suggest laptop for music storage

I agree with Jeffreybowman2k that an iBook G3 or, preferably, a G4 would be a good place to start but there would be less risk in buying one from one of the online sites that specializes in used and refurbished Apple laptops, like powermax.com or macreviewzone.com than from ebay.

Originally, there were compelling reasons to go with MAC, but with Vista and the new music servers and USB converters with "driverless" firmware, there is no difference. In fact, there is an advantage to PC because of better upsamplers. If you use the Adobe upsampler, they are equal though.

STeve N.
Empirical Audio

I defer to Steve N., who obviously is an authority on these matters.

Steve: the OP indicated that he would be using a USB DAC. Given that, how much do the audio drivers and upsamplers really matter as b/w Windows Vista and Max OSX? If using an external USB DAC mitigates any difference in drivers and upsamplers, then I suppose it gets back to which format -- PC or Mac -- is a more stable, user friendly environment as a music server. Although I have used foobar, EAC, and others on a PC, I like itunes used on a mac as the best available option in terms of reliability and ease of use.

fughedabout laptop dude check out this link bellow
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Alesis-MasterLink-ML9600-Master-Disk-Recorder?sku=246018

Jax2, I believe that iTunes is supposed to be offering lossless downloads for selected labels. Also, check out magnatune.com, which has become my favorite site for downloading music. You can download in FLAC and it sounds great.

Michael