I'm dropping some thoughts in case anyone else had been considering running a netbook as a stand-alone/dedicated server for running their Squeezebox:
I picked up a Samsung netbook running Windows 7 for $279 at Best Buy during their Thanksgiving 'cyber Monday' sale, and set it up to run my Squeezebox duet. The reason was twofold: 1) a netbook uses less power, so it'd be good for something that you could leave up and running a lot, and 2) it takes it off of your main computer and puts it on a separate, dedicated device. I really like the web interface in Squeezebox Server -- moreso than using the Duet remote. So I wanted something to set up as a dedicated server next to my couch. Previously I'd been running Squeezebox Server on my Macbook Pro laptop, set up on a second space in OSX's 'Spaces.' Running Squeezebox Server on the Samsung netbook has worked, but has been a bit of a disappointment. I thought that a netbook would be fine for simply running Squeezebox Server, but it turns out that it's significantly more 'laggy', less responsive. It takes longer for selections to be made, played, and displayed on the web interface. Also, there occasionally is a disconnect between Squeezebox Server and Firefox (or IE that I initially tried, but Firefox works better); the right side of the display occasionally ceases to keep up with displaying the current song, and scrolling through the playlist. All of this worked much better on my Macbook Pro. Being dual-core, it was much more responsive, and the connection was always maintained between Squeezebox Server and Safari. One of my considerations was to buy a Mac Mini to set up as a dedicated server, but with a monitor and all, it would have cost around $1000. The Samsung netbook was only $279. I may try converting the netbook over to Linux, since Squeezebox Server is also available for Linux. (though, I don't know if it will run on something like Ubuntu netbook remix) I haven't messed with Linux yet, so that is uncharted territory for me. Long story short, I just wanted to tell folks who might be considering setting up a netbook as a dedicated music server, that it may not be quite as responsive as on their main computer. I thought that a lightweight processor would be able to handle Squeezebox Server just fine, especially when it's not running any other programs. Maybe I should try upgrading to 2GB of RAM and see if things are snappier. That said, I do still like running it on the netbook, but it involves some trade-offs. Also, a big round of applause to the Logitech folks. Though it hasn't always been glitch-free (there were some issues when I upgraded to Snow Leopard on the Mac), the software runs amazingly well, given that it's communicating between the computer, the Duet remote, and the box on the stereo. I love the fact that all of my 350-ish CD's are in boxes in the basement, and I have access to all of my music in the jukebox of 90GB of CD-quality FLAC files, complete with album art. -- frugality ------------------------------------------------------------------------ frugality's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=32700 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=73602 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
