Building a Music Jukebox

[StevenRFrancis]

I wanted to build an inexpensive jukebox to store and play music, as cheap as possible. I was thinking of having it encode mp3 too but more on that later. What would I need to get it cheap but still have good sound quality. Could you any recomendations?

Case: Something inexpensive but has built in fans and power supply, preferably plain looking
Motherboard: built in video
Processor: whatever is good enough, standard fan
Ram: enough to run the os and a music program like winamp
Sound Card: Was thinking of santa cruz
Hard drive: have a 200gb now ill add more when it fills, if it fills
Moniter: 15in whatever cheap, im hoping i can find a free one from our lab, its amazing what professors throw out
Keyboard and mouse:whatever is cheap


As for software, I was thinking of using a pirated version of windows, but I was thinking of learning Linux. If I go windows I'll use winamp, but what player is good for Linux. I heard some stuff about XMMS. Any other good ones? BTW, how much more would the comp need to be able to encode mp3's? I was thinking of adding a cd burner to it.

Thanks for your help

 

[Ionizer86]

Santa Cruz is quite good for sound. For board and processor and stuff, go with whatever is sufficient. A refurb AMD board and an XP1700+ maybe.

200GB hard drive: that's huge. How much music are you gonna hold?
KBrds and mouses are free after rebate sometimes.

Oh, and don't openly post on using pirated software cuz that's not a good idea. I mean it happens a lot with Kazaa discussion threads and stuff, but it's not something to be open about.

To make your own mp3's all you need is something like MusicMatch Jukebox, and CD burners are like $10 after rebate sometimes.

 

[StevenRFrancis]

Didn't know this forum was against piracy. I'm used to the kazaa and /. crowd myself. I'd rather use Linux just so I can learn it, and its like 30$. What about the EPIA boards or something like that that has everything built in. Do I need a sound card for playing wav and mp3 files, or will the onbaord chips work?

 

[Ionizer86]

EPIA's are slow. XP1700+ is really quite cheap, as are some older boards in the FS/FT forum.

Yea, integrated sound is usually quite poor unless you get an nForce/nForce 2 board with Soundstorm. Or else, I'd get a Santa Cruz to listen to music.

 

[riddelrp]

If you really want good sound (which I think you do, since that is the point of the system) you need an external sound card. Think "External Audigy". The problem with an internal sound card is all the RF crap bouncing around inside your box. That RF messes up your signal, creating "noise". If you plan on pushing the signal through an amplifier (a.k.a. your stereo receiver) you will also amplify the noise, making an annoying hiss sound behind the music.

Now mind you, most of my experience is on older equipement (P3 800, Sound Blaster Live), but I believe the problem is still around.

HTH,
riddelrp

 

[Ionizer86]

IE Sound Blaster Extigy is what riddelrp is saying. I dunno though, as I'm still on an SB128 digital.

 

[thraxes]

I would really suggest an Epia 1000M. It is fast enough for playing/encoding MP3s and playing DiVX and DVDs (even with AC3). With a big Heatsink it can run without any fans. It has one PCI slot and that could be outfitted with an Audigy for maximum Acoustic delight. I would love to have one for a HT machine, if my main rig wasn't just 2m away from my TV

 

[anandfan]

I'd rather use Linux just so I can learn it, and its like 30$

You can get it a lot cheaper, NOT pirated! Check out distribution disks like Cheapbytes. Lots of different distros to choose from, about $2/disk. However, sound support is iffy in Linux. Yes, you can probably make it work, but you may not have full support for all the features of the sound card. Could be frustrating.