Pecker
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2004
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I have a Creative Zen Sleek. I have a lap top. I have a new 400gb external hard drive.
I've put all my music on my new external HDD. This now lives in the kitchen, next to the mini hi-fi stereo, as my CD collection is on the top floor of our 3 storey house (not practical to run up and down stairs that much).
However, I obviously can't plug the HDD straight into the mini hi-fi in the kitchen - I need the laptop to interface between the HDD and the stereo.
But the laptop is bulky, and is used elsewhere in the house.
So, what I need is a very small, basic, cheap laptop (or even palmtop?) to go inbetween the HDD and the stereo.
It must be:
- Cheap
- Basic
- Small
It doesn't need a big memory. It doesn't need to be flash. The only think it needs to do is to hold the programme that came with the Zen, and convert the mp3s stored on the HDD into analogue sound, and output it through a 3.5mm mini-jack to the stereo.
If it's a laptop, it'd help if it had a CD drive, too. That way I wouldn't have to connect up the laptop everytime I wanted to put a new CD on the HDD, but this isn't vital.
What should I buy?
How much will I have to spend?
Would it be a good idea to buy a used, re-conditioned model, given its limited use, and the fact that I'm not storing my life's details on it.
Many thanks in advance.
Steve W
I've put all my music on my new external HDD. This now lives in the kitchen, next to the mini hi-fi stereo, as my CD collection is on the top floor of our 3 storey house (not practical to run up and down stairs that much).
However, I obviously can't plug the HDD straight into the mini hi-fi in the kitchen - I need the laptop to interface between the HDD and the stereo.
But the laptop is bulky, and is used elsewhere in the house.
So, what I need is a very small, basic, cheap laptop (or even palmtop?) to go inbetween the HDD and the stereo.
It must be:
- Cheap
- Basic
- Small
It doesn't need a big memory. It doesn't need to be flash. The only think it needs to do is to hold the programme that came with the Zen, and convert the mp3s stored on the HDD into analogue sound, and output it through a 3.5mm mini-jack to the stereo.
If it's a laptop, it'd help if it had a CD drive, too. That way I wouldn't have to connect up the laptop everytime I wanted to put a new CD on the HDD, but this isn't vital.
What should I buy?
How much will I have to spend?
Would it be a good idea to buy a used, re-conditioned model, given its limited use, and the fact that I'm not storing my life's details on it.
Many thanks in advance.
Steve W