Where to put the music server?

Mine sits away in a study, next to the NAS. The NAS, Mac and NDX sit on a dedicated switch and a single Ethernet cable goes from the switch to the NDX in the lounge. I prefer to keep computer hardware away from the hi-fi so this works for me.

Not sure what you are getting at with 'dedicated switch'

Any network running correctly will do just that, from that perspective I would be siting it away. Depends where the storage is. 

My mini sits in the the rack because its used for video as well. The fact is they are quite silent. HOwever my server is in the garage.

In my case NAS, Server and Switch are in the Garage loft, about 15m from where the HiFi is situated.

Dedicated switch - just a switch for my 'music' network rather than use the switch in the router. The family can get on with whatever they are doing on the rest of the network.

James, admitting I barely know about this stuff . . . I think that your 'dedicated switch' is not isolated at all from the rest of your network unless you take other steps such as setting up a VLAN.  But I could well be wrong!

I have my nas, UnitiServe, cable modem, Time Capsule and switch sited several rooms away from my hi fi.  For all but the uServe it's for aesthetics; no computery looking stuff in the living room.  The uServe sits with the rest of that network hardware because it's more convenient to patch it to my switch with a very short lead, and maybe having its power supply far from the rest of the hi fi makes a difference. 

Don't forget to use really expensive Ethernet cables as recommended in another thread https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...nt/22262699402706010 ... my Mac Mini sits next to my Naim DAC neither piece of kit seems unduly perturbed and my DAS is just a thunderbolt away. I use a very expense wireless connection to connect to my my home network for iPad skulduggery with the Apple Remote app. 

You could set up a musical VLAN ... the rest of the family would then have to route from their VLAN to the music one ... a few craftily engineered access control list could stop them in their tracks though ... if your router/switch has bandwidth management like mine you could do some more tricks to limit them .... or you could just dance to the music. 

Cassettes were so much easier ... 

For OP, it is not going matter ... put the boxes where they best suit your accommodation and where the leads can easily reach ... if your NAS is noisy then keep it away. I connect my DAS and Mac to power control unit to protect them ... they shut down gracefully during a power outage so only my Naim kit goes "bang". 

Same here - you're right though - its not an isolated VLAN but if my switch only has one connection to the router and there is nothing on my 'music' network that is needing access to the rest of the family then apart from stuff going out from the router to the control point no other traffic than what is needed to play music should be on it ?

Yea but whats your point?

Its connected to the network the point of the switch is to provide access, a 'dedicated' switch on your network gains you nothing what so ever except for its intended purpose, more access points.

Infact if its not needed i.e. you put it there out of some sense it would improve something, its better off out of it as its probably got a cheap wall wort running it.

Its just been setup like that since my Linn days and gives me a few more ports that my Airport Extreme lacks. My old Belkin router, with everything connected to it caused stuttering if the kids were hogging the internet so i moved all my music bits to a seperate switch and that got rid of the issue.

Yea thats fine and the intended purpose. I guess what I am driving at is if you had to run something else on the network from that switch, it won't effect your hifi.

Regarding the original post, I have a mini sat in my rack because its multi use with no detrimental effects, however it has an SSD in it, noisy drives live in the garage!