pc vs mac, eac vs itunes

The Mac vs PC thing is a classic debate and, as with most topics in audio, there isn't a single answer. I rip CD's using either my Mac or PC and then transfer the data to a Linux-based music server. So in a way I use both or neither, depending on how you look at it.

What else do you plan on doing with the computer besides having it as a music server? That will help to answer your question, because there are things that Mac's are very good at (video editing, for example), and there are things for which there is only software available on the PC. (Although you can actually run Windows within a virtual machine on a Mac using software such as Parallels.) It all depends on your personal preferences, willingness to learn at new system, compatibility with things at work and home, etc.

Michael

There is a Mac's FREE application called MAX: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19873 that does what EAC is doing (only better). It can create exact copy (CDparanoia algorithm with "no skip" option) but also converts any format to any format and can obtain metadata (if missing) decoded by Itunes and download covers to finally output to I tunes in any format selected (I use Apple Losless).

Sufentanil: I plan on dedicating the hardware to the music system, i.e., no other uses but for music.

I prefer dbpoweramp over EAC. AFAIK, they're the only two to use accuraterip. I find EACs interface easier. Make sure you use the correct offset for your drive.

Hmm... If you're planning on having it as a dedicated system, you could either go with a Mac Mini ($600) or an iMac (which I feel is the best bang-for-the-buck in the Mac lineup, and extremely versatile), or you could get a relatively low-powered PC. Either way, I recommend two external hard drives of at least 1TB: One for music file storage, the other to serve as a backup. Depending on how much music you have, you may need two external RAID boxes for ganging multiple drives together; you can choose RAID level 0 or 5 depending on whether or not you want redundancy. None of the Mac's currently have eSATA interfaces, which would theoretically yield a higher data transfer rate to the drives, but Firewire 800 or USB 2.0 should be more than sufficient for most uses.

Music servers don't generally require a lot of CPU power, so you can get a relatively inexpensive computer from a CPU, RAM, and graphics standpoint and put the money in your drives and backup system. The other way of looking at this is that you don't have to dedicate an entire machine to this purpose, and can use it as a general-purpose computer with the music server function in the background. Whichever system you go (Mac or PC), it will likely work just fine for you.

Michael