Inexpensive but good sounding power supply (and hard drive) for PC audio?

Thank you both, very useful information!

Unfortunately, some recent unfriendly financial events are severely limiting my budget for the time being (and for the foreseeable future). So the upgrade path suggested by @sns is not possible in my case. Luckily, I'm quite content with the sound of my system as it is. On the other hand, I'm very much aware that "everything matters" from the sound quality point of view, to a degree that many would deem ridiculous if I were to share some of my experiences, so I wouldn't cheap out on the computer / streamer side of the equation if it were by me.

I must admit though that the Lumin experience kinda killed my interest in a moderately expensive (2000-3000 euro) streamer anyway. I don't understand why the Lumin didn't destroy my PC in terms of sound quality. Also, a friend of mine has bought a Sotm streamer with the dedicated Sotm power supply and, well, it is nice but not groundbreaking if you're asking me (never heard it in my system).

I have tried the free version of Fidelizer today. I recognize it as a clear improvement, objectively speaking, but the tonal change (stronger upper bass) was not very welcome in my system. It's just not a good synergy to my current system (and taste, after all). By contrast, I didn't like Audirvana.

Btw, I have found that synergy trumps "objective" quality most of the time, and to a degree I wouldn't have though possible.

Get a Sonore OpticalRendu and connect the fibre to a network switch with the option for fibre. The rendu | power supply | USB cable can be obtained for under $2K. If you want a bit more improvement, get a FMC from the network switch to the FMC via RJ45, then to the OpticalRendu via fibre. I use the EtherRegen in reverse order as an FMC.

With what I have suggested you can use a noisy cheap computer to serve your music. I use ROON Core for this on the cheap computer. The computer is a few rooms away from the music systems. I believe what I suggested would work for non-ROON users too because the Rendu's support multiple protocols. Not just ROON RATT..

BTW - I am getting a Lumin X1 delivered soon. I doubt the X1's fibre streaming is better than the Sonore OpticalRendu, it should be similar. I only bought the X1 for the fibre streaming and to have a lower box count.  

I have had some considerable experience with sound from a "PC".  As far as computer power supply is concerned, linear power is better.  The HDPLEX options are recommended, but they are external units and will require some modifications on the power wiring to your computer components. 

If you are looking at normal PC power supplies, I would recommend getting the largest you can afford.  They are all switching power supplies, so the larger sizes will have larger capacitors as a power bank.  This equates to smoother current/power.    The Corsair AX1600i measured to have the cleanest power output.  However, the cables that Corsair supplies are heat-shrink and techflex coated.  These are extremely thick and stiff cables.  If you are trying to route these behind the motherboard in small spaces, the Corsair cables will NOT work beause you just cannot bend/flex the cables enough to fit through tight areas.  The Seasonic PRIME TX-1600 is almost as good and they have much better cables for routing/bending/flexing. 

For transfer of signal to your outboard DDC or DAC, I have found that USB quality is really dependent on how good the USB-to-i2s circuits are on the DAC.  I, personally, don't think the USB is the best mechanism, but this is a controversial subject.  I have a friend who owns a $25,000 Pink Faun music server that includes both a Pink Faun USB card and a Pink Faun AES/EBU card (both with the highest level OCXO clocks).  When using the USB output, it gave the highest resolution for midrange and high frequencies (air), but it just did not sound as natural and full when compared to the AES/EBU output.  This was going to a $16,000 DAC (I can't remember which one it was).  The AES/EBU output had more weight, bass strenght, and overall fullness - plus it sounded more natural and real.

On my own system, I am running a stock level version of the Pink Faun AES/EBU card with a Farad Super3 power supply.  This is just outstanding.  The Pink Faun s/PDIF card with AES/EBU and BNC outputs would be my recommendation if you have that input on your DACs.  That being said, if you are running a Linux operating system with Intel CPU, this card does have problems.  Running Windows on Intel should be fine (it's a weird chipset comparability issue).

Oh, I have tried working with Fidelizer and it did weird things to the sound. I think using the stock configuration in Windows is best, but there are a lot of people who think Fidelizer does good things.

I have also heard that trying these expensive high end OCXO clocked routers can also do weird things to the sound.

Thank you.

Offtopic: Strange how different various pieces of software actually do impact the sound even when the data is "bit-perfect". I compared the Accuphase Asio driver to Wasapi Exclusive while doing Qobuz streaming and Wasapi was better!