Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Help me build a music server!

I’m not at home with access to any of my saved links but if you do a google search for “build your own NAS” or something to that effect you can find step by step directions for turning any even a fairly old computer into a stand alone NAS using FreeNAS.

If you plan on using it to serve HD video files you may need to worry about the CPU speed. What software you use to play your media really depends on what you want out of it. I find that MediaMonkey offers such a huge amount of features it was a no-brainer for me to pick.

I prefer to use Exact Audio Copy (EAC) for my FLAC rips because I think it does the best job of ensuring you get an exact digital copy and if not it tells you so. Other ripping tools can be faster but none I’ve found are as accurate. This is mainly important if you plan on your rips also being your backups.

As for the stand alone media server vs computer choice it mostly boils down to easy of use vs customizability respectively plus cost since you’re likely going to need a computer and requisite software (often free) and knowledge of use to create rips anyway.