Help running music from hardrive on a Windows system

[iancass]

I Have a Windows laptop running Win 7, I have a couple of external harddrives that I connect to my laptop via USB, the a USB Dac coming from laptop in my my amplifier. I have just installed Jriver onto my laptop and hoping to use my ipad as a controller. My music files are ripped CDs and downloads which inc flac, AIFF and Wav and a few Mp3. I am not really interested in streaming music wirelessly but I would like to have a one or two box solution and less USB connection going into my laptop or ellimenate the laptop completely if possible.

 

[Overdose]

If you wish to eliminate the laptop and attached USB drives, whilst also having a 'one box solution', you might like to consider the following options.
A small for factor computer, ie mini ATX, I use a Mac mini.
A network attached storage system with media player, an example would be the Sonos Connect with WD My Cloud nas.