Music Server- SSD drives

F1a...

That would depend on which format you rip the CD's to. Assuming FLAC, off the top of my head you'll need probably 90+ gigs of storage space. If ripping into WAV, 150+ is probably your minimum number. These are guesstimates, but probably good baselines to start with.

Personally, since SSD's are quite a bit more pricey, I'd have a smaller SSD for the server to use for playback to your DAC, while having a much larger HDD as an external drive to actually store the music.

Although I don't use any solid state drives in my system, it is my understanding that the main advantage of SSDs is when you use them for the computer's operating system drive. The explanations for this are somewhat vague, but many swear by the sonic improvements derived.

Asking for some Rumor Control! Rumor: SSD's burn out sooner
due to their faster running rate. Any truth to this? I read
it somewhere, don't know if it is true or not! Just asking.

The touchscreen server here has an SSD of moderate size for the OS and music server software, with music stored externally. It can be a great way to go. Achieving top notch performance is an entirely different matter.

PettyOfficer - an SSD does not "run" in the conventional hard drive sense; it has no moving parts. I haven't heard of the faster read/access speeds being linked to failure. They do alow for less writes as mentioned, meaning repeated Move, Copy, Save, Delete can cause failure sooner than a typical spinning platter HDD.

With current price and size limitations they are best used for operating system and application drive only. My collection is also about 2 titles per 1GB at 16-44.1 res FLAC. I run an old laptop with 250GB HDD to fit that - reliable SSD that size would cost more than the laptop :-)