A few weeks ago I completely rebuilt my music server. It's been a long process because I was hoping to reuse as many parts as possible. And to make use of parts I had laying around so I could save a few bucks for other hobbies. Well that didn't entirely work out. The case had to be replaced because I wanted a media/desktop style case. I selected the Antec NSK2400 for its exceptionally quiet design. They don't lie. I've gotten the case's slow spinning 120mm fans all dialed in so that they're keeping things cool with little fan noise.
I've been fighting some hardware issues along the way. For example the servos in my first go-round 500GB Seagate turned out to be really loud (it clucked like a freaking chicken), so after much research I replaced it with a much quieter 500GB Western Digital. The freebie ECS motherboard I got from Fry's had USB issues, etc.
The biggest change has been the sound card. I would up swapping out the AuzenTech for a Bluegears 7.1 Channel 24-bit 192KHz card. Don't let the low price fool you. This is one fine sound card. Easily the equivalent of a lot of cards costing twice as much.
I'm still debugging some final issues. The main one being a very intermittent static hiss/crackle. Almost that sick hiss/crackle a blown tweeter makes but in weird places in the music. Ive gone through two motherboards and two brands of sound cards and it still shows up once in a great while. I'm starting to think it might be RF leakage from the power supply. One thing that has helped a lot was rerouting the hard drive's SATA cable further from power cables. This reduced a very intermittent problem by at least 95%. Anyway the server is tied into my receiver via an optical cable. To be honest I'm really pleased with the sound and how well it works. Now if I can just chase down that last bug I'll be one really happy camper.
Anyway for the curious I put together my parts list and included links to the vendor (Newegg) so that anybody interested can get specs and read other user reviews.
Parts List:
Antec
NSK2400 Case (fans set to low)
Intel Core 2 Duo e6600
ZEROtherm
CF900 92mm CPU Cooler (whisper quiet)
MSI
945GM3 motherboard
2x1 GB of Crucial memory
ATI X600 PCI-E video card.
Western Digital 500GB HD
Bluegears
b-Enspirer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz sound card (beyond awesome)
EDIMAX
EW-7128G 802.11g card
Rosewill
RCR-103 media reader
Samsung DVD 20x burner (so-so)
SpecResearch wireless keyboard with built in trackball
Anyware HA-IR01SV Infrared MCE Remote Control (not hardly used)
Software:
Windows Vista Home Premium
WinAmp Pro
NOD32