justinsweber Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 (edited) An in-expensive music server. For my lastest project, I was trying to build an inexpensive music server… I think I pretty much did… could use some input from everyone here. I started out with buying a old macbook (2009) on E-day for ~ $130 to my door. The battery was bad (bulging) so I got a new unit from ebay for $22 with shipping. I then got a install DVD of OSX 10.6 for $10 with shipping. I need the install to allow me to reload cleanly and format for HPFS with case sensitive and journaled… (~1050 albums). I went to the crutial website and found out I could go to 4gigs of PC5300 SODIM 200. I then went to Amazon and got it for $50 with shipping. The last little tidbit was to swap drives. When I supped up my mac mini with a 2nd drive and a SSD for the primary, I was left with my 750gig. In went the newer 750gig drive. I used I-fit-it to see how to disassemble and put back together. You can even order a CD-drive delete and add a 2nd drive. All that was left was to do updates and copy over 500gigs of music. So for about ~$220 Ryan my biz partner has a music server. (I ripped all his CDs). All music will be played through his USB DAC (Pop-pulse). Hope the outline helps other build a great system. Oh, one more thing… download Onxy… Great utility… Keeps your mac running perfect. I’ve owned a Olive… and this is much more flexible and FASTER… Even can use a remote. Here are my questions: Would Amarra HiFi be a benefit if only REDBOOK? I’ve seen scripts that can be downloaded which disable all extraneous processes. Anyone know where I can get these? Other helpful hints? Edited July 2, 2014 by justinsweber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Chad Posted July 2, 2014 Administrators Share Posted July 2, 2014 Is that server on a network? Have you put any thought into using something like XBMC (http://xbmc.org) instead? I think if the macbook is to bused ONLY as a music/media server, you might want to look into that.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinsweber Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 Chad, Thanks for the heads up... few questions: XBMC... what are the advantages? I went OSX to get access to BSDs subsystem... (Stable). I agree that all of the OSX front end is over kill, but would load the kernal and then run XBMC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul79 Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Since you are using 10.6, you can get the Audio Optimization Tweaks for Snow Leopard Ibook from iTunes. You need an Ipad to read it though... This makes a nice improvement. I'd also go with Audirvana + as it is about the same price, and you can play anything using it as a player. The difference in sound quality is minimal between the 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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