A Good Budget Computer For Music?

[Minstrel SE]

Its time I upgraded my laptop or considered a mini tower computer.

With music foremost in my mind, will a budget laptop or mini tower be good enough fed out through a DAC?

I like Dell and was wondering if their entry level products are good enough?

In my mind,all its got to do is read the data and clock it out via USB.

Is there a budget computer with music in mind or do I need to build my own tower with specialist soundcards?

Just wondering like :)
all the best
Martin

[struth]

Gazjam of this parish used to make them up for you, but was more of a music server than pc. It all depends on if you wish to use it as a full fledged pc too. Ive got 4 laptops and all work well with music, either with jriver and an external dac or sometimes using foobar. Yes you can improve them greatly I guess, and it depends on how you see it but a good, fast laptop with plenty connections attached to a good dac should sound very good

[steve-z]

I've been using MacMinis for over 10 years as music servers, don't think you can beat them, they have optical digital outputs to feed the DAC of your choice. You can control them with the Remote App on your iPhone or iPad.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[nuff]

I've been using MacMinis for over 10 years as music servers, don't think you can beat them, they have optical digital outputs to feed the DAC of your choice. You can control them with the Remote App on your iPhone or iPad.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

+1 I've used many MacMinis ranging from 2003 upto 2012 I'm now using a 27" 2010 iMac and I can say I haven't 1 issue with there audio quality.
I've also built many mediacenter PC's with an Asus Xonar D2 sound card with great results but I still feel Mac is better and less fiddly. It just works!

[WAD62]

Its time I upgraded my laptop or considered a mini tower computer.

With music foremost in my mind, will a budget laptop or mini tower be good enough fed out through a DAC?

I like Dell and was wondering if their entry level products are good enough?

In my mind,all its got to do is read the data and clock it out via USB.

Most USB DACs are asynchronous these days, so don't worry about the laptop spec too much, just ensure you have regen/isolation between the laptop and the DAC, oh and use WASAPI if you're going to use windows...:)

[davidavdavid]

I too have been using Mac Minis for 10+ years now, and am not looking back. I would suggest buying second-hand pre-owned and going for the Mid 2011 to late 2012 models as they are the most customizable. Am typing this message from my Mac Mini which is connected my main audio system in the living room over here.

As for Mac based playback software i can recommend the following:

Audirvana Plus and/or ROON

As for metadata editing

MetaDatics (free)

As for format conversion

XLD and/or Max (both free)

[StanleyB]

From playing around with the different laptops at home, the minimum requirements for the least amount of interruptions are an i5 processor and at least a small capacity SSD to hold the operating system and media programs. If you got a USB3.0 socket on it as well, then you can use a USB3.0 external drive. I have tried lower spec combinations, but they were not so robust.

[Minstrel SE]

Thanks for your suggestions. I will certainly try and get the minimum specification suggested.

I cant really afford a mac mini although I knew that would be suggested.

Best wishes
Martin

[Gazjam]

An Intel NUC with a good linear PSU and SSD drive for Windows install is solid first step.
There are ways to improve it (of course) but this is a great starting point.
My money, if I was starting again I'd get one of these.
https://www.quietpc.com/intel-nuc-7th-gen?countryid=gb&gclid=CLCxvbTG8NQCFa0W0wodoa4OUg

Forget laptops etc..in the scheme of things they are too compromised for maximising audio quality.

Where your musics stored is the next question...
Stream from Tidal/Spotify or store it on a hard drive?

Decide that then, your on to the next part. :)

[Edward]

I started off on the fascinating journey of using a computer for music with various HP Microservers and am currently using a fanless mini-itx diy build (parts provided by Loosend of this and other parishes). I've also built, just for the lolz, an HTPC on a 15 year old Dell machine running JRiver on Linux and that worked great. A free HTPC.

If I were to do a new HTPC I would likely choose an Intel NUC that Gazjam recommends.

The two key lessons I found is that one does not need huge amounts of memory or a top speed CPU for things to perform with lots of headroom. The mini-itx I have is only a quad celeron and I only have 4gb memory. The other lesson is to ensure the DAC you use isolates the USB power and uses its own power (or in some way mitigates the noise inherent in the USB power line).

I started off with a Microserver and hard discs containing my music all in one machine but this proved to be too noisy in my listening room. So I soon moved the hard discs containing the music to another machine in another room and link the machines up via Ethernet. WiFi or powerline devices do work but results can be variable - especially streaming 1080p or higher content.

Software wise my default set up is Windows 10 Pro (with background services and unnecessary apps disabled) with JRiver outputing via ASIO or WASAPI to the DAC. Machine is also great with online streaming such as Tidal, Spotify, UTube, Netflix etc. The machine is headless (i.e.no monitor but is connected to TV via HDMI), I control it via either RDP or the dedicated JRiver app (JRemote).

So, to answer your question, I would recommend something like the NUC, get some minimal memory (you can always add to it), a 120gb SSD, Windows, JRiver and for now an external drive for your music (you may well have something anyway) . You don't need specialist soundcards. Best to use an external DAC to maximise the quality of the music.

But if you want to also do hard core gaming at 4k using triple monitors with zero lag etc then a NUC will struggle. :eyebrows:

E

[steve-z]

Thanks for your suggestions. I will certainly try and get the minimum specification suggested.

I cant really afford a mac mini although I knew that would be suggested.

Best wishes
Martin

I got my latest Macmini off eBay for under £300 just over a year ago, it was the latest spec at the time and had 6 months of the original Apple warranty left on it, there are bargains to be had if you hunt round.
Regards
Steve


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mightymonoped]

+me on using a NUC
They are a great no fuss option and easy to configure or expand. Use them in all kinds of ways in work as they a great low-footprint option on the shop-floor and training room.
If you using Windows, that's what I would look at.

+me on using a Mac Mini :)
I use an older (2010) Macbook Pro at home but I'm pretty agnostic as far as platforms are concerned, have used them all to some extent (and still do).
I agree that slightly older Mac models can be a real bargain as they are more open to 'upgrade' than the newer models, a nice little Macmini would also serve you very well indeed.

you won't go wrong with either of these options...