new pc

[intojazz]

Hello,
I'm looking for advise on the purchase of a new pc. I don't believe I need anything special. I just want to access the net for email and downloads. My only real focus is music. I just don't want to be limited by the choice I make. I'll consider a laptop or desktop. I "may" consider a MAC although cost there is an issue. I'm working my way to a music server with about a TB of storage. I believe digital through a decent USB DAC is a decent path. I'd like to be ready for US 3.0. My system currently is: Dell Latitude D620, Foobar 2000, M2 HiFace, to either a Marantz 7300 ss amp or a pair 300B tube amps (Bottlehead)
with a 12ax7 based pre, out to either a pair of Thiel CS 1.6's or a pair of Dick Olsher inspired BassZilla open baffle speakers. I also use a Velodyne HGS 10 subwoofer to supplement the low end when using the Thiel's And last I have an Altmann Attraction DAC that is 16/44 only, a bottleneck? I'm a true Jazz lover and like to consider myself an audiophile on a beer pocketbook. I'm a bit obsessed but do love the pursuit. This is my first post to this forum in a long time and I'm hoping for some experienced input. Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, John

[jrenkin]

Get an old mac mini on ebay. I have found mac much better than PC, just my personal experience. My only recommendation is spring for a intel mac mini if you can. The older G4s work, but are slow to boot and slow to scroll through your library and so on.

[oublie]

Originally Posted by intojazz

Hello,
I'm looking for advise on the purchase of a new pc. I don't believe I need anything special. I just want to access the net for email and downloads. My only real focus is music. I just don't want to be limited by the choice I make. I'll consider a laptop or desktop. I "may" consider a MAC although cost there is an issue. I'm working my way to a music server with about a TB of storage. I believe digital through a decent USB DAC is a decent path. I'd like to be ready for US 3.0. My system currently is: Dell Latitude D620, Foobar 2000, M2 HiFace, to either a Marantz 7300 ss amp or a pair 300B tube amps (Bottlehead)
with a 12ax7 based pre, out to either a pair of Thiel CS 1.6's or a pair of Dick Olsher inspired BassZilla open baffle speakers. I also use a Velodyne HGS 10 subwoofer to supplement the low end when using the Thiel's And last I have an Altmann Attraction DAC that is 16/44 only, a bottleneck? I'm a true Jazz lover and like to consider myself an audiophile on a beer pocketbook. I'm a bit obsessed but do love the pursuit. This is my first post to this forum in a long time and I'm hoping for some experienced input. Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, John

Hi I would stick with windows pc - purely from the perspective of available free software and flexibility. As for what you need, currently a basic spec desktop running win 7 32bit with 2gig of ram would be enough. I would suggest it would be worthwhile having both pci and pci express slots free for sound card options along with firewire in case you decide to go the external pro audio card route later. an onboard or soundcard based spdif digital out. processor wise a basic dual core will be more than enough. Storage wise dual raid 1 1tb drives for data and a small single driver for windows.

If you plan to change speakers or try the active crossover route can i suggest a more powerful processor will help although you won't need a beast.

[markusA]

I'll tag along as well and see what pops up since I'm in the market for a media-pc (I don't want to say htpc since I'm going for stereo only.)
I was thinking Intel i3 core, smallest mobile processor should do the trick. Maybe a mini itx board and possibly 4GB of RAM. (2 would probaby do the trick but RAM is cheap.)
A small SSD and a NAS for the media files. That's pretty much what I was thinking, maybe it'll give intojazz some ideas?

[intojazz]

I stumbled upon these two sites that may prove interesting:

The Well Tempered Computer
and cMP² | Main / HomePage

A lot of what appears to be no nonsense stuff here.
Let me know what you think.

Best regards, John:

[markusA]

Nice link there.