preventing usb bus overload.

Cerrot
Are you suggesting to connect a NAS with Ethernet cable to the macmini. I thought a NAS drive connects wireless, and to be honest I don't like WiFi all that much.
Thought?
George

I am not on Windows,I use a mac mini for music sever.
I have heard the same thing. My external drive that contains the music is Lacie 3Tb USB3.
My mini is only USB2,Firewire800,Thunderbolt.
All other drives except USB are way more expensive,and hard to find.I also have WD My Studio Passport Firewire Hard drive.
I used both, can't tell the difference. Sorry.
I just use my Lacie now, so that means both my dac and hard drive are on USB.
Don't loose sleep over it.Just enjoy your music.
George

Zd452
Thanks for the information,I was actually thinking about buying an OWC external hard drive case,just the other day.
They only cost 77 dollars but then a 4 TB drive is another 170 at least maybe more and I still need to perform the installation. I might just buy an OWC external drive, Firewire800, prebuild, they seem to offer great price comparison to other brands .
I love the Lacie or G-Technology but they never go on sale,damn it.
George

My experience with NAS over WiFi wasn't very good.
I was using a Sonos with WD MyBook Live 2Tb about two years ago.
The sound was satisfactory but I was getting buffering problems,sound stopping,spinning balls.
Then on someone's advice I bought a powerline device by Dlink. It definitely helped a lot,most problems went away but still on occasion I had music dropouts.
I abandoned that setup in favor of the macmini server.
It works 100 percent with never a hickup since my music files are in an external Lacie 3Tb USB3 drive directly attached to the macmini via USB.
Should I expect an improvement if I connected a NAS drive to the macmini via Ethernet to avoid WiFi or it doest matter.
I ask this because every experiment seems to cost a few hundred dollars, and if don't work I am, left with gadgets all over the house unused.
Thanks
George

Cerrot
T
A big thanks.As I mentioned earlier,my little setup works like a charm. But as you know,we never leave things alone in this hobby.So this post made me think twice whether I should buy another drive with Firewire800 port and avoid the aforementioned usb bus overload thing.My dac and external Lacie drive are both connected into my macmini with USB.
I already have a NAS, actually two of them. The second I haven't even put to use yet,but if I was to go that route,then I need to run Ethernet cable from router to destination,where my macmini is placed.
The run will probably take 80 feet of cable,going through the wall and ceiling. How long can Ethernet cable be?
Can I buy it raw (what is it the cat6 ) and terminate it once it's fished through.Obviously having plugs at the ends makes it harder to fish.
Other thing I could do is get another Lacie firewire drive for a few hundred dollars and replace my existing Lacie USB3 drive. Having said that,I got honestly like six older drives lying around unused,from previous purchases. It never even ends!
Decisions,decisions.
George