Shopping for a new netbook or laptop...


Hoping to get some advice. I'm not very computer savvy. I'm looking for a netbook simply to listen to internet radio and browse the web. I'll hook it up to my 2 channel system via USB cable and external DAC. Borrowed my wife's work laptop today to listen to Pandora. Are there any critical hardware components or performance specs I should be looking for? Will the quality of the computer's sound card have any effect on things? Don't really see myself downloading music files etc, so don't think I need a huge hard drive (but maybe I should). Thanks in advance for your time and input. If something recent on this topic has already been posted, please let me know. I missed it, if so. Thanks again.
ghosthouse

Showing 1 response by sfar

Yeah, we Mac bigots are obnoxious about it, right?

As Prpixel says, the hard drive size isn't important if you're really not going to download or rip much music. RAM is important, though, so that you can increase the streaming buffer size as high as necessary to avoid stops and starts. It's generally very easy to install RAM yourself and you can often save quite a bit of money by starting with the basic laptop configuration and buying the RAM separately. More RAM is always better.

Here's what looks like a decent guide to setting up a laptop for listening to streaming audio and it's PC specific. http://www.cajunradio.org/faq.html