Sound quality differences in streamers

@soix 

actually, just on that one thread I sent the link on, there were at least 15 members who expressed some variation on the view that their are minimal differences with streamers above a certain threshold, or that they were not able to discern a material difference between an expensive streamer and a modestly priced system.  I’m guessing that’s at least 30% of the participants in that discussion.  There were another 20-30% of participants who didn’t have enough experience to know one way or another.  So just because you refuse to listen to your colleagues doesn’t mean they don’t exist.  They’re just typically not as loud (present company excepted, lol!).

@steakster 

thats a non sequiter.  Unless by “measurement crowd” you mean the ability to count and listen to the number of people with whom one agrees or disagrees.

@sns 

I’m glad you are adding your voice to those who know from experience that not only is a PC more than adequate as a streamer, it is often superior. Also (and I didn’t even think of that before) it is true that:

Cool thing with custom builds is you get to hear what individual components add to the mix, everything matters.

Very true! I must however respectfully point out that there is no such thing as a "Windows motherboard". Now, Windows has been the dominant OS for 40 years, and it follows that motherboard design certainly accommodates Windows, but motherboards are by definition agnostic.

Although Taiko successfully runs Windows in their Extreme, Linux is probably better suited to a DIY build due to its almost infinite customizability. Right out the box, Windows does not want you to customize it and it will resist. 

One last word, "Enterprise" motherboards (that is, server boards) are preferred because of their relative lack of features and absence of related componentry, thereby eliminating potential noise sources; a few of those boards also natively support SFP (the main fiber Ethernet standard), which is desirable as it provides 100% galvanic isolation between the PC and the next component in the chain, thereby ensuring that any noise that happens in the computer, stays in the computer.

Also, @sns kudos for tackling the tricky PSU problem once and for all, although you sure didn't go the budget route