I went with the server because I do not want to have to use my office PC to enable the use of the Duet Controller / Squeezcenter. In fact, I do not want my stereo system(s) to have anything to do with my PC. My PC is for work related stuff, screwing off on the internet and photo processing. The server just sits there humming all day, every day, 24 hours a day with Squeeze Center running in the background waiting for me (or anyone else) to grab the controller and hit play. We can select my music collection, internet radio, Pandora, Rhapsody or any of the other music services I have. The Duet, by far, is the coolest Audio toy I have. Every time I show it to someone, they want me to right down everything they need to buy. I can not recommend this set up enough. I seriously doubt you will find many folks who have done this who wouldn’t.

I am not PC literate. It is a means to an end and I swap them out every two years. I want it to be disposable. To be perfectly honest, I hate the damn things. I hate software, I hate constantly having to screw with updates, worry about viruses, deal with ‘issues’ that come up…… I just hate them. However, I am aware that they are a necessary thing in every day life and I try to adapt. But – I refuse to keep the PC as my center of life and the server assists with that small piece of mind, although it’s mostly illusionary.

One other advantage with the server is it has lots of space. I have an older generation that came with two, 500 gig drives. I have since bought two additional 1T drives, so now I have 3T storage on the server. All my music is on it, and I back up all my photos to the server, which are on their own external drive. I really like the idea that the only files on the server are my music and photos, which just happen to be the mot important files I have. (and I have one drive that backs up the other drives for double redundancy).