Complete Newb to this - some advice please

[robertsmith52]

Having been previously sceptical about utilising a computer as a audio media player I have done some research mainly on this site and others and have now started to get some ideas in my mind about how to start. Please excuse my ignorance as I am keen to learn.

 

My initial thoughts are to build my own media server and I have selected some thoughts on the basic components with which to start before I proceed any further I would welcome any comments from members greater experience than my own.

 

Motherboard : Asus AT5IONT-I Fanless Dual Core 1.8GHz Atom ION2 Mini-ITX Board with USB 3.0

 

I intend if possible to use a case with an external power supply

 

Operating System Windows 7 which flavour is recommended the full professional version or the home version? are there advantages to the 64 bit version also.

 

I probably will use EAC for ripping and probably Musicmonkey for playing.

 

Soundcard Asus Xonar Essence STX

 

Small to medium 40GB SSD to hold Operating System etc

 

to be augmented at a future date to include a second larger SSD to hold actual current FLAC files for playing.

 

I presume I could in the first instance use the optical output from the ASUS sound card to connect to my DAC within my Arcam CD Player is this correct?

 

I will eventually purchase a separate DAC probably a musical fidelity and then connect through to my HiFi amplification in the traditional way.

 

I have also been considering a Vortebox for ripping CD's etc into .flac files and for archive storage of .flac files

 

Logitech Squeezebox touch for control

 

 

[iamimdoc]

I built the Version 1 CAPS server described on this web site. It works fine and NO NOISE. There is supposed to be updated recommendations coming out re: another CAPS server. Not sure it makes things any better.

 

A small SSD has been reliable for me. The PC does nothing else but play music and thus space is not an issue.

 

I have about 5TB of music via NAS drives. All is wired but I have zero problems with dropouts, clicks, extra noises, etc.

 

I used the USB output to an asynchronous DAC. Works fine. There are other options if you have soundcard.

 

MediaMonkey works great for me. Is this is what you are referring to as MusicMonkey?

 

EAC works great for me. Easy, reliable, can run several instances simultaneously.

 

I got Windows 7 Pro, 32 bit (all the motherboard would handle). A best I can tell the major advantage (of the PRO version)is built in Desktop control by a remote computer. I did not find the Remotedesktop to work well (funny scrolling, colors, etc) but have used VNC reliably. Logmein is reliable and usable also. All are free.

 

I use a MAC laptop (with built in VNC capability) to wirelessly and reliably control the Windows computer. Small, quiet, workable. Used, the MAC was "cheapish"

 

Don't think you can use the Logitech to control unless you use a Squeezebox - in which case MediaMonkey is superfluous.

 

IMO, Mediamonkey software is far superior to Squeezecenter

 

 

[robertsmith52]

Thanks very much for all advice greatly received, yes I did mean Mediamonkey sorry for any confusion.

 

I will now follow-up on all of your suggestions, this is all very new to me and I appreciate your time to offer advice.

 

I looked at the ASUS board probably ignorantly because it has USB 3.0 capability and here in the UK it is only a little more expensive than the Intel board suggested.

 

I am not quite ready to start building yet, still feeling around and getting as much info as I can before I finalize anything.

 

Thanks again.