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Showing results for tags 'low cost'.
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Hi all! Not having a lot of funds I started buying the components for my own dedicated music PC a while ago. I found this site too late to use all of the ideas in this website/forum, but I will be able to use some of them. I would like to hear comments on where I can improve what I have while keeping the cost low (under $200). Not having an outboard DAC, I've been using an ASUS Xonar DS PCI soundcard on my regular PC which allowed me to upgrade the opamps for the sound I want. The rest of my parts are: MSI B75MA-E33 (Military Class III with solid caps) LGA 1155 MicroATX motherboard Intel Celeron G1620 cpu with Integrated HD Graphics (so I don't have to use a video card) Kingston SSDNow 200 64gb 2.5" SATAIII solid-state drive Patriot Viper 3 DDR3 1600mhz 4gb (1 stick - I can add another if I need to) Seasonic S12II SS-330GB 330w ATX 80 PLUS Certified PSU I have two Hitachi hard drives with a lot of music (and room for more of it) one 3tb and one 2tb. After reading through the forums, I am planning on purchasing an Anker Astro E4 13000mAh Portable Battery pack to use with the SSD drive (unless someone has a better idea). My plan is to try Windows Server 2012 and, if that fails resort to Windows 8. I have been using MediaMonkey 4 because I really like the interface and all it can do. If it would sound significantly better I could change to JRiver or JPlay. If I had lots of money, I'd go for a fine outboard DAC, but as it is the ASUS soundcard does a good job with audio files up to 24/192 and I can play DSD files thru foobar2000. Where is the greater danger of noise/jitter in this system? I am depending on your experience to assist me. Peter