Has anyone here built a hard-drive based music server?...

[Ocean56]

....from a PC or Mac?

I downloaded the PDF from the other post regarding hard drive transports, but I'm just wondering if that covers all the bases, or if anyone's used (e.g.) an old PC and done this?

If so, what components were involved and how much (roughly) did you spend? And were you satisfied with the end results?

Thanks!

[steve_c]

What thread was that? I bought a Synology CS-406 NAS and built in four 250 GB SATA drives, run as RAID 5 to give about 750 GB storage. A version of Slim Devices server software, by a third party, called SSODS will run directly on the NAS without the need to run a separate PC. It wasn't a cheap solution but it is very reliable and has other functions, such as photo server, you might like.

[onlyconnect]

I built my own using Linux, SATA RAID and Slimserver. Going well so far.

Tim

[reverber]

I used an old desktop (AMD K7 (700Mhz?) w/ 500M RAM and a couple of hard drives 100G and 400G). I already had everything but the 400G HD. I actually bought two and an external case for one of them so I could use it as a backup. Total cost for the new parts was about US$225. It runs Debian Linux and Slimserver and sits in a closet in my basement.
If you want something you can set up and forget about, I highly recommend Linux. Also, you would be hard put to find a better deal than a Squeezebox client to stream your music.

Cody

[fathom]

Similar deal here. An old $300 Athlon PC with 512 RAM and (2) 250GB hard drives. Running Slimserver, approx 20,000 songs served to 5 Squeezeboxes in different rooms. Using ClarkConnect Linux-based server OS. Extremely reliable, very modest cost.

[Heuer]

Using a legacy Dell 8250 here (with XP) as a server for Slimserver, myiHome and WeatherDisplay with all media on a ReadyNAS NV. Music all in FLAC format with a mixture of 44.1Khz/16 bit (CD) and 96khz/24 bit (vinyl) files streamed to two Squeezebox 3's and a Transporter. Video streamed to a Helios X5000 media player.

Basically almost any old PC will be powerful enough to act as a music server although Slimserver does need a bit of power if you are going to use the web interface. Clark Connect is well respected as an OS but you have to learn Linux. I have found XP very stable on a headless PC running only essential applications.

You could do the entire job on something like a Thecus 5200 NAS - safe storage of your media and powerful enough to run the server and you can leave the PC off.