What have you learned?

I have had many DAC,s and more computers then I remember. I have had every kind from Dell to HP and even Mac and every type like laptop or tabletop. Well...I have a Digital Music Server with 500gb made by NETGEAR and Pacific Valve & Electric Company. Any way it does sound better than most but..Lately in the past 6 months or more I have come to realize that my new laptop HP sounds better with 1 tera and 10 gig RAM and beats audio. I have no idea if the "beats audio" is anything at all but I do know it says on the box best audio qaulity ever from computer. Gimicks? Yes,No? Ok so the midrange is the biggest difference more life like from the HP laptop.And I tried VERY VERY hard to like the music server! I want to love it! It really is too cool with all the radio and video on the internet and it can control your house if your house is automated like lights, A/C, and so on. So if anyone out there had a music server and found they preferred their laptop let me know reasoning or why you do. Im learning from your expiriences and my mistakes.