I am going through the same situation.I like the convenience of a music server.At first I thought I buy the Wadia itransport 170 and use it with my ipod classic 120gb latest generation BUT I thoroughly checked the forums here and at audioasylum as well as various other websites and realized that the best solution for the money is the Mac mini hooked to a DAC with two external 1 Tb hard drives (one for storage,the second for backing up data).Some upgrades include 4 gb RAM plus a solid state drive for the OS.
Your miles may vary.
Regards
George
Your miles may vary.
Regards
George