Need computer audio advice.

Firewire interface to an external disk is a better idea, particularly if you are planning to drive USB interface, either a USB converter or a DAC. You should minimize the other USB devices on the bus.

The computer should be dedicated to music playback and not your general purpose machine. I find the Oct 2009 Mac Mini to be a great choice because you can externally power it from a good linear power supply. Cannot do this on newer Minis unless they are modified. Laptops are not as good IME.

You can usually get a Oct 2009 Mini with Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and OS disk on ebay for around $375.00. Replace the HDD with SSD and upgrade to 8gigs memory. Put Amarra playback and XLD for ripping on it and you will have a world-class server. Also do the OS tweaks in iTunes iBooks "audio optimization guides"

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Matt, when you use network you send data and not the music. The difference is that data has no timing - timing is recreated on the other side of network bridge. Your file format, amount of memory, type of HD, speed of computer, playback program etc. have no effect on the playback. It is remotely possible that mechanical HD will create more EMI than solid state drive but it is also possible that faster computer will do the same. I would just ignore it all. If you have choice on your Mac - get external Firewire drive (that's what I use on MacMini) - it is easier to daisy-chain them and they don't slow down main processor - minor and perhaps not important unless you use computer for other heavy tasks. External Firewire drive cost a little bit more (less common). Get two drives, as Doggiehowser suggested, and make backup. I have three drives and use "Carbon Copy". One drive is in use, one in storage and one at work. This protects me from theft/fire or computer/controller failure during backup (that could screw up both HD). I make new backup only to one drive at a time (alternate them) and only when I have more than 5-10 new CDs.

Moving all your audio files to an external drive as you propose will work fine, and will not sound any different than what you are doing now. You may as well get a 3 TB or larger drive, as they can be found for around $100 or so.

Good advice so far....my 2 cents follows:

I have almost 30,000 AIFF tracks on a 2tb drive and will probably never need more storage. So, because you’re only using your Mac’s 500 GB hard drive for your OS and other file storage now, as little as 1 or 2tb’s may be sufficient for your needs. No need to buy a 3 or 4tb drive for less than a few 100 GB’s of music files. In a few years, hard drives may well be made obsolete by SSD's (Solid State Drives) or some other newer technology.

Simply because I’m more fluent with Windows than OSX, I use my Windows PC to rip and copy files using dBpoweramp software. However, I transfer those files via an internal hard drive to my audio room’s PC which is a Mac Mini. I also buy internal hard drives and external docking units for internal hard drives. These docks are plug and play and most are "hot swappable". In my audio room to connect to my Mac Mini, I use one from this company: http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php. As already mentioned, firewire is preferable, so I bought a dock with that capability. I also have a similar dock that I use for my Windows machine, only it doesn't have firewire capability, which makes it more reasonably priced (i.e. the more connections [USB, SATA, Firewire etc.] the higher the price of the dock. BTW, if you don't need a firewire connection, a USB or SATA dock can be used on both a Windows or Apple machine.

Internal and External Hard drives are hard drives. You don't need to buy one from the Apple store, or for that matter, one specified for use on an Apple. You can format the drive for use on either an Apple or Windows PC or both. NewEgg.com is a site that I normally use for computer hardware, including hard drives.

As others have recommended, be sure and have a 2nd., or even a 3rd. (multiple) backup hard drives. You wouldn't want to lose all of the time you spent ripping your CD's and it's not a matter of if a HD will fail, it's just a question of when.

Moreover, always remember that not only should we protect our hard drive’s from mechanical/electronic failure with at least 1 back-up, but also from virus infections or power surges etc. Thus, multiple hard drives in one PC, or externally housed in a NAS or some other multi-bay storage unit, can all be simultaneously affected (damaged) by the aforementioned virus or power/lightning surge. Thus, I make sure to keep a hard drive that contains all of my music files offsite; in my case, at a relative’s house. One can't predict when a fire, flood, storm damage, lightning strike etc. can affect your home and its contents.

If you haven’t already found these sites, a wealth of PC Audio information can be found here: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/ and http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/bbs.html. The former site (Computer Audiophile) not only contains a forum, but the site owner, Chris, has published some very detailed and insightful instructions regarding ripping software, media playing software, etc. His site also contains his reviews of the hardware that is related to PC Audio.

I have been using 2Gb external USB drives with Squeezebox system via Wifi now for a few years. Works great, sounds great, a good way to go.

If there is an issue it will be with wifi bandwidth to handle high res files. I have thousands of CD quality lossless files I use, but have not tried Hires. The issue would be rebuffering delays if not enough network bandwidth for hi res, not sound quality. I have no problems with any of this with CD res files.