CW - Apple makes all the things you're asking about very user friendly in
their iTunes interface. You certainly don't need tons of RAM to stream music,
but modern operating systems, certainly the current Apple OSX, are memory
hogs and you'd do better with a gig of RAM, though you can certainly get by
with less. Hard disk (storage) space is going to be more vital to you than
RAM. If you are planning on ripping a CD collection in .WAV you're going to
be needing quite a bit of storage. You might want to consider Apple Lossless
which takes up half the space and is a true lossless format. You also may
want to consider storing your library on an external hard. That way it is a
portable device you can take with you easily..bring it on trips, entertain the
neighbors..etc. Also considering the time it will take you to rip a CD
collection to a server you'll want to consider a backup solution. Either a
duplicate hard drive since storage is relatively cheap, or copy your hard drive
to DVD's (also a lenghthy process, but pretty safe). You could certainly
stream music all about your home using Apple's Airport Express. Which
brings me to another response; If you are into critical sound quality...sitting
in the sweet spot with goosebumps and like that...the critical part of your PC
system will be the interface that converts/clocks the digital stream from your
hard drive/server. The conventional gamer's approach is to have an internal
audio card, of which many are available. Arguably better sound can be had
by going to either an external USB>S/PDIF convertor such as a Waveterminal
U24, or going directly to a USB DAC which will provide the clocking internally.
The knee-jerk reaction to your spending a buttload on a SOTA computer that
is maxed out, is likely based upon the fact that the demands of streaming
music is just not that great, and the money you would put towards additional
memory and fast processors would largely go unrewarded in comparison to
compromising there and putting the money into the USB DAC or USB interface
or audio card. Yes, do get plenty of hard disk space, especially if you are
running video applications and or storing video. If you gotta go with PC I
know there are some professional audio stores that market PC's that are
supposedly optimized for audio use. The one I know about is
Sweetwater where I purchased my Waveterminal a while ago. The link
is to their PC Audio section of their site, where you will find all you are asking
about. They have both Mac and PC systems. The only reason I'd go with PC
is if you are used to the interface and or have all PC software anyway.
Otherwise the Mac audio interface (also available on PC as iTunes) is very easy
to use. BTW, their new iMac computers come with a hand-held remote
control, which I'd imagine may be a nice feature for a PC audio system. No
idea how the interface for the remote works other than you point it at the
screen and click.
Good luck!
Marco
