New user request advice Minim NUC MusicCast

[firefly]

Hi,
I'm not especially familiar with this domain but I'm here because my reading lead me to Minimserver and I've just tried it on my Windows laptop, just to do a simple road test. It seems to do what I want. However, I know I am way out of my depth.

My existing system is a collection of MusicCast equipment, including an R-N602 and some other speakers. General use is great for me, multi-room and so on, playing from Spotify and some limited recorded music on a USB plugged into the R-N602. I control everything usually from one of several phones/tablets running the MusicCast controller app. I have also tried things like Bubble but then I lose the room linking feature.

I do miss being able to play my collection, especially different streams in different rooms. I did have another file server (Cocktail) and it was very flaky and went back to the shop. I haven't replaced it and am looking for a cleaner solution. I looked at off-the-shelf Vortexbox, and QuietPC - Sentinel Fanless, Smallgreen etc, but am preferring the idea of a NUC, perhaps in an Akasa case and loading Minimserver on that.

But, I can't tell from here (inexperience) if that will work, or if I need anything else. I'm happy with Windows setup and have tried a few servers on my laptop to explore a little. I haven't done any headless setups and want to know if that works with Minim.

I guess the other bit is ripping. I have tried to use Windows Media Player and it works but I'm always wrestling with it. Looks like dbPoweramp is a top recomendation?

I like the idea of a box with a ripper that sucks the CD in and does it's stuff then spits it out with the Db updated ready to use. But, that approach seems to reduce my options and increase the cost (sometimes dramatically if 'branded' ) So for now I'm expecting a basic server box, fanless, with Minimserver on it, Minimwatch on my PC, along with dbPoweramp on my PC and do the ripping there and move the finished folders to the Minimserver box - likely a NUC. Hopefully running windows because I haven't used anything else since about 1995 on Sun Solaris!

I would expect to be able to turn the power on the <NUC> wait a wee while, and then play music.

I hope I can get some good steers and a little light on the matter.

Hardware - Fanless NUC - has it been done, does it work with Minim?
Software - Minimserver + Minimwatch. Would I need anything else to make it work?
OS - Windows - any reason why not?
Playlists - one feature of MusicCast means it's quite nice to be able to play 'playlists' on/from the media server. i.e. custom albums essentially. I can see that I can do this in WMP but can I do it in Minim?
Ripping - do on main machine using dbPoweramp and move to box running Minimerver?

Thanks