Hardware Questions

[shadin_smd]

First off, am I right in assuming that sound/video cards will affect performance of streams from your PC?

Second, a slightly unrelated question. What sound card would people recommend for such processes? I currently have a Santa Cruz, but wanted to upgrade. I have a few ideas in mind, but wanted to see if someone had had particular great results. (Creative cards need not apply).

Last question - Has anyone found a particular kind of CD-ROM drive better for ripping CD audio?

[DJ AmPs]

SOund cards do not make a huge difference. If it works, great. If it doesn't work well, get another one. Just don't fix it if it aint broke... Shoutcast DSP can be sorta picky on what it likes and doesn't. Plus, you are loosing a butt load of quality in the mp3 encoding process (and especially the ancient lame encoder built into the DSP). Listeners are not going to hear any difference between a card with 75db s/n ratio versus 96db. Even less so with frequency response.

Best drives for ripping audio are Plextor, hands down.