tom,

playlists can be built pretty simply either by hitting the + key on the remote or via the web browser interface. i'm not sure aboout importing playlists from other places but i suspect you can (i'm fairly sure you can use itunes to do this and slim server will integrate with i tunes) or you could try moodlogic which will try to match music from your collection with your mood.

to be honest i've laid out my directory structure with artist -> album -> tracks so i can play that artists entire repotoire, a particular album or a particular track with a few button presses. i don;t think i've ever used playlists.

i'd not go with the carillion pc as it seems very over specced for what you are doing. another thought would be one of the new network enabled drives. some are capable of running the slimserver software.

as for the dac - i'd try one of the current forum darling NOS dacs and take a listen to an audio synthesis dax 2 or decade. also the cec dx-71 is nice too and the msb platinum should be stunning but at the end of the day it's going to be up to you as these things are very personal.

cheers

julian.