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███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███
This section is about the computer hardware. [There is no section about non-PC hardware i.e. stereo or car equipment]
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Monitor ███
Using a 16:9 monitor instead of a 4:3 [which equals to a 12:9 denotation] will give you more horizontal space. And this comes especially handy in Mp3tag when displaying tag fields containing long titles, filenames and paths, thus allowing for seeing at one screen of more / wider columns [with less need for possible scrolling]. But finally the market came to the point where there is a competition between manufacturers producing even wider monitors: in the cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio. The are marketed as ultrawide and give the user over 30% more of horizontal space, while retaining the same vertical length described. Although a 34" 21:9 monitor has the screen itself physically only slightly higher that a 24" 16:9 monitor, but it displays 2560 x 1080 pixels instead of 1920 x 1080 pixels. And there are even 34" units capable of displaying 3440 x 1440 resolution. Such monitor has still lower resolution than what a 4K 16:9 monitors have to offer [1440p vs. 2160p]. But there should be more advancement in this field, as something like a year ago a first 38" ultrawide model has become commercially available [but still with the native resolution of 3440 x 1440] and there are also rumors of even wider aspect ratio to be pushed on the market
Also instead of investing in a single ultrawide, you may consider a set up of two 16:9 monitors, or a combination of 16:9 and 4:3. The window of Mp3tag can be dragged all the way from left edge to the right one and from top to bottom, without the usage of the maximize button [which when executed would choose one of the monitors to display the entire Mp3tag window in it, leaving the other monitor completely not occupied by Mp3tag]
And also there is another thing to be aware of. Although pixel pith may be the same in two different monitors, it could give a little more workspace in one of them, because of the actual display area. But that kind of info is very hard to get by. For example www.DisplaySpecifications.com claims that an ultrawide 34" Samsung 34E790C is suppose to have 89.26% of display area, while a 34" Acer XR342CK is suppose to have 89.22%. And so there should not be any noticeable difference between them with that negligible 0.04% gap, but in reality that Acer will show 43.5 lines in Mp3tag, while Samsung will show 43 lines [with the exact same settings]; and the Acer will also displays more lines in other pieces of software
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███
Here are some general tricks and tips regarding data storage and performance
A] Performing defragmentation process on your HDD can speed up the access process to the data it holds
B] Performing defragmentation process on your SSD will not speed things up- instead it will wear off the drive
C] Do not keep your system on the same drive as your audio files, because of the possibility of data loss [when in urgent need of a new system] and because of speed issues [overlapping commands]
D] Use a separate drive only for your audio files; at last when working with your audio. Especially do not run torrents on it at the same time. Also do not create on it a scratch disk [temporary folder] for whatever editor you are working with
E] Turn off caching for the disk you are using it for your audio, if you do not have separate power source of some kind. In case of power grid failure you do not want to be in a middle of some complex Mp3tag action, that will leave you with a question like "how much files were already processed and how will I distinguish those files that did not get treated with that abrupted action"?
F] Turn off indexing feature in Windows. Instead of speeding things up, it will slow down the search process. Here is how to get rid of this system feature
F.1] Go to the
Control Panel > Indexing Options > Modify
and leave unchecked all of the locations; with the exception of maybe Users and Start Menu
F.2] Go to the
Computer > C: Drive > [Right Click] Properties > General > Allow files on this drive to have content indexed in addition to file properties
After unchecking this option for the drive C, you can repeat this action for the rest of your drives. [The order of those changes does not matter]
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███ HDD ███
There are not such thing as SATA II or SATA III cables that will automatically grand you 300 MB/s or 600 MB/s transfer, in opposition to the very first SATA version cables with the speed of 150 MB/s. Those newer cables have merely a better designed heads, that sit firmer once they are plugged to the drive / motherboard. And it will not matter if you will use SATA, SATA II or SATA III drive either. Because the higher transfer speeds of SATA II and SATA III are only purely theoretical: you will not squeeze more than around 140 MB/s out of your magnetic drive; unless it will also be a one that is a 10 000 RPM or 15 000 RPM instead of a standard 5400 or 7200 RPM. Such drives have platters to spin, so more rotations per minute give higher speeds. But the consisting lack of progress in certain areas of magnetic drives technology, prevents them from utilizing fully the possibilities given by never version of SATA interface. And so, a SATA II or SATA III drive that has 10 000 RPM provides only 10-20 of MB/s more for moving and coping files. But there is a real advantage in them for the Mp3tag users: they will provide a much quicker access time. So this means a faster loading of files into Mp3tag. Plus a 10 000 RPM hard drive will still come cheaper than an SSD of the same size and will be quicker than any other 7200 RPM drive that will probably ever come to exist. But the problem with them is, that they are quite a niche products and as such are hard to get. But they are the only sensible solution is a scenario, when you have very large set of files but do not have a motherboard that supports the usage of SSD drives
As for the 15 000 RPM drives, they are even more expensive and harder to get. They are simply not a consumer grade products, because they are meant to be used in servers. So also, as such, they will likely have some other connecting method than a Serial ATA, which will probably be another obstacle for the casual PC user
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███ HDD USB ███
Those external drives have the same issues as the normal HDDs, because they are just magnetic drives but connected differently
You should not use them as an operational drive, because in comparison to ordinary HDD drive, they will have the transfer slower from 5 to 10 times. But if for some reason you just have too use them, then make sure to acquire an USB 3.0 drive and that your motherboard or laptop has the USB 3.0 connectivity. You can still use USB 3.0 drive on 2.0 connection, but you will only then get out of it only the speeds of the USB 2.0 standard
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███ SSD ███
Prices of them have dropped and newer models are even quicker than those from 2-4 years ago. And if they are still too expensive for you, then you could buy a small one, just for the immediate work, while keeping the rest of your files on an ordinary HDD
Maintenance of them is quite different then in case of magnetic drives:
- They should not be filled to more than 75% of their capacity
- They should not be defragmented at all
- They should be connect in AHCI mode
- They should have TRIM turned for them
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███ SSD USB ███
Those external drives have the same issue than the normal USB drives, because they are limited by the speeds of the USB protocol
So the only advantage they can provide over them is the much quicker seek time, less noise, no vibration and virtually no heat
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███ PCI Express Drive ███
They are in theory 2-3 times faster than SSD drives. And as such are much more pricey than them
They use the same slots on a motherboard as for example external graphic cards
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███ M.2 Drive ███
They are in theory 2-3 times faster than PCI-E drives. And as such are much more pricey than them
But the problem with them is than only the newer motherboards can use them as bootable drives, without running into serious issues. Aside from having a physical ability to be able to install them [which can be overcome by the usage of adapters allowing for otherwise impossible connection of older motherboards with M.2 drives], there are issues with the support of the NVMe protocol. And not every older motherboard will swallow the trick with adapters, because the motherboard has to be a one with at least FM2+ CPU, so that it can provide a PCIe 3.0 support. And also in regard to adapters, depending on the layout of the motherboard in question, you would most likely have to operate a video card in a lesser x8 mode, leaving the PCI-E 3.0 lanes available for M.2 drives [because the goal would be to utilize those 3.0 speeds for the drive, leaving out for the graphics card the slower slots]
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Drive Usage ███ RAID ███
When not being able to use M.2 drive with enough space on them, even the fastest SSD drive and the fastest available RAM sticks can be not enough if you are often loading sets of tens of thousands of files. But you can connect two or more exact same HDDs or SSDs in several [more or less malfunction-proof] configurations, so that they are seen as a one drive in the operating system. As a result [to put it very short] the speed of reading and writing process goes up by 100% for every additional drive
But the costs are obvious: cash has to be spend on hardware and power consumption. And also there are the issues of extra heat and noise, coming out from the PSU and drives themselves. Moreover, more complex [and thus more safer] configurations will require a lot of connectors, resulting in a possible need of adding a PCI-E hub card providing more of those connectors; or switching to a larger motherboard
But RAID can be viewed not only as a method for speeding up the work, but also as a method for securing precious data. Unfortunately, making an actually working hardware setup, that can by itself verify a data loss on one of its components and then automatically restore it to a proper state, is quite a hard thing to do
There are also other such systems than RAID
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ RAM ███
How to choose the fastest / optimal Random Access Memory sticks? It is a long process:
1] Check in the manual of the motherboard the information about what kind of socket it uses, so that you will chose only the right type of RAM for you [DDR2, DDR3 or DDR4]
2] Find a price engine or an e-shop that allows for defining values of various RAM parameters
3] Select the lowest available latency that shows up
4] Select the highest available speed [frequency] that shows up
5] Open another tab in web browser and copy the URL address to it. Check just to be sure that the webpage does not work in some strange way; check if what you are getting in both of the tabs has the exact same search results
6] Repeat the two previous steps. But change the previously selected latency to a higher one and see if it is available with also higher frequency [speed]. Because only such RAM is providing quicker computing power and not just merely presenting a higher theoretical speed. Use this formula to be sure
Cas Latency / (MHz/2) * 1000
This gives a number for comparison. If it comes out lower than in the previous one, it means that it is better. If it is higher, then such RAM is actually slower and another repetition should be performed
7] Repeat the whole shebang [opening of the tabs, changing in them the CS values to higher ones, checking if they are available with higher frequency]
8] When you run out of latencies to check, go back to the motherboard manual and see what is the highest frequency that it is able to handle
9] Close the tabs containing results with frequencies above those of your motherboard. Or leave them for theoretical comparison; for the evaluation of a possible need for a newer motherboard
10] Choose the RAM with the best [lower] result from the formula
11] Select other parameters according to your needs, like the number of GB in one set
12] Do not forget to consider the height dimension of what you are about to buy. Because some heat sinks can stick out so high up, that they will simply not fit under the cooling system of your CPU
13] At last, compare the prices of different products
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███
If you use Mp3tag heavily, then you probably want to enjoy music to the full extent and maybe even you are a person that edits music / sounds. An so, in order to do that, you need to have quiet leisure / work environment, right? And the real quiet [at least in case of only listening] should be defined [subjectively] as a state of silence, when the user cannot tell if the hardware is turned on or off, without looking at it or forcing it to generate some sounds on purpose. And things like a PC case going into a resonance is a very common problem. So here is some knowledge about, how you can make your working desktop computer inaudible [as there is of course no way of totally stopping the hardware from generating any decibels]
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Fanless PSU ███
The big problem with them is, that there are a niche category and do not have as much power as normal PSUs can give. Also there there are only few models available. But the situation now is much batter than 5-6 years ago, because they broke the 400W and 500W barriers and finally there is some competition on the market. And going as much as 10-12 years ago, you would have to deal with a problem of fanless PSU not being in the ATX standard and / or heaving to deal with some additional external radiator disposing off the heat, most likely in a form of a big tower
Here is a list of PSU units with power above 500W, starting from the most powerful ones:
- Deltatronic SPS560W
- Deltatronic Silentium! SPS550W
- Enermax Digifanless 550W (EDF550AWN)
- Seasonic Platinum-520FL Fanless (SS0P-520FL2 F3) 520W
- SilverStone Nightjar Series NJ520
- XFX XTS 520W
- SilentNight Series 500W 80+
Available are also versions of them [or simply other models] with less watt power. And if it is the opposite you need [way more than 500W] then maybe a usage of two such PSUs is a way to go. But providing power for all of PC components with two separate PSUs [and even simply turning them on and off with just a single switch] can be tricky and will most likely require a serious hardware alteration, resulting with he hardware warranty being no longer void
Unfortunately, the two leading models are not for sale on they own- Deltatronic specializes in making passively cooled workstations; and thus making them supposedly really silent. You can only buy a whole PC rig from them and not even an empty PC casing with just the PSU
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Semi-Fanless PSU ███
There is also a sub-category of PSUs, that do have a fan, but a one that starts to rotate [and thus making noise] only after a certain percentage of power capabilities is drawn from it. So they stay quiet when power consumption is low, with their fan kicking in only when there is [theoretically] a need for it. So from a point of view of professional audio editing or comfortable music listening, such a unit should do the job of not producing additional noise, because audio tasks will most likely not require much power [when compared to for example gaming or video rendering]
Unfortunately such hybrids are often wrongly described as fanless and only sometimes more appropriately as semi-fanless. Also when doing online shopping there are often only two categories, without the third [semi-famless] between them
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Passive Radiators ███
Technically speaking every radiator is a passive cooling hardware element. But almost all of them are made to be used [and are sold with] at least one fan. But there are few on the market which are meant to be used without one
Unfortunately in recent years, as the computing power of CPUs and graphics cards went up, even those "real" passive radiators [the ones sold without a fan] started to be manufactured with the intention of mounting to them [after a separate buy] a dedicated fan, produced also by the same company from which such radiator comes. But do not waste money on those compatible / certificated fans, because they are marketed as "quiet" but without a specified dBA value- which suggests that their manufactures were unable to make them really quiet [because if they would have been able then they would brag about it in data sheet]. And in the end, such approach simply turns their field of expertise [super effective radiators] into a preposterous joke beyond absurdity [passive radiator plus a noisy fan]
Problem with passive radiators can also be their size. If you compare first passives with he modern ones, you can be surprised how much more space they need now. This problem comes down not only to the space inside your PC casing but also the placement of RAM and PCI-E slots, which when filled up with components may leave you with an impossibility of mounting some of those big radiators
But fear not: even the smaller / old ones can be still efficient; but you might need to buy them on the aftermarket. You would need just to use a quiet fan with them [a concept explained in the next section of this guide]. As for the compatibility of those old radiators with the newer CPU socket or GPU cards: it can be still possible to use them together. For example it is doable to mount an old Thermalright HR-01 on a newer FM2+ CPU socket, with just a little extra force. And you can for example mount Arctic Accellero S3 on a MSI Radeon R7 370 4GB GAMING video card, leaving out some parts of the 12th and 14th step of its 14 steps installation manual. Unfortunately, unless someone on the Internet will make a brag about how [s]he has made it possible, you will have to test such a combo for yourself. Because manufacturers of passive radiators will discourage you from using old passive elements on new hardware components. Manufacturers will most likely evoke impossibility of such combination on the account of hardware incompatibility and / or on not enough cooling effectiveness
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Quiet Fans ███
What constitutes as a quiet fan? A "quiet" in its name? A "pretty much quiet" description on the vendors site? Cool looking design? No, no and no
A real life scenario quietness constitutes itself when you can hear the fan spinning only after putting it next to your ear. And that is probably below 10 dBA, depending on how good your hearing still is. But taking into account that it will be enclosed inside a PC casing and then most likely putted at some distance and / or under a desk, something like 11 or 12 dB will also do the trick. Just make sure it is a PWM fan, so that it has steady RPM and you do not have to constantly monitor the heat. A PWN designation means, that such a fan does not have a higher mode, which automatically kicks in because of rise of the heat- and so it works always with the same speed thus same noise
Right now the most quiets fans on the market are those with 8 dBA. But the problem with those 8-12 dBA fans is that there is not much competition between the manufacturers of them, because it is a niche. The second problem is that they have pretty low flow of air [thanks to slower rotation], so you might need more of them. But unless you are also a gamer or video editor, you will most likely need only 1 for the CPU and 1 for sucking the air outside of the PC casing; plus maybe 1 more for the graphics card and a second 1 somewhere as a fail-safe [in case one of those essentials ones stops to work and you do not notice it as you do not monitor them]. This will vary, depending mostly on how many HDDs you use simultaneously and what environment the PC is residing in
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Peltier Effect Cooling ███
There is a way to cool down electronics with the electricity itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectri...#Peltier_effect
And there are eve some niche PC components of that kind available on the market. But the idea of having some kind of Peltier device eliminating noisy fans seems contradictory. Because if the hardware is enclosed in a PC casing residing near the audio workspace, then this hardware needs power from PSU, which also needs cooling. And the more cooling is needed, the more power to provide it is needed. And so an endless loop could be crated, that could be "broken" only if the PSU would be placed in another room. But that is is all a theory
In reality, a Peltier CPU unit comes also with a radiator, which disposed the heat. And the heat is supposed to be disposed from the casing with fans. So unless a big drop down in temperature is needed, a Peltier cooling system seems to be just a side bumpy road in the quest for the silence
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Liquid Cooling ███
This is the most effective way of cooling. But it still has radiators [which need fans] and on top of that it needs a pump [witch has moving parts]. And it would be wise to have a second pump installed within the system as a precocious, in case one of them stops working. So one should expect more additional noise with a system of that kind; thus making this a real dead end turn in the quest for silence
Using water cooling [in respects to silence] would only make sense if all of the components [including the PSU] were included in that system, while at the same time the pump was placed outside the room where the PC unit is held. But there is this multi-part "Whole Room Water Cooling Project" video by LinusTechTips on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8bLtg9J1Oc], where it is shown in details just how complicated and ineffective such complete-liquid-approach could end up to be, in spite of all the hardware knowledge / experience and planning
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Non Mechanical Drives ███
An HDD drive has to spin platters and move its head. SSDs do not have them at all. SSHD is a hybrid combining both technologies; which in terms of silence puts them in the same category as ordinary HDDs. Also drives of the PCI Express and M.2 technology have no moving parts
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ HDD Casings ███
Mechanical drives can be enclosed in special casings like the Scythe Quiet Drive or Tacens Lateo Butimenbox. Unfortunately, for years now they are hard to get and there is little competition on the market in this field. It is probably the smallest niches within the silence quest
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ PC Casings ███
You do not have to any more to manually put noise reducing materials inside your PC rig. There are manufacturers making ready to use PC cases like that
Unfortunately, a small problem with them is that they are designed for housing a water cooling system inside them. So they can have some elements / solutions not necessary for a passively cooled PC or even contradictory to it
███ Unofficial Mp3tag & Audio Efficiency Guide 1.0.0 ███ PC Hardware ███ Noise Reduction ███ Sound Deadening Panels ███
In case of using an ordinary PC case you can always go old school and try to stop the noise leaking out from it by using sound deadening panels and some foams. That is how it was done in the old days, before manufacturers started to provide casings for enthusiasts of silence
You can also use them to further sound proof the [supposed to be already] silenced PC casings