[EDS_]

what stuff do I want and not want?

1. I already have a 500g external HDD
2. What specs. are important for my application?
3. Dell, HP (I've had great luck with both) Toshiba etc.
4. What OS?
5. I guess I  could go the Mac route - any thoughts?

My HP Pavilion zd8000 is great but the fan runs 80% of the time and the fan is loud.  My Dell Latitude D 620 is great too and with a hot swappable battery will run for about 6/7 hours on batteries I'm not even sure this thing has a fan.  I'm giving this one to my son so I might as well buy a decent laptop for music and get my Cd's converted into FLAC files.

[TomS]

Realize that Slimserver takes very little system resources other than to re-index occasionally.  I took an old Dell 1000 Celeron laptop that wouldn't run XP very well at all, put Clarkconnect Linux on it, added a USB 500GB drive for $100 and closed the lid.  It's in another room, so no issue with fan noise, it runs for months at a time without attention, has builtin battery backup, and would have been retired anyway.  I rip CD's to FLAC from other XP machines in the house directly to the Linux machine's USB drive whenever it's convenient.  Buy another 500gb drive for backup and copy the whole thing over every so often and you're set.

[Double Ugly]

What device are you going to use for playback?

[EDS_]

Tom S, DU,

I plan to run a USB cable from said laptop into the 1.1 UBS in on my Musical Fidelity XDAC V8.  At least for a while.

[TomS]

Tom S, DU,

I plan to run a USB cable from said laptop into the 1.1 UBS in on my Musical Fidelity XDAC V8.  At least for a while.

duh guess I just read Slimserver into it.  Long day at work today.

[Double Ugly]

Tom S, DU,

I plan to run a USB cable from said laptop into the 1.1 UBS in on my Musical Fidelity XDAC V8.  At least for a while.

In that case, I'd say you're probably good to go as long as (1) you have enough HDD space on hand and (2) the chosen computer is stable (i.e., no known issues, frequent one-finger salutes not required).

Same goes for a computer running SlimServer as well, actually.  It's quite well-written IMO, and is the antithesis of your standard resource hog.

Should you decide to try a SlimServer-based solution at some point, let me know if you have any questions.  I've used two different SBs and am current running a modified Transporter, and I've used both with XP and OSX.  I'll be the first to admit I don't have all the answers, but my experience suggests I should probably know a lot more than I do.   

[Lizard_King]

Hello,

Can I ask you what you think about this DAC? Do you like the SQ w0gen using USB? How is the SQ when using the tube output compared to Solid State?

Thanks in Advance.

Tom S, DU,

I plan to run a USB cable from said laptop into the 1.1 UBS in on my Musical Fidelity XDAC V8.  At least for a while.

duh guess I just read Slimserver into it.  Long day at work today.

[Vinnie R.]

what stuff do I want and not want?

1. I already have a 500g external HDD
2. What specs. are important for my application?
3. Dell, HP (I've had great luck with both) Toshiba etc.
4. What OS?
5. I guess I  could go the Mac route - any thoughts?

My HP Pavilion zd8000 is great but the fan runs 80% of the time and the fan is loud.  My Dell Latitude D 620 is great too and with a hot swappable battery will run for about 6/7 hours on batteries I'm not even sure this thing has a fan.  I'm giving this one to my son so I might as well buy a decent laptop for music and get my Cd's converted into FLAC files.

Hi EDS,

I highly recommend the MacBook.  It has a really nice user interface (iTunes and Front Row) and even comes with a remote so you can view and control your music via Front Row software (included).  It also has USB and optical outputs, and can run on its battery power for up to 6 hours.  The built-in CD/DVD drive also is a CD-R, so you can rip music to the hard drive and burn CD-Rs. 

It's hard to beat!

Vinnie