MP3 PC?

[martink]

About to build a system for the daughter. It will be used for homework, browsing, msn and music.

So need to spec a pc for this purpose. I have a sempron (2400) in a msi KM4M board, with a gig of ram. Will this do? And what should I stick with it? I'm thinking to store music anbd photos externally...

My own problem is that when use itunes as to access music on an external HD, this PC gets very sluggish (I'm just browsing) and I'd like to avoid this. Will other media players do this. Is it a question of bunging RAM at it or would a dual core processor be an idea?

Not trying to build a mega machine, but something competent!

Also anyone use the Aegis speakers OCUK sell?

Thanks,
Martin

 

[Werewolf]

That sounds pretty good for an mp3/internet system (our old k6-2 350 was fine with mp3's).

I think the problem with itunes and the external drive may be a low ram problem , but it could equally be an itunes thing (how much ram do you have?).
I would suggest trying Winamp and Windows Media player to rule out an itunes bug, before spending any money on it

 

[BillytheImpaler]

The problem with the external drive might be related to it having USB 1.1 rather than 2.0. Low speed USB should be fast enough to stream the data across but perhaps it's slowing the process down when you try to list the index, etc.

If your testing reveals that this is the case you could put the disk inside the machine, assuming you had enough free IDE ports, or you could get a cheap USB 2.0 host PCI card.

 

[martink]

Thanks guys.

Ram's an intersting one, I've put a gig on there and it tell's me I've 512 in total in system info, yet underneath I've 588 avilable physical memory? Chip is a 2.6 Celeron

one HDD is firewire and the other usb 2.

Okay I'll run with the board and spend more on other components. Tempted to stick a big drive inside though.

 

[mugwuffin]

I imagine it's borrowing some of your systems memory for the graphics?

 

[martink]

Well task manager sees the whole gig of RAM! Just hope it's been utilised properly.

 

[Skeeter]

See if you can use something like Windows Media Player for playing the music, and see if you also get slow system responses? Could however be USB 1 thats slowing you down.

 

[theforce]

If you are going to use the PC for listening music then i recommend a good sound card if you are planning on using the on-board solution. Something like an M-audio revolution 5.1will be amazing since it's gonna be music only.