As you maybe read in the introduction section, the program doesn’t have many requirements as far as the hardware issue. Working several years, 24hours a day with it at many radio stations of Greece, we can propose concrete solutions.

Processor. The program works even in very old pcs. A Pentium 200 can cover the main functions of HotRadio. The only point however that will perform troubles is the speed of sound compression, so being realists, any new pc is suitable.
 
Memory. As far as the RAM matter, the solution is rather simple. Even with 128 MB of RAM could become enough for the program, if however the pc is charged with the compression of wav files, then do the.. big step installing 512 MB. In any case, installing more MB of memory is always something usefull.
 
Sound Cards. The second version of HotRAdio software doesn’t have any particular preference in certain sound cards. For sure it… prefers the SoundBlaster Live, but we can’t hide that we worked and loved the multi output (4 inputs, 4 outputs) sound card of Terratec EWS 88 MT or PHASE 88. In case that you do want to work with multiple outputs but in more reasonable prices, you can select the SB Live, YAMAHA XG-192 and a SB 128. Having always in mind that usually you cannot install more than one sound card with the same chipset (for example 3 SB live) in the same PC.
 
Hard Disc. We don’t have to tell you much on that. The hard disc selection has to do with your decision on how many songs you have in mind to import. Think that if you compress a song at 128 Kbps (most usual), it becomes about 4 MB, thus if you select a hard of 80 GB, you can import about 20.000 songs. Just also think that in each computer you can install 4 (or even 8 in certain cases) hard discs. As far as the reliability issue, all
these years that the program is been used, the EIDE, SCSI and SATA hard drives were working perfect.
 
Network Cards. The program can work easily (and without no particular regulation) in one or more pc. In this second case, you just have to choose a reliable network card but also cable and switcher or hub so that you reduce network stability problems. Many problems were reported in stations with bad network . For sure you have to select a known card and other equipment like 3Com, D-Link, Planet.
 
VGA. Without no particular preference... Any card with memory… 8 MB (or even less...) would be enough. HoRadio is built for 800x600 resolution however can work in bigger resolutions as well, as window without covering all the screen.
 
Cd - DVD Rom. We would suggest to select a Plextor so that you have real speed at audio extraction. Additionally many Cd Roms but also (mainly) DVDs can reach audio extraction speed more than x20. Plextor are sure a good selectican find more affortable solutions like Asus, Creative, Pioneer DVD and other.
 
Operating System. You don’t have to worry a lot for OS. The program works almost perfect with Windows 98, Millenium, 2000, XP and Vista but we suggest Windows XP. As second choice would be also Windows 2000 Pr0fessional. If you have to install HotRadio in less powerfull pcs, select Windows 98 SE.


A few more notes...
After five years of continuous work with computers for radio stations and having face various... interesting cases, we have to advice you the following.
- The computer(s) in which you have the program installed, would be considered as tool of work and not a game, so don’t install everything you want to test!!!
- Be carefull with file manager and keep bacup up files as recent as you can or use the back up routine that HotRadio has!
- You don’t have to expect to do everything with a single pc like song entry in parallel with music play on air, RDS manager and CD burning. If you thinking of working a lot of applications at the same time, just develop a pc network.
- If you don’t know even the basics on computers, leave someone else to deal with them!