Using PC as server and storage-replacing NAS DNLA server

[birdyman]

I am new to using Pc as source. Please pardon my ignorance.
My Iomega 1Tb Home network drive finally passed away with all my files in it. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gifThis was second time disk failure with network hard drive. I am not going to repeat same mistake 3 times. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/images/smilies/mad.gif
😡I am looking to use my retired Acer with Vista (Sata drive) as a music server / raid storage unit. It has gigabit ether net. I will be using my Denon network player or Beringer DCX 2496 as DAC's
My question is
1) Do I need a good sound card for Digital out to feed DCX 2496
2)Can I use Linux as OS rather than Win Vista?

Regards,

 

[gooki]

1) not realy, asio for all can work on many budget sound chips with digital out
2) yes you can. xbmc is built on top of linux and has a good front end for music playback.

 

[vexed]

I doubt the iomega is totally dead. I bet I could extract and save your data. Do you still have the drive?

 

[jazbo8]

I had a good results with unRAID as NAS, you can just have the Denon browse the files on it. I use squeezebox, but it is the same idea, I think..

Jaz

 

[DonkeyFurr]

I can only comment on 2)

Linux is a great OS. If it is your first time trying linux I recommend a "ready to go" and "easy to install" linux distro. There are a few out there but Linux Mint or Ubuntu are good choices to start with. I saw in another forum someone recommending Gentoo which, as far as I know, is an expert users Linux distribution. If you pick the wrong Linux distribution to start with for your first time it could easily turn you off using linux as an OS.

Using linux as a server OS you would have to install probably either samba or NFS for network communication between computers. If you plan to use other windoze computers then I am pretty sure you would have to use Samba. I use NFS on my home server and home computers but I run linux on all of them. From what I read NFS does not work with windoze machines.

 

[sandbasser]

IMHO vortexbox is worth looking at. (Google it).

Please no flame war. I know nothing about its 'audiophile' qualities 🙂

 

[xslavic]

i never destroyed HDD ,not yet ,evrey piece of it is working ...,i'm using pc since '99 and no errors till now ,i now use some ssd's but still working like charm ,SD , microSD cards are another think DO NOT INSTALL oSystems on them