associated accessories.
Anyway, using the SOtM switch, it’s hard to put into words the improvement because it’s just a further refining of everything that’s good. It’s also been the first time I’ve ever heard an improvement with a better Ethernet cable didn’t go crazy, just a better quality WireWorld starlight I’ve had for a long while. Again, nothing earth shattering considering the improvement but certainly worth the $500 bucks dumped into the switch.
That said, it hit me. What I’ve got now after all of the clean up efforts is a system that’s giving me those great late night listening sessions vibes we’ve all experienced at times. But now I find I’m getting them all of the time!
Damn you, I’ve now been thinking about going for a network card, along with a switch, this might be the excuse lol. I’ve been thinking a lot about your comment of noise, and yeah even if I’m not steaming it’s probably still pretty worthwhile. I’m still thinking about what direction to go through
I normally just disable my network card when listening, but it would definitely be convenient not to lol
LOL that’s equal parts funny and insane but it would do the trick.
What you said that got me thinking was that none of my music is on the PC so it’s still streaming for everything even though it local network.
Way cheaper to do it your way though!
I just put together a script to disable as much as I possibly can, basically a “serious” listening/recording mode lol. Such as disabling gpu and using igpu output (and cutting resolution and color space), disabling network, killing more background processes, changing performance modes, and so on. Lets me get away with making some changes that aren’t normally usable for typical computing/usage but are still reversable within the OS, is convenient lol.
I don’t use it all the time, only when I’m being critical, but if I could find a way to get closer to that experience without having to do that, it would help. Otherwise I keep all my other tweaks/changes active all the time
I have all my music being played back through the local drive, because it sounds better, but also because I haven’t yet gotten the energy to recreate my storage server and have been fine enough with the small collection I have on my pc in the meantime lol
