PC vs MAC laptop as music server

There is another ripper for Mac besides Itunes called Max (sbooth.org). It also converts between almost every format you can think of, including FLAC. An alternative player by the same guy is called Play. I haven't compared them but you are not stuck just with Itunes.

I use a Core 2 Duo Mac Mini running firewire out to an Apogee Duet ($500). I control it either with a laptop running JollysfastVNC or with an Ipod Touch. JollysfastVNC is faster than Chicken of the VNC and in active development.

I haven't compared Max to EAC but I get great sound and it's very reliable and easy to set up and use. Being a die-hard PC person there was a bit of a learning curve but now I really like OS X, especially not having to spend so much time on troubleshooting and maintenance.

The Mini is also hooked up to the LCD TV and I use it to watch DVDs and internet video.

Whichever way you go, having all of your music on a hard drive is so much better than using a disc player.

If you decide to go Mac, which I also recommend, get a new Mac Mini. It will sound much better in comparison to the laptop. Also try this ripper: XLD.

tok20000 - you have xld and max for the mac. they are excellent rippers.
as for toslink, i like using coax when going from a quality cd player in to a dac. as for a music server, i isolate the computer from the audio room (from any room that is served from the server for that matter). i don't want a computer in my audio room. you have raid disks spinning, backup disks spinning, fan noises, etc..
so i use devices that allow me to stream the signal over ecat5 or wireless (audio rooms are wired using gige speed). to further isolate any noise from these devices, i use toslink into a jitter device. then i use coax into the dac. no noise, dead quiet.
even in my den where i use the music server, i don't go directly into the jitter device from the computer. i still route the signal over the net (5ft away).
using toslink in network devices that are hooked up to electricity and to the network, toslink is less susceptible to pick up any em or rf interference like you would with a copper cable. also, you might have to run a longer cable to your dac which toslink would be a better choice for longer runs.

More lossless formats on PC, and there is nothing that comes close to J. River Media Center for the Mac...iTunes in the Windows of the Mac world.....

So much disagreement. Here's what I use and why. An older ibook (maybe 800mghz)..I use it because it's virtually silent...you never hear the fan...the mini that I'm typing on now gets plenty loud. I don't use the hard drive on the ibook for much except OS. I use several laptop (2.5") drives in MacAlly cases daisy chained together via firewire. Why? Because I can't hear them. You'll also need a backup which can be a regular sized loud hard drive because you can power it off when not in use.
I use Mac because its what I know. I don't know if windows sounds better. It's also easy for me to integrate ipods, iphones, and an Airport Express that streams to a different stereo in the house. It all works together with not too much fuss.
But honestly, I think the dac you use is much more important. I used to go thru dacs like some people go thru socks, and I never found one (no matter what the reviewers said) that sounded like real music. Now that I have one I like and it uses usb, I'm done for a long time. The rest (speed and cpu usage,etc) doesn't really matter to me.