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MacBook Pro or Mac Mini as music server

Currently have apple extreme server. Also using the Olive Media Olive 4HD and Olive 2.
Thinking of adding either the latest Macbook pro or the mac mini as a music server for my cd collection.
Which of the two would be better suited to my task ?
I'm leaning towards the macbook pro 13" with 2.3 GHZ but then at almost half the price the Macbook min 2.4 is a steel but i wouldhave to add keyboard, a monitor and a mouse so cost would be close to the macbook pro.
Anything else am missing here ?
For the Dac, i plan to use either an I-Nova or a Bel canto designs dac 2.5. An esoteric D-07 is also not far fetch.
Would greatly appreciate some advice as i'm just starting out on this hobby (computer audio) just now.
Thanks guys-
nolitan
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,150 posts
 
Of your choices, go with the increased RAM. A 320Gb will hold around 400 CDs in their native format. If you later out grow the drive you simply copy clone the drive to a larger drive.

At the level of DAC you're considering I think the "upgraded" Mac Mini with the SSD and maxed out RAM is overkill. If I were you I'd get a stock Mini and put the savings somewhere else in my system/music collection.
nolitan OP
865 posts
 
Onhwy61,
the 320gb is good enough for my cd collection. I got about 200 as I also have a vinyl system.
For the Upgraded Mac Mini w/ SSD and max out RAM, what Dac would you recommend to match that performance ?
Are we looking at the Berkeley Dac ? or the Weiss ?

Thanks again.
thesoundhouse
250 posts
 
Militant,
My mach2 Mac Mini, has the following mods. 1 Mach2 software tweaks. Next 40 vortex 2 40gig ssd internal hard drive. 8 gigs of ram, 4TB oyen raid 0 external hard drive w/ oxford chipset, there recommended FireWire and USB cables, an additional external 2.5" SSD vortex 2 in another oyen digital enclosure w/ oxford chipset. I do most listening from the big drive but I copy files for serious listening from the big drive to the small external SSD drive and all this of course all on a battery except for the big drive.
thesoundhouse
250 posts
 
Nolitan sorry about the militant name my freaking IPhone thinks it is smarter than it really is. While typing my last post I corrected that militant 7 times and it still messed up
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,150 posts
 
The Zodiacs, Wyred, Benchmark, Berkeley and Esoteric are all very good D/As. When you get to the $1,500 and up level your choices increase rapidly. I'm not saying that the loaded Mini is not better than the stock unit, it's just that unless you are going for an SOTA type system your money is better spent on other components. Just my opinion.
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