PC vs MAC laptop as music server

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...

Yoyodyne, I would like to do the same but how do you convert those HD Tracks 24/96 flac files into AIFF to play on itunes? Unfortunately HD Tracks does not give the option to download those in AIFF. Only Flac.
Is there a convertion software available for MAC.
I would like to put them on my 160gb ipod and play them on my audio system through my Wadia dock and ARC DAC7.
Thanks

Smoffatt - how do you like your ARC dac7? i heard it at rmaf and it sounded nice. have you compared coax vs usb to see if there is any difference in the quality?