PC vs MAC laptop as music server

If you decide to go Mac, which I also recommend, get a new Mac Mini. It will sound much better in comparison to the laptop. Also try this ripper: XLD.

tok20000 - you have xld and max for the mac. they are excellent rippers.
as for toslink, i like using coax when going from a quality cd player in to a dac. as for a music server, i isolate the computer from the audio room (from any room that is served from the server for that matter). i don't want a computer in my audio room. you have raid disks spinning, backup disks spinning, fan noises, etc..
so i use devices that allow me to stream the signal over ecat5 or wireless (audio rooms are wired using gige speed). to further isolate any noise from these devices, i use toslink into a jitter device. then i use coax into the dac. no noise, dead quiet.
even in my den where i use the music server, i don't go directly into the jitter device from the computer. i still route the signal over the net (5ft away).
using toslink in network devices that are hooked up to electricity and to the network, toslink is less susceptible to pick up any em or rf interference like you would with a copper cable. also, you might have to run a longer cable to your dac which toslink would be a better choice for longer runs.

More lossless formats on PC, and there is nothing that comes close to J. River Media Center for the Mac...iTunes in the Windows of the Mac world.....

So much disagreement. Here's what I use and why. An older ibook (maybe 800mghz)..I use it because it's virtually silent...you never hear the fan...the mini that I'm typing on now gets plenty loud. I don't use the hard drive on the ibook for much except OS. I use several laptop (2.5") drives in MacAlly cases daisy chained together via firewire. Why? Because I can't hear them. You'll also need a backup which can be a regular sized loud hard drive because you can power it off when not in use.
I use Mac because its what I know. I don't know if windows sounds better. It's also easy for me to integrate ipods, iphones, and an Airport Express that streams to a different stereo in the house. It all works together with not too much fuss.
But honestly, I think the dac you use is much more important. I used to go thru dacs like some people go thru socks, and I never found one (no matter what the reviewers said) that sounded like real music. Now that I have one I like and it uses usb, I'm done for a long time. The rest (speed and cpu usage,etc) doesn't really matter to me.

Well...

It is true that PC is cheaper than Mac in general. However if you try to build a silent PC with solid state drive, it will actually cost you a lot (nice looking enclosure, solid state drive, lots of heat pipes etc). I have tried to play itune on Windows notebook through Apple Airport Express (wireless) > optical Toslink cable > PS Audio DLiii > Amp, but for some unknown reason, it didn't sound that good. I ripped my CDs to Flac and Wav using EAC so I am sure the ripped audio file quality is as good as the one on my CDs.

So I bought a Mac mini (Intel core duo) and upgraded the memory to 4GB. What a nice machine it is. I play same files directly out of external hard drive through USB to mini through firewire to Apogee duet to amp, and the sound is much better than before. Mac mini is very quiet and the interface is excellent. You can even have basic control of itune using the accompanying small remote controller. I know I can install XP to run music file on Foobar if I want although it won't work with Duet. So I have another option and it is definitely future proof.

My next trial will be downloading 24/96 flac files from HD Track and convert them to different format such as 24/96 Wav or AIFF to play on itune. Apogee Duet can handle 24/96 data through firewire so it must be very nice.

I hope Apple release a special version of Mac mini with decent size solid state drive (about 64GB or 128GB just for OS and applications) and of course, I2S. It will be a killer music server platform.

My 2 Cents...