MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hello,

I’m buying all the components for my MiSTer setup and have a couple questions.

So far my build includes:
De10 nano board
MiSTer USB Hub
128 SDRAM
Asus BT 500 adapter

I have an hdmi monitor that does not have any audio capabilities. Am I forced to buy the digital IO board in order to be able to get sound? I have headphones and some bookshelf speakers but no way of hooking them up with this setup.

Do I need to buy a bigger power supply?

Am I missing anything else obvious in this build?

Any input appreciated. Excited to get started once it all arrives.

You can get a HDMI extractor. The power supply should be OK depending on what you will connect to the USB hub.

Some speakerless monitors still have a headphone out for precisely this situation, be sure to check for that. Otherwise as mentioned, you will need an HDMI audio extractor if you don't want an I/O board.

An I/O board has the advantages that it fits official cases and can hold a cooling fan, which you might want to add in the future.

You can always use a fan mount plate like https://misterfpga.co.uk/product-tag/fan-plate/ and a fan is not even necessary but recommended.

I had been using this for nearly 2 years: https://misterfpga.co.uk/product/mister ... -heatsink/

If I were to go the route of a digital IO board, and use tos out to a DAC which would give me the headphone or speaker output, would I need to get a different power supply? Some of the DACs I looked at would use the powered usb from the usb hub.

A bigger power supply is usually a good idea in general.

I'd probably use a separate power supply for a DAC that took a TOSLINK adapter. That's optical and doesn't carry power, so if you use its own supply, or buy a new USB supply for it, you can just leave it off Mister power entirely, which is always a good idea. You'd end up with two separately powered devices with only a fiber link between them.