I’m stuck here without my CDs–most of them are in storage right now.  I’ve been increasingly interested in setting up some kind of central music server, and using a remote device via the network (hopefully wirelessly) to play the music on systems throughout the house.  It’s just in the early planning stages right now, but I’ll keep everyone informed on the progress.  My early sketches are below.

Basically, the music server just needs to run a hard drive or two–it’s not rocket science.  As disk speeds are usually the slowest thing in a computer (compared to memory, CPU cycles, etc.), I don’t need a bleeding edge computer to handle it.  This works out well, being on a budget.

The files will be stored as lossless FLAC files.  This not only preserves fidelity, it also allows me to burn backup CDs and compilations much easier by pulling the files off of the server.  They take about half the space of WAV files.

Hard drive?  I’m considering starting with a 500GB unit.  If I figure an album is about 40 minutes on average, this amounts to about 350-400MB of data if stored as a WAV file.  FLAC cuts this about in half, so each 40 minute album works out to around 200MB at the most.  Using that conservative estimate, I’d get at least 2,500 albums onto a single 500GB drive.

I already have some computer components on hand–I have a spare Abit motherboard and AMD CPU, and some memory sticks that, if memory servers (no pun intended), fit the Abit.  No need for audio, and I have a Hercules video card that I could probably pull out of the computer once it is set up, to save on power.  This leaves me with finding a case and power supply.  Given the “utility” aspect of this server, I would consider finding a less expensive rack mount case to put it in.

For playback devices on the network, the Squeezebox is one of the best out there.  I may search for others that might be more cost effective.  Music can also be played by any computer on the network, using any player that supports FLAC (like WInamp).

One really good NAS (network attached storage) option is FreeNAS.  It runs on FreeBSD, and with a few tweaks, can work well as a file server for your entire network, regardless of operating system.  If the FreeNAS will work with a Squeezebox, it’d be perfect.

The biggest hurdle would be ripping all those CDs…any volunteers??