Let's get digital

Well, indeed the chap in my local did not inspire confidence.

This has given me two thoughts, 1) Dabs customer service is amongst the worst I've come across.

2) Go back to the original idea of buying a dedicated PC and using the HDD in there. Probably a neater solution.

WIth the dedicated PC it can come off the network and won't have to do anyhting except play music which will mean the less likely hood of dropouts, not that I get many of those now anyway.

 

1) Yes I'd agree given past experience indeed I haven't ordered from them in over 2 years because of this.

2) Here's a thought -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Wireless_Routers.html

Second item down - basically buying this plus the IDE hard drive of your choice gives you a networked hard drive - essentially as I see it, the squeezebox software basically streams off a drive over the network, so all you need is a means of creating a large network drive with the software installed and your music on it.

Not sure how it'd interract with the squeezebox software (presumably this could be easily remotely installed onto a hard drive mounted in this box from your PC, and then run over the network from this drive), but to me if it'd work it'd be an ideal solution, negating the need for a whole new PC, with excellent cost implications, as well as lower power consumption and taking up less space. Obviously you'd need to use your main PC to 'rip' your files to the network drive though.

 

will,
there needs to be a processor and windows (or linux) in there somewhere to run the server software. there are some nas devices that will do this however they cost more than a simple pc and big hdd and aren;t upgradeable if you have a cd buying frenzy and need more space.
cheers


julian

 

I would strongly suggest you do not buy from overclockers UK. I have used them twice and had damaged goods on both occasions with appaling customer service after, last time resulting in using the legal side of credit card to get it sorted.

 

Well, I nearly bought a Shuttle this evening from Aria PC but the young man couldn't find me on his PC so as I didn't exist he couldn't serve me. Funny old world. I thought about buying one through the Aria web site (which looked good) but now I'm worried that I won't get the cables I need so would much prefer to be guided through by the expert I'm giving my money to.

 

Tom

To go with my squeezebox, I got a Dell P4 3Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 250 SATA Drive, 16xDVD R/W, Rodent, Keyboard and Win XP Home from Dell's Outlet store. Only a system box but all in £363+VAT inc delivery, if you hunt carefully there are some good prices.

Does that help?

Mr Perceptive

 

I rang Dell as well. I told them I wanted to use their 80gb HDD to run the software and to use my 400gb HDD purely for storage. They told me that it wasn't possible as the OS software had to go on the largest HDD. Something to do with the "Master" having to have a larger capacity than the "Slave".

 

er
well, if they say so

 

Sounds a bit strange regarding the larger drive having to have the OS on it

I ordered my SATA drive from Dabs. I beileve it was OEM. It had the adaptor power cable with it.

I wanted to contact them with a few questions and encountered similar problems. Doesn't seem to be any humans there.

 

absolute nonsense.

tom, shuttles come with everything you need, even some thermal compound to put on the cpu. and a booklet with a step-by-step account of how to build the pc.

tell you what, get all the bits, i'll give you my phone number, and if you get stuck, give me a ring, and i'll talk you through it.

 

It all comes down to experience. I've ordered all my PC parts from them for around 3 years now and never had a problem. Many hundreds of pounds have been entrusted to them and they have always been top notch.

Wouldnt use anyone else.

 

You are right
I did have very bad experience though.,

 

absolute nonsense.

tom, shuttles come with everything you need, even some thermal compound to put on the cpu. and a booklet with a step-by-step account of how to build the pc.

tell you what, get all the bits, i'll give you my phone number, and if you get stuck, give me a ring, and i'll talk you through it.[/QUOTE]Spoke to a friend of mine who heads the IT dept for a county education authority and he said much the same thing.

I like the idea of the Shuttle (or similar) because of the size and because I'm only getting what I need. Strange thing is that Dell's basic packages are almost as cheap except you end of with printers and screens and the like. If only they could do the bundle without the "free giifts"

Robert - Thanks for the offer of help. I used to maintain PCs in my old dept (I dealt with the databases which everyone understood meant I knew everything about computers ha!) so I'm fairly confident I can build one, I'm just worried that I don't know which bits I need to order cables for. Another reason to buy a Shuttle.

But to my rescue came a couple of sites that walk you through the ordering process in a "build your own" module. As the prices are reasonable I'll give them a go.

Thanks for the offers and support.

 

tom, just a couple of pointers then.
a shuttle typically will only take 1 optical device e.g. dvd writer, one floppy disk, and one hard drive, or alternatively lose the floppy disk, and have 2 hard drives. but lose the floppy and you're kind of stuck, because you will need the floppy disk for 2 reasons - one to flash the bios if u need to, likely with the sempron cpu's, and u'll need it to install the sata raid drivers (which shuttle conveniently supply on a floppy disk - you have to use floppy, it wont access any other drive).

you can temporarily install with dvd + hard drive + floppy, then when finished building / installing windows, remove the floppy and install your sata drive.

there are other fiddly little bits when it comes to building shuttles, the pamphlet that comes with is pretty good, but puts a couple of things out of sequence - like doesn't mention removing the ICE cpu cooler + rear fan assembly before installing the cpu - which you will have to do.

then there's odd things like remembering to remove the blue plastic sheet from the copper shim that gets installed ontop of the cpu and underneath the ICE assembly.

the little flat screws are for the hard drive, the round head ones are for the floppy and optical drive - but these are all things you'll discover when you encounter them.

 

Wee hee. Thanks to Lamboy I'm up and running. Just copying my existing music file to the new 400gb HDD. Dell were wrong, you can have the slave larger than the master.

Thanks for the advice Robert. I may need you yet.

 

Indeed I know many people running with old machines with a 3.2Gb hardrive as their master and a 40Gb as the new slave storage drive.

These companies will say anything to get the unwary to send back their machines for an expensive upgrade.

The only problem you may find with older PC's is the motherboard may not recognise drives larger than say 20Gb, but usually a Bios flash or a Promise Ultra ATA/SATA PCI card will sort it out.

 

Oh well, I bought a Dell in the end. The offer changed from yesterday and this time I got exactly what I wanted for £459.

And I've finally got the 400gb HDD working in my exsiting PC. Sorted.

Thanks to all of you for the advice and support. It is greatly appreciated.

 

we aim to please

 

You suceeded. Everything is up and running just as it should.

Thank you

 

I mention my adventures ver on Pink Fish and Andy Weekes kindly sent me a homemade PSU to try with the Squeezebox. I'm still awaitng my DAC and he thought his box might help the analogue outs on the SB. It did, better bass and treble, timing etc. The mid band is still a little sat upon but generally an improvement all round.