There are many ways to skin this cat with commodity pcs and laptops. My samsung laptop cost under $500 and windows media player included does a good job ripping. 2 1.5 + TB USB disks ith backup software adds less than $400. Then a squeezebox touch player less than $300. Performance and reliability is top notch.
Do We need a dedicated server on PC format
Hello all, I asked this question on another thread and thought it would be best to post it on its own.
Among other things, I buy consumer electronics for a living. I have read through a few threads talking about how hard it can be setting up a computer optimized for high quality listening. Last week at a trade show, I spoke with HP & Acer about making a dedicated music server... meaning from the factory, it would have a great processor, proper ram, most likely ssd drives and maybe installed programming ready to go.. i.e. JRiver/Foobar/XXHighend etc. along with instruction on how to shutdown or not use any windows programming that is not needed but they are forced to include. I realize that there are a ton of Mac users out there, I have come to believe that a properly optimized pc using windows 8 can compete quite well with Mac and we should be able to end up with a noticeably lower cost... Acer had a mild interest in our community and recommended that I look at a model S5 as a format or starting point... This minute, it retails for $1399, but I am told that retail is dropping to $999 within the next month or so. It has one of the better i7 mobile capable processors and dual 128gb ssd drives (256), they indicated that these could easily be dual 256 ssd drives without much added cost. They cannot yet ship win 8, but had no problem there... I'm really wondering how much interest we have. I realize that its not skin off anybodies teeth to jump up and say YES, go after it, but I am putting my relationship on the line and it sounds like about a minimum of a 6 month ordeal to develop a new model, so I don't want to spin my wheels nor put a manufacturer through the expense for them to be able to sell 100 units or so. Obviously world wide sales should be better than that, buy you get the idea. I have included a notebook model only, it didn't seem lie there would be any problems developing a desktop solution. I'm really not sure that I can get a manufacturer to really develop this, so I'm after anything that I can find out before I would start pushing, Any input would be appreciated.
Tim
Among other things, I buy consumer electronics for a living. I have read through a few threads talking about how hard it can be setting up a computer optimized for high quality listening. Last week at a trade show, I spoke with HP & Acer about making a dedicated music server... meaning from the factory, it would have a great processor, proper ram, most likely ssd drives and maybe installed programming ready to go.. i.e. JRiver/Foobar/XXHighend etc. along with instruction on how to shutdown or not use any windows programming that is not needed but they are forced to include. I realize that there are a ton of Mac users out there, I have come to believe that a properly optimized pc using windows 8 can compete quite well with Mac and we should be able to end up with a noticeably lower cost... Acer had a mild interest in our community and recommended that I look at a model S5 as a format or starting point... This minute, it retails for $1399, but I am told that retail is dropping to $999 within the next month or so. It has one of the better i7 mobile capable processors and dual 128gb ssd drives (256), they indicated that these could easily be dual 256 ssd drives without much added cost. They cannot yet ship win 8, but had no problem there... I'm really wondering how much interest we have. I realize that its not skin off anybodies teeth to jump up and say YES, go after it, but I am putting my relationship on the line and it sounds like about a minimum of a 6 month ordeal to develop a new model, so I don't want to spin my wheels nor put a manufacturer through the expense for them to be able to sell 100 units or so. Obviously world wide sales should be better than that, buy you get the idea. I have included a notebook model only, it didn't seem lie there would be any problems developing a desktop solution. I'm really not sure that I can get a manufacturer to really develop this, so I'm after anything that I can find out before I would start pushing, Any input would be appreciated.
Tim