Hmmmm... found this post while searching in the forums, and it definitely piqued my interest...
...let's revive it, shall we?
I've been looking into doing something like this, actually, but had "decided" on a system like
this, and would get an IDE to CF adaptor to use something like a 2-4 GB CF card as the drive. Planned on installing a stripped version of XP and run Foobar2000 on it, playing files from my external HDD.
However, this option is much cheaper, although I know precisely NOTHING about Linux based OS's, so I'm wondering if this would be over my head. It looks like an attractive option not only for the lower price, but also because Linux and MPD seem to use fewer resources than XP and Foobar. Plus, I'm not sure if Foobar has the same buffering system. I've heard that buffering in Foobar leads to lower sound quality... is this true for MPD?
All I want to do use play files from my external HDD, through a player using ASIO, and send the signal through USB to my Trends UD-10.1 USB transport. No DSPs... no added components... nothing. What do you guys think about this option for me?