AliRowe

It's difficult to tell in my system as there are 4 older drives humming away with a couple of fans. To quote WD " low acoustics for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives." and from others I know this would be the case. It is however subjective based on intended use, but if I were looking to put a drive in an external case to hold my data I would certainly get another one. Alistair.

Hi All Just thought i would post this one out there. I have just had 2 WD 2Tb Green SATA drives installed into my PC tower. My tech mate that did it was taken aback with the speed compared to a benchmark test he did on my SCSI RAID 0 array. Not quite as good but not far off. I think he is trying to get his hands on the WD Black drives to compare but for media streaming etc the Green drives are fantastic value. Low power and probably eco friendly. Cheers Alistair (Manchester)UK

Hi Mahesh Thanks for such detailed comment, this is what makes this site worthwhile. Chris, an aside, the look, layout and quality of the topics are a credit to you. It cerainly made my enjoyment of music and tech more worthwhile. I digress, Mahesh, you have said much that backs up what I have always believed. Information is information, bits are bits. No matter what computer the bits delivered to the dac from the hard disc SHOULD be the same. So following that through, would the method used to connect to the dac, cable or toslink, make any difference to the audio stream? As you point out, the software and implimentation have more to do with changing things than the hardware and once the signal has left the digital domain things get much more sensitive, and are open to "influences" of equipment. My computer at present is a PC with XP64 running on it. I am ripping cd's to FLAC and AIFF using db poweramp. I am looking to output the files to a dac into my Naim system. If the software is of "issue" for playback, I am looking at media monkey and foobar, suggestions as to which would be appreciated. I really want to integrate with iTunes for convenience if possible. I am thinking of installing the asus STX in one of my free PCI slots and taking the data out to my dac via the S/PDIF output on the sound card. Any comment in the viability of this solution would be appreciated. Hopefully this will give me a quality data stream. I do not wish the soundcard to handle the D/A conversion, I just want a replica of the data to come out of the computer environment accurately and faultlessly. Careful dac selection will then give me the sound I prefer. Mahesh, thanks again for confirming things for me. Another option would be to go down the Mac/amarra route as Ian has chosen to, but if I understand correctly the results should be the same, up to the point of data entering the DAC, as a PC set up. Given that the respective OS and playing software is set up correctly to deliver what it should, in the case of cd's - 16/44 bitstream. Another point Mahesh, would adding a boulder power supply to the Mac Mini as Ian indicated be worthwhile? How can that improve the quality of the digital output? Thanks Alistair

Hi I am new to the forum so please be patient. 1- I also have a Naim pre/power amp combination. Their whole philosophy is the pure power supply is king. To upgrade just introduce a dedicated power supply to the dac, cd player or pre amp and instant quality improvement. I have done it and can testify to it. 2 - Therefore apply the same theory to the mac mini/mac pro and the power supply could be why some notice the improvement on the Mac Pro or G5. Bigger more stable supply. Thumbs up to the Boulder supply for Mac mini. 3 - Another card to consider would be the Asus STX pci as that is also reviewed elsewhere on this site. I am sure others would be better placed to review the merits of the Lynx vs Asus cards. 4 - considering you have a Naim Dac and the Weiss Int202 and the care taken to develop them, the quietest " electrical environment" computer should be used to supply them. Along the lines of the CAPS server. Fanless case, SSD's, quality Psu etc. What is it we are trying to achieve from the computer ? Bit perfect data stream with low jitter? I'll throw that one out there. I would be interested to know what an toslink optical connection would sound like to the dac from MacMini as this would decouple the electrical interferrence. Alistair