I have been running a Win 7 based computer as my current combined music server/workstation/gaming machine. Needless to say each of these applications has very different requirements in terms of hardware, OS and software requirements in order to perform each of these uses optimally. After weeks of research I am still none the wiser as to which of these will provide the best results. Given my penchant for tinkering I am leaning towards the CMP build, however the absence of a unified or reliable body of knowledge (CMP, from what I can gather is more a collection of tweaks than a from the ground up music server solution)along with the threat of a scenario in which there is no improvement at all. The advantages of a PC based setup appear to be lower setup cost and endless scope for further modification. The idea of a bare bones PC to use as a music server has the appeal that any tweaking will not affect the productivity of my workstation by limiting functionality or stability for hardware intensive productivity software.
The advantage I can see to a Mac Mini is the fact that there is a definite limit to the scope for tweaking - thus not feeding my paranoiac audiophillia demons. There is also integer mode - which sounds appealing to my naive audiophile ears, supposed straightforward/troublefree operation, small size (although beaten by some Intel Atom based systems) , and the extensive experience with use of these as music servers by audiophiles/audiophools (*also a downside.) The downsides are many - cost, being a mac, limited scope for modification, being a mac, needing an adapter to use with monitors, being a mac, oh and not sure if I mentioned but I don't really like Mac *in principle*.
Impressions from anyone who has had a chance to compare audiophile optimised PC and MAC based music server solutions would be greatly appreciated.
