[kbuzz3]

Hello All

Id like to dip my toes with cpu listening.  While id like to to listen in two places, for this initial foray im thinking about a small cpu with hard drive in my small listening room.   I have an older macboork pro laptop which does not see much action, but being noisy it definitely needs memory and hard drive upgrade probably around 500-600). 

Would the experts suggest upgrading this laptop or just springing for a used mac mini or even a cheap net book? 

Ideally id just spring for something like the wyred for sound all in one server but these and similar seem to go at about 2K, which is a bit more then id like to spend at this time.....

thanks anyone for  advice or comments

[jarcher]

I'd suggest a Mac mini - even an older one - over a Macbook and even more so over a cheap netbook. The screen and battery generate more noise, which would be absent in a Mac mini.

I wouldn't bother with a very big internal hard drive if your mostly going to use it as a media server. For storage you're better off with an external one (and make a second one as a back up!). Hard drives fail all the time so better to have external ones that you can swap out easily. Pricing wise there's not a price difference between internal & external as they are both 2.5 laptop hard drives (enclosures are cheap).

I use an external FireWire 800 and its as fast as the internal one ever was. Bit then again most Mac mini and laptop hard drives are relatively pokey 5400 rpm drives anyway. I also use FireWire so the USB port can be purely for a USB spdif convertor or USB DAC. That way there's seperate hardware for each and they don't get in each others way.

Lastly, get a good player like jriver or pure music on top of iTunes and use it in memory play mode.

That's my Mac media server speech. Hope it's helpful.

[wilsynet]

You already have the laptop.  Why not plug it in and try it?

No need to upgrade or buy anything yet.

[mcgsxr]

The noise of the computer is likely what will drive you bonkers. 

I have used an old mac mini successfully in the past, but mine was too old to load current iTunes so that became an issue for me.  It was a very quiet piece, the USB drive was much louder than the mini iteself with the outboard power supply.

If you can find a slightly newer, used Mini it will be excellent.  I would bet a new base Mini would be great too, and I think those are around 500 or so.

Your older piece could work fine too, if you can locate it physically in an adjacent room?

I currently use an Acer netbook running Logitech software, and a Pogoplug hacked with Logitech software as the player.  All of it is in the media closet adjacent to the main room.  I am happy with that solution, but with all the idevices around my house, an Apple solution would work great too - but was more expensive to get into!

[kbuzz3]

thank you everyone for the replies. the reason i have not tried to use the old macbook pro is that i it is slow and noisy (spinning ball  of death) so right now it will not perform properly with one of the higher quality software solutions such as jriver or similar.   For info the laptop is a Apple MacBook (13-inch, Late 2007) with about 1 GB of memory: 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.  With a little more investigation id estimate i could upgrade to about 3/4 gb and a smaller ssd hard drive for about $300. Again, though if after the upgrade its still a bit noisy then probably not a good idea in general.

Id much prefer a mac mini, but not sure if there are any trade ins on this older to model to bring down the cost, hence the post to see if this laptop would work. 

[jarcher]

The beach ball problem I think would definetly be resolved or substantially reduced with more memory. Id max it out if your going to do memory play mode.

Don't recall if the MacBooks have a noisy fan or not. I can tell you that at least the 2010 Mac mini I have is dead silent - even with it 3ft from my listening position.

The other "noise" is EMI though and what it might ultimately do to the sound quality. Here is where most I've asked suggest keeping away from laptops with noisy screens & batteries - not being an issue with PCs, Mac or otherwise.

I'd start with a memory upgrade to the MacBook as its super cheap, then decide from there whether you keep it or sell it & get a mac mini. Fortunately there's a vibrant market even for older MacBooks and Mac minis.

[wilsynet]

Batteries are noisy?

Unknown why the 2007 MacBook Pro is a spinning ball of death.  In what way is it noisy?  Is the fan constantly on?  If so, there's a problem with the machine or configuration.  It really shouldn't be like that and it shouldn't be a beachball either if all you're doing is using iTunes.

I'd do a clean install of the OS and see how it behaves then.

Personally, I've had no noise related problems running a laptop as a music server, although currently I'm running a Mac Mini.  But not because I was trying to avoid using a laptop ...

Having said all that, sure, a Mac Mini is great.  I'd get one (and I did).  Although when I upgrade my MacBook Air to a more recent version, I might replace the Mini with the old Air.