2. pc-audio
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What do I need to use my PC as a music server

Should I buy an external hard drive at least 300 GB. Then what, Install a program like Itunes to organize. Does Itunes also convert your CD's as well as anything you might download from the internet to the hard drive? How do I get the music from the hard drive to the Pre amp? From what Ive been reading using a sound card isn't the best way. My pre amp is not digital, it is a MCintosh C39, analog connections only. I'm starting from scratch so maybe some suggestions on what I will need. I went to comp USA for some help and they told to use creative sound blaster to go from PC to pre amp. If someone can tell me what I'll need by product name (so I know what to look for) I can see what the cost will be and if it will be worth it. I read that the sound from the hard drive to the Pre amp rivals that of a CD player in the 5K to 10K range. I know that some manufacturers are starting to make music servers, is using your PC cheaper, better or both?
bodine
edesilva
768 posts
 
Hmm... Aida_w, even Apple (the original firewire cheerleader) is moving away from that to USB--my understanding (could be wrong and too lazy to look it up) is that the new Macs don't even come with firewire. USB2.0 may be better for long term compatibility. Might want to look at the new Mac I/O options before going there if you intend to keep the drive for a while. (Then again, drives seem to be disposable these days.)
jayboard
301 posts
 
Bodine, It should be easy to purchase a hard drive that will work with PCs and Macs. Macs can read the MS-DOS (Windows) File System, or FAT32. However, if you were to eventually move to a strictly Mac platform, if I were you I'd reformat the drive to Mac OS Extended format for slightly greater reliability. If you are going to buy a second drive for backup purposes, this conversion and attendant file copying would be easy to do. Another approach, if you know you'll be migrating to Mac, would be to use MediaFour's MacDrive 6, which lets PCs use the Mac OS file format.

Edesilva, the new Intel iMac G5 has same ports as its predecessor, including Firewire 400. Apple saves Firewire 800 for the PowerMac. There has been speculation about the future of Firewire, but I think it hasn't gone beyond speculation. USB2 is plenty good for regular folks for now, but soon enough people will "need" Firewire 800 or an equivalent.

Kennyt, it does not seem you should have to tolerate any dropout with the Airport Express. Do you have iTunes' streaming buffer size set to large? I'd look for a solution to this.
kennyt's avatar
kennyt
1,226 posts
 
Jayboard,

I had it set to medium, I will try it on large and see if it makes a difference. FWIW I don't have a big issue with dropouts as is, but they do come once and a while particularly when several computers are sharing the router..
bodine OP
9 posts
 
Jayboard,
To back up what I Put on one hard drive, I'll need a second hard drive, is this correct. If so is it easy to do?
jayboard
301 posts
 
Yes, that's correct, Bodine, a separate hard drive for backup. To be super safe, you could keep the backup offsite somewhere when you aren't actually performing backup operations. I don't do that, but...can't argue with the concept. You can perform backups by just copying files from one drive to the other in Windows or whatever OS you're using. Or, you can use special backup software. Can be a little fiddly to set up, but when you run it, it will automatically figure out what's changed since the last backup and then back up accordingly. I use SuperDuper! and Retrospect Express on my Macs...don't know what's available on PC side but no doubt plenty.
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