Anyone Considering the Dell Latitude 10 Tablet as a Music Room Server?

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krikor

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Just saw this unit and thought it might make a great server for my music room for playing music via ethernet from files stored remotely on a NAS. I'm considering it because:
- Quiet/fanless
- Tabletop touch screen interface
- Runs Windows 8 (not RT, but the full version)
- Can run JRiver or similar
- USB out into my DAC

http://www.dell.com/us/p/latitude-10-tablet/pd?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn


rw@cn

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Interesting. An IR port would be nice.

Looks like a good tablet for the working person. Well the market will decide.

eclein

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Man thats a great idea, thanks for showing us that. I didn't know about it...nice price nice specs....mmmmm got me thinking also.

krikor

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I just realized another possible benefit - you can run it off the grid on battery power!

I'm really torn between building a CAPS system or going this route.

Bonzite51

Does Windows 8 also need usb audio 2.0 drivers?
You need one in case your DAC has Tenor TE8802 chip as usb receiver/controller.

Bonzite

krikor

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My Wyred4Sound DAC-2 does need drivers for USB, but I found a post on headphiles.org where someone was using this DAC with Windows 8 with no problems. I'll definitely try it out on another Windows 8 machine before committing to purchase this Tablet - if I go that route at all.

srb

Does Windows 8 also need usb audio 2.0 drivers?
You need one in case your DAC has Tenor TE8802 chip as usb receiver/controller.

When I asked Benchmark about Windows 8 drivers for their new DAC2 HGC (which has drivers for Windows XP/Vista/7 on the website required for 192KHz or DSD), they replied:
 
"We haven't tried it yet, but the current driver should work fine in 8"
 
I was hoping for something a little more definitive as it surely couldn't take much time or resources to plug it into a Windows 8 computer to verify operation?
 
Steve

lokie

So... usb out to a DAc and how would you connect an external hard drive?

Only 2 Gigs of Ram and not expandable.  Hmmmm.

srb

Although I included the Latitude 10 in a proposed system topic, I would have to say I would be more comfortable if it had 4GB of memory.
 
But I'm guessing the 2GB would suffice if used as a music server only and disabling nonessential services.  I would be using J. River Media Center which is not a big memory hog, but you wouldn't want to use 3D visualizations which use more memory than the player itself.
 
It would probably work fine even for Memory Play with standard songs up to 24/192, but since Memory Play loads the entire track into memory, it might not be enough for really long classical or continuous "album side" tracks.
 
As far as DACs and hard drives, you don't have the option of using USB for one and Firewire for the other as you would with a Mac Mini.  So either you are (a) using the optional ($100) docking station stand which gives you additional USB ports or you are (b) accessing the library from a network connected NAS.
 
It might be a bit of a gamble, but I like the idea of a fanless touchscreen angled on its stand on top of the audio rack.  Even though most will probably have another tablet or iDevice for remote control it would be nice to have easy local library access as well.
 
Steve

eclein

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It might be a bit of a gamble, but I like the idea of a fanless touchscreen angled on its stand on top of the audio rack.  Even though most will probably have another tablet or iDevice for remote control it would be nice to have easy local library access as well.
 
Steve

 Exactly what I was thinking...... :thumb: