Assuming you're just building this for home use (not for some industrial-strength server setting), putting together a music server easily and cheaply shouldn't be a problem. Maybe I don't worry enough, but as long as the processor I bought ran in the MB I bought, I'd be content.
I'd buy a small-form-factor shell (Shuttle?) and the pieces that go into it - you don't need much for a music server. NewEgg.com makes it pretty simple to pick out the necessary parts that will work together, and they're well priced. HP just released a 1/3 form factor PC that would work great too - comes complete for around $500, though you'd need to add wireless network.
For storage, I wouldn't mess around with RAID anything, especially if cost is an issue. You can get a 1TB external drive for around $800. That's enough for 2500-ish CDs in lossless WMA format, more in other formats. To make regular, easy backups, you could buy two at 1TB. Music servers shouldn't need constant, near-real-time synchronization or hot swapping capability, so all the RAID stuff is just extra expense, IMO.
So, for $1300-ish (or $2100, with two drives), you can have a small, quiet music server that holds 2500 uncompressed CDs and acts as a transport to your DAC or processor and probably surpasses any dedicated transport in performance. Fantastic stuff.
If you looking for single system support, I'd give the nod to J River Media Center as software - great program that is intuitively customizable. You can do a lot with your library with this program. For whole house distribution, I'd recommend SlimServer - it's an open source server with both an open source client as well as purchaseable client pods. The software works extremely well and has a nice browser-based interface. It's not as strong at categorization, etc., but holds up well to large libraries.
Hope this helps. -Kirk
I'd buy a small-form-factor shell (Shuttle?) and the pieces that go into it - you don't need much for a music server. NewEgg.com makes it pretty simple to pick out the necessary parts that will work together, and they're well priced. HP just released a 1/3 form factor PC that would work great too - comes complete for around $500, though you'd need to add wireless network.
For storage, I wouldn't mess around with RAID anything, especially if cost is an issue. You can get a 1TB external drive for around $800. That's enough for 2500-ish CDs in lossless WMA format, more in other formats. To make regular, easy backups, you could buy two at 1TB. Music servers shouldn't need constant, near-real-time synchronization or hot swapping capability, so all the RAID stuff is just extra expense, IMO.
So, for $1300-ish (or $2100, with two drives), you can have a small, quiet music server that holds 2500 uncompressed CDs and acts as a transport to your DAC or processor and probably surpasses any dedicated transport in performance. Fantastic stuff.
If you looking for single system support, I'd give the nod to J River Media Center as software - great program that is intuitively customizable. You can do a lot with your library with this program. For whole house distribution, I'd recommend SlimServer - it's an open source server with both an open source client as well as purchaseable client pods. The software works extremely well and has a nice browser-based interface. It's not as strong at categorization, etc., but holds up well to large libraries.
Hope this helps. -Kirk