squeezebox and home network

I've tried Squeezebox both wired (CAT 5)and wireless. Sound quality was identical as far as I could tell. The only real world difference was that with the wireless, everytime I used the Microwave, I would lose the signal. I've heard that with some wireless phones, the same thing happens. So I switched to wired.

I use EAC, but I compress using FLAC losseless compression (which is supported by Squeezebox) and 200 CDs takes about 65-70 gb. So if you wanted to do it completely uncompressed, I would guestimate that it would take about 35% more space -- close to 90 to 100gb per 200 uncompressed CDs. If someone has actually ripped 200 uncompressed, hopefully they'll chime in with the actual HD space used.

Good Luck.

If you figure 700 Megs per disk for 200 disks, you get 140 gigs. If you really want to be safe about it then you want to provide for the fact your music collection will grow, and that the computer's HD will probably die at some point (simple fact of planned obsolesence). There are some pretty fancy home server systems here using raid storage and backup devices, but I think if you want a cheap and simple way to protect yourself against growing music collections and data loss, then you could get like a 250 gig hard drive, and get a backup drive of the same size and keep your collection backed up.

Thanks Coffee_nudge and Mimberman. If using FLAC lossless compression will save disk space without negative impact on audio quality, then I am all for it. My actual disc collection is around 600-800 which I hope will continue to grow. So I need quite some storage space. I have no idea what Raid storage so I will do some research.

I have an 4-5 yr old spare Notebook in storage and I planned to use that and get an extrnal storage hardware (harddrive or Raid) thru USB connection and network the whole house. So I can connect Squeezebox thru Cat5 that way. From computing stand of view, will this work? Since all I need is storage space and minimum processing power, so I figuered a old notebook should work. right? Thanks again.

If you are interested in RAID storage, look at the buffalo terastation--1 terabyte (1000 GB) of storage. Think of it as four 250 GB drives. In a RAID 5 configuration, you only get about 700 GB of storage, but if any individual drive fails, you can recover all of the data. The terastation is about $1K.

Other benefits of a terastation: (i) its designed to be on 24/7; (ii) its a NAS--network attached storage--so you can just plug it into your network and "see" the drive from any machine (i.e., its a file server); and (iii) if you go the squeezebox route, the terastation apparently can run slimserver, which is needed for squeezeboxes to function.

Do the CAT5 cables connect to a patch panel in your basement? Might want to ensure the panel is wired up. My house came pre-wired, but the panel wasn't connected. You will also need a network switch or router (get a switch) to complete your network--one that does DHCP. Mebbe $50 or so.

Good luck!