Any computer gurus out there??

[michealprater]

I am considering trading my pc setup that I have for a laptop. I would like to get a laptop that I can hook to my stereo and use it for my MP3s and rip all my cds on to it so it is kind of like a jukebox. I got offered a IBM thinkpad 380ED. It has a 167 or 166mhz processor with a 4 gig hard drive. Does anyone see any potential problems with that small of a processor for what I need it for? Any help or suggestions is appreciated. Thanks.

[vjvl51]

My opinion would be not enough hard drive space and not a fast enough CPU. My son has filled a 10 gig hard drive with only MP3's and has asked for a bigger hard drive. If you don't want to wait for an hour (may be slight exaggeration) to rip each song, then a 133 might do it for you. When Ryan gets home, I'll ask him what program he uses and how long it took to rip when he had the 800? CPU.

Vickie

[vjvl51]

Ryan's home and I'll attempt to pass on all that he told me. With a 133 CPU, you will be ripping at the same speed as you play a CD. The speed at which you can rip is controlled by the CPU and the CD player that you are using. Ryan suggests that you plan on having just the operating system and your ripping software installed. Anything else running in the background will cause glitches. During playback, the 133 may pause off and on because it cannot keep up with the MP3. (Ryan has 1.2 G AMD CPU with a DVD-ROM - unknown speed - it takes him less than 10 minutes to rip a CD with this system - he doesn't know how long)

Ryan uses MusicMatch Jukebox. This program goes direct from CD to MP3 but requires more memory and a faster CPU. Other programs go from CD to WAV and stores the WAV on the hard drive and then from WAV to MP3. This takes longer (being a two stage program) and requires extra space on your hard drive to store the WAV file (usually 500 to 800 megs). MP3's take up about 1 meg of hard drive space per minute of playing time.

One other bit of info that Ryan passed on was try not to buy a copy-protected MP3 player. They limit the number of times that you can play a MP3 that you have ripped. Ryan uses a MP3 player that plays the MP3's from the CD (not from memory). One CD will hold about 10 hours of music.

If you have more questions, please PM me as I don't check this forum all the time.

Vickie

[AquariumPro]

Ah you kids with your MP3s and your rippin' and burnin'! My nieces and nephews come over and browse through my vinyl collection with comments like "Uncle Dave, do these still work?" or "You must be pretty old Uncle Dave! You still play these, these . . . Uh, what are these called again?"

Makes me feel like grabbing a cane, shaking it in the air and shouting "Hey Kids! Get off my lawn!" Got so bad that I bought a dual CD buner by Denon for my stereo system just so the kids could bring over their mp3 files and burn CDs for their Walkmans. They just plug in their mp3 players using a jack in the front panel and rip away. I was still reading the instructions for the third day in a row, and my ten year old nephew plugged in, popped in a CDR and started burning. He didn't need any old instructions.

Geez!

Just throwing that out there!

:D

[vjvl51]

Dave, you will appreciate my latest buy at a yardsale. They had a few boxes of records. I offered them $40 For the whole lot. They thought I was crazy but agreed to the sale. I thought that I was getting about 200 - 300 records. It took 2 and a half loads in our Honda Accord to bring all the boxes home. My husband says that I bought about 1500 records for the price of 2 CD's! :D I just tripled our records collection!!

Now to sort throught them all. There are 78's, 45's and 33's. These were the collectiions from 4 to 5 families - so we have everything - opera, orchestra, love, lots of dance records, Western, easy listening, sing-a-long, exercise, (I think I even saw one rap). Some were never opened. Some we won't even attempt to play (too badly scratched). But what a deal!

We will be taking the records that we like and burning CD's of them. Then what we will do with all those records, I don't know.

Vickie

[AquariumPro]

WOW!

With that many titles, the chances are excellent that you may have obtained some that are worth a lot of money. Many records have not been released on CD and vinyl is the only format music collectors can find. Some people are paying hundreds of dollars for certain LP titles, and some 45 RPM are collector's items, sought by many folks who are looking for their favorite hits from days-gone-by. Almost all 78 RPM are collector's items and can be quite valuable.

Check out some of the used record sites to see what some titles are selling for and you will be shocked! The more obscure it is, the more it's worth. EBay would be a great way to get rid of those records you don't want. Even badly scratched records sell, as there are machines available that can work wonders with scratches, sometimes up to full-restoration. Many vinyl collectors have such machines. I don't - to expensive for me, but my vinyl collection is in fairly good condition.

[vjvl51]

I'll keep that in mind, Dave, for when we've had a chance to go through this mess. Right now my living room is full of boxes of records. We're just sorting into general catagories and then we'll take each group and look at each record individually. I know some of the records are from local churches or groups that play at local bars. They won't be available nation-wide.

I will have to decide if selling each individual record is worth the hassle of packing and shipping. I will probably be looking for someone who will buy a box full and let them deal with the individual people.

Our turn-table won't play 78's so we may not even do anything with them.

This is just what I needed with starting that reef tank. (Buying the RO water has helped. All the parameters are OK except Ca and Alk. They are getting closer to where they should be.)

Vickie

[MJC]

Vickie,

Despite what everyone says about CD's, vinyl offers a much more truer representation of recorded music, and if you looked at the audiophile quality turntables, they are VERY expensive.



Dave -
... 45 RPM ... from days-gone-by...
Apple is very smart for selling music for $0.99 at the iTunes Music store. 45 records used to sell for less than a dollar, and even less when they were on sale. This allowed you to buy what you wanted to hear/listen. Apple is bringing back that same concept.


- Marty

[vjvl51]

MJC, that is what my husband has been trying to convince me of. He was given 2 mono tube amps (one tube in each didn't work) that he has just bought the replacement tubes for. He tells me that 2 monos equal a stereo. :confused:

We have a studeo quality turntable with very expensive (I can't remember the brand), European speakers with a JVC amp and switchbox. We can feed the turntable, CD player, radio, cassette deck or TV through the amp or send the signal to the computer sound card for burning to CD. I haven't figured out how to change all the switches. I just plug in my 6 CD pack and turn on the amp. Then I can listen to music all day.

My logic is - if the record gets scratched, at least I have the CD to play. :D

Vickie