Laptops as Music Servers

JoeyGS · Jul 6, 2012

Aside from Gary's Toshiba Laptop music server with dual core Sandy Bridge processor, has anyone replicated this on the newer processors i3, i5, etc.?

Dual cores are a bit scarce now and would want to explore options on the new processors.

Bruce B · Jul 6, 2012

I have a Toshiba Tecra i5 that I have Sonoma on and do other testing with JPlay/Jriver and others. Works like a charm!

JoeyGS · Jul 7, 2012

Bruce B said:
I have a Toshiba Tecra i5 that I have Sonoma on and do other testing with JPlay/Jriver and others. Works like a charm!

Thanks Bruce. Did you make similar OS tweaks similar to what Gary did?

Bruce B · Jul 7, 2012

JoeyGS said:
Thanks Bruce. Did you make similar OS tweaks similar to what Gary did?

Yes, I did. I got most of them from Black Viper.

JoeyGS · Jul 7, 2012

Thanks! Will check it out.

garylkoh · Jul 8, 2012

Bruce B said:
Yes, I did. I got most of them from Black Viper.

Yes - that is a great site for tweaks.

Joey, I picked the Pentium Dual Core because it had the lowest heat dissipation. Any of the new i3/i5/i7 will do. Just pick the one with the lowest heat rating as there is no need for power in a dedicated music server.

JoeyGS · Jul 8, 2012

Will do that. Thanks..

Johnny Vinyl · Jul 8, 2012

garylkoh said:
Yes - that is a great site for tweaks.

Joey, I picked the Pentium Dual Core because it had the lowest heat dissipation. Any of the new i3/i5/i7 will do. Just pick the one with the lowest heat rating as there is no need for power in a dedicated music server.

Gary - Can you elaborate? I'm a bit confused by this statement. Is it because one is not using the CD drive?

garylkoh · Jul 8, 2012

John72953 said:
Gary - Can you elaborate? I'm a bit confused by this statement. Is it because one is not using the CD drive?

In the dedicated music server, there is no need for a high powered processor as there is very little computation going on. Even if you use the ability of the music server to up-sample on the fly, and a digital graphic equalizer, any modern processor would just be ambling along.

The TDP (thermal design power) of a processor is the amount of heat that it would dissipate. The lowest TDP of modern processors is about 35W. This is the TDP of the Pentium Dual Core in the laptop that we built the original laptop server out of. With the Sandy Bridge (32nm) processors, there is a BIOS setting that allows you to set a max. rate of the CPU at 50%. So, this should cut the max. heat down to 20W or so (the heat won't go down to half even at half power). With the laptop music server, low heat is good because you don't want the fan to kick on.

In the new Ivy Bridge (22nm) family of Intel processors, there should be some Core i3 processors that will come in lower than 35W. May be that is one of the processors that JoeyGS is thinking of to build a laptop music server out of.

abrich · Sep 9, 2012

Hello everybody!

Could we please have a look at the other side of the hardware spectrum? I have a dinosaur, IBM ThinkPad R31, and am wondering if it is still possible to make a Music Server out of it.

Just to remind the younger audience, it is equipped with

• Intel Celeron 1.07GHz CPU
• 20GB HDD ATA-100 E-IDE capable drive
• 256 MB PC133 SDRAM
• Intel i830MG onboard graphic controller with shared memory
• SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio
• 2xUSB 1.1 ports (no USB 2.0 unfortunately enough)
• Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 (32-bit) OS

Any suggestions, please?:b

Bruce B · Sep 9, 2012

The only weak link I see is you may need more RAM... PC133 ram for laptops is dirt cheap now. If you can get either a 1 or 2GB SODIMM and put in there you should be fine. You'll need an NAS drive for file storage though. USB 1.1 ports are good I believe for 24/96 using an external DAC. If it has an allowance for an Express34/54 card or even a CardBuss slot, you can add FW or USB 2.0

garylkoh · Sep 9, 2012

abrich said:
Hello everybody!

Could we please have a look at the other side of the hardware spectrum? I have a dinosaur, IBM ThinkPad R31, and am wondering if it is still possible to make a Music Server out of it.

Just to remind the younger audience, it is equipped with

• Intel Celeron 1.07GHz CPU
• 20GB HDD ATA-100 E-IDE capable drive
• 256 MB PC133 SDRAM
• Intel i830MG onboard graphic controller with shared memory
• SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio
• 2xUSB 1.1 ports (no USB 2.0 unfortunately enough)
• Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 (32-bit) OS

Any suggestions, please?:b

As it is, it would be short of memory and storage for music. Also, USB1.1 ports would be good for up to 24/96. The problem is that the two USB ports would likely be on the same bus as the rest of your system (keyboard, mouse, etc), so using one port for the DAC and the other port for music on an external hard drive would be a problem.

What I would do to make it work -

1. Upgrade the memory to the maximum the hardware can take (probably 1Gb on the old Celeron).
2. Upgrade the hard drive to the maximum the hardware can take
3. The laptop should have a PC-card slot - get either a USB2.0 or Firewire card for your DAC.

abrich · Sep 10, 2012

Thank you very kindly gentlemen!:b

Bruce, do I understand correctly USB 2.0 ports are good for up to 24/192 using an external DAC?
If I upgrade to USB 2.0, will there be any other limitations left precluding me from getting 24/192 streams out of USB 2.0 port?

For example, I have integrated i810/AC'97 Audio/sound, which, I believe, provides only 16–bit audio: not sure if it has any influence...

Additional info on the Bus architecture, if it is important:
• Host bus 64bits/100 MHz
• PCI 32bits/33 MHz
• ISA 16 bits/8.33 MHz
• PCMCIA 16 bits/33MHz
• Cardbus 32bits/32 MHz

Gary, now I see the problem using my current two USB ports: one port for the DAC and the other port for music on an external hard drive. Thank you!:b

I have one PC Card (PCMCIA) slot available. Could you please recommend me a suitable USB 2.0 (I guess there are no USB 3.0 cards available for my dinosaur...) card?

If I install PC Card to get USB 2.0 as suggested, will my current USB 1.1 ports and newly acquired USB 2.0 ports still be on the same bus as the rest of my system (keyboard, mouse, etc)?

IBM ThinkPad R31 supports the following memory options:

RAM
• Two 144pins SODIMM slots each supporting 512MB DIMM card
• Maximum frequency: PC 133
• Maximum RAM size: 1024 MB

HDD
• 2.5–inch 9.5mm height, E-IDE interface

Could you please tell me if it is preferable to have SSD instead of HDD installed?

amirm · Sep 10, 2012

The PC card adapter will give you additional 2.0 ports. Your existing ones remain as is.

SSDs are better for sure but would not work in your current laptop as the interface for them is different. And at any rate, I would not spend money on such an expensive upgrade in an older PC.

Bruce B · Sep 10, 2012

abrich said:
Bruce, do I understand correctly USB 2.0 ports are good for up to 24/192 using an external DAC?
If I upgrade to USB 2.0, will there be any other limitations left precluding me from getting 24/192 streams out of USB 2.0 port?

With USB 2.0 you're good for any PCM sample rate... even DSD rates!

abrich · Sep 10, 2012

Thank you Amir!:b

In this case, could you please recommend me a reliable and quiet HDD?

abrich · Sep 10, 2012

Thank you Bruce!:b

USB 2.0 is definitely the way to go: "you're good for any PCM sample rate..."!

Do I understand you correctly IBM ThinkPad R31 has no other limitations to get even a PCM signal with 24-bit resolution sampled at 352.8 kHz through USB 2.0? For example, I would love to listen to one of my favourites: W.A. Mozart “Violin concerto in D major” Stereo WAV DXD 24BIT/352.8kHz from http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html ?

Bruce B · Sep 10, 2012

abrich said:
Thank you Bruce!:b

USB 2.0 is definitely the way to go: "you're good for any PCM sample rate..."!

Do I understand you correctly IBM ThinkPad R31 has no other limitations to get even a PCM signal with 24-bit resolution sampled at 352.8 kHz through USB 2.0? For example, I would love to listen to one of my favourites: W.A. Mozart “Violin concerto in D major” Stereo WAV DXD 24BIT/352.8kHz from http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html ?

Just follow some of the recommendations and you should be fine!

Andre Marc · Sep 10, 2012

Bruce B said:
Just follow some of the recommendations and you should be fine!

Hey Bruce, I am about to my monthly music shopping..have Dave Matthews new one in my sites..is that going to HDTRacks to the best of your knowledge?

I downloaded Rush's Clockwork Angels...love it..best thing they have done in years.

Bruce B · Sep 10, 2012

Andre Marc said:
Hey Bruce, I am about to my monthly music shopping..have Dave Matthews new one in my sites..is that going to HDTRacks to the best of your knowledge?

I downloaded Rush's Clockwork Angels...love it..best thing they have done in years.

We haven't seen any thing by Dave come through here. I like him as well.

Laptops as Music Servers

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