advice on configuring a laptop windows system

Jriver and DB poweramp is about all you can do software wise....

Just a practical consideration, I suspect that USB audio will be the only option available on your laptop as very few windows laptops have any other digital output that can be fed to an external DAC. Some macs (maybe all?) have an SPDIF output, but I've found this drastically inferior to the USB solution.

Also, ripping all those CDs will be truly painful (especially if you picked up some of them used and they're not in perfect shape), but the sonic rewards are well-worth it. Hard drive driven computer audio is leaps and bounds past any transport I've used in my system.

I've been running a PC front end for over a year now, and I second the comments regarding Jplay, I wouldn't use a computer based front end without it. It is a must have on a PC based system, made a *huge* improvement in sound quality on my rig, one that was immediately apparent. Jplay can run in Jriver and Foobar, can also play with iTunes but the two don't play as well together.
Also consider using a USB converter and buying a less expensive DAC, but one that still accepts high res input. In my experience this route usually yields better SQ than buying a USB DAC. The best shootout of USB converters I have read on the 'net can be found here:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/15-usb-spdif-converters-shootout-15327/