The PCM to DSD on-the-fly convertion consumes a lot of CPU so it is necessary to use a good computer but it depend by the configuration of the HQPlayerd.
The DSD used sample rates that are multiple of 44100 Hz:

DSD 64   : DSD  2.8 MHz =  2822400 Hz = 44100 Hz x 64 times
DSD 128  : DSD  5.6 MHz =  5644800 Hz = 44100 Hz x 128 times
DSD 256  : DSD 11.2 MHz = 11289600 Hz = 44100 Hz x 256 times
DSD 512  : DSD 22.6 MHz = 22579200 Hz = 44100 Hz x 512 times
DSD 1024 : DSD 45.2 MHz = 45158400 Hz = 44100 Hz x 1024 times

The hardware suggested by Sygnalyst is a Pentium N4200 2.5 GHz with 8Gb of memory and it is good for DSD256  using -2s filters but if your target is the best quality so DSD512 you need a i5-7600T 3.70 GHz.
The differences from DSD256 and DSD512 are not big and probably I will continue to use the DSD256 in the future.
One my friend use Daphile on an old Apple Mac mini with 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo and he can play only at DSD64 with an evident degradation of sound performances but always a good result if compared with a good DAC like Sabre ES9038.
In any case, the performance of the computer that you plan to use must be evaluated very well because there are considerable differences between one processor and another, even when all Intel I5 CPUs are compared.
Here the task manager on my laptop HP 840 G2 with Intel i5-5300M CPU 2.30GHz playing with HQPlayerd a 192KHz 24bit track resampled to DSD with modulator ASDM7 and output at 12MHz (DSD256).

top - 23:38:58 up 5:18, 5 users, load average: 1.83, 1.63, 1.58
Tasks: 134 total, 1 running, 133 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 35.4 us, 0.1 sy, 0.0 ni, 64.5 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st
KiB Mem : 16308776 total, 197124 free, 592496 used, 15519156 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 16648188 total, 16648188 free, 0 used. 15367608 avail Mem

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
4975 root 10 -10 1195668 266596 16796 S 141.2 1.6 16:48.60 hqplayerd

Only 35% not used and 145% used by hqplayerd, you can see 4 process hqplayerd running (output from top command with -H). 

top - 23:36:34 up 5:15, 5 users, load average: 1.91, 1.53, 1.54
Threads: 185 total, 3 running, 182 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 36.2 us, 0.3 sy, 0.0 ni, 63.5 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st
KiB Mem : 16308776 total, 209524 free, 592496 used, 15506756 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 16648188 total, 16648188 free, 0 used. 15367696 avail Mem

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
4994 root 10 -10 1195668 266596 16796 R 72.1 1.6 6:39.56 hqplayerd
4993 root 10 -10 1195668 266596 16796 R 70.1 1.6 6:32.41 hqplayerd
4984 root 10 -10 1195668 266596 16796 S 1.0 1.6 0:05.95 hqplayerd
4992 root -2 -10 1195668 266596 16796 S 0.7 1.6 0:02.79 hqplayerd 

The last release of HQPlayer embedded need a cpu processor with support for SSE4.2 instructions so Nehalem architecture as I3, I5 and I7 but it cannot run on old Core 2 Duo with Penryn architecture .

About the disks to storage music I use USB disks WD Book or WD Elements, at this time the best ratio between capacity and price is the 4Tb.
The main filesystem for Linux systems is the ext4 but I use NTFS filesystem because Windows is always been my main operating system on my laytop also if my job is on Solaris / Linux systems .
The NTFS in read only is supported by Linux without any extra packages but it is possible add the read-write function (not necessary in my case).
I recently had a bad experience with Seagate Expansion harddisks with blocks during playback also if on paper the read speed should be the same of Western Digital.

Now verify the computer bias to be sure that Secure Boot is disabled and UEFI enabled.
To enter in the bios setup see the messages after power on or read the specific manual of your computer.
Select in boot menu the USB pen drive and follows these images.

Select Graphical install

The my choice for this computer is hqplayer but you can use any name.

The my choice for my login user is ciuffoly but you can use any name.

Deselect any other component.

When fiinish push the Reboot button to restart the system and after some seconds you should see the login prompt.
You will enter with the normal user defined in the installation but after is necessary pass to the superuser with "su - ".

If you are not lucky the system does not boot but you can try to enter in the bios and select the location of the BOOTX64.EFI file under boot.
To fix this problem after login use these following comands:

grub-install
grub-update

Here has been set the static IP 192.168.1.2 because the my subnet is 192.168.1.x but you can have different numbers, check the DHCP address with ip addr show.

After this configuration reload networg configuration with:

or reboot the system with:

init 6

The default configuration of your home router should be changed to set the beginning DHCP to 3 instead of 2 otherwise other devices that are turned on before can take the address 2.

The default IP addressing values are:
      DHCP Server: Enable
      Modem IP Address: 192.168.1.1
      Beginning DHCP Server Address: 192.168.1.2
      Ending DHCP Server Address: 192.168.1.254
      Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

For the Windws user we need to donwload and install 2 free software to continue the configuration in ssh and to transfert files.

• Putty
• FileZilla client
  

The Putty is an open source software SSH client and FileZilla is the free FTP/SFTP solution to transfert file.

Follows an example of SFTP session with the packages to upload on HQPlayerd computer.

Now update repositoty list with this command:

Now download and install the packages 

apt-get -y install libglib2.0-0
apt-get -y install libflac8
apt-get -y install libasound2
apt-get -y install libasound2-data
apt-get -y install libgomp1

apt --fix-broken install

Not necessary but useful in checking the system 

apt-get -y install net-tools 
apt-get -y install dnsutils
apt-get -y install sysstat
apt-get -y install zip unzip
apt-get -y install strace	

apt --fix-broken install 

HQPLAYERD INSTALLATION

dpkg -i libgmpris_2.2.1-4_amd64.deb
dpkg -i libgmpris-dbg_2.2.1-4_amd64.deb
dpkg -i libgmpris-dev_2.2.1-4_amd64.deb
dpkg -i linux-headers-4.9.131-jl+_10_amd64.deb
dpkg -i linux-image-4.9.131-jl+_10_amd64.deb

apt --fix-broken install

dpkg -i  hqplayerd_4.6.1-21_amd64.deb

Set the password of the hqplayer user for the web interface

hqplayerd -s hqplayer valvole

Start the hqplayerd with

hqplayerd

To see the disks seen by the operating system use:

root@hqplayer:~# fdisk -l|grep -i dev
Disk /dev/sda: 111.8 GiB, 120040980480 bytes, 234455040 sectors
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M EFI System
/dev/sda2 1050624 201156607 200105984 95.4G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3 201156608 234452991 33296384 15.9G Linux swap

Disk /dev/sdb: 3.7 TiB, 4000786153472 bytes, 7814035456 sectors
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 7814033407 7814031360 3.7T Microsoft basic data << like NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 3.7 TiB, 4000786153472 bytes, 7814035456 sectors
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 2048 7814033407 7814031360 3.7T Microsoft basic data << like NTFS

On any disk you can have one or more filesystems with different format but normally external disk have only the number 1.

Linux cannot mount filesystem with the same UUID and this condition can be verified by connecting various USB disks, you can verify UUID with the following comand.
 
root@hqplayer:~# blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="E2B1-B46D" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="3c4fa78d-d676-450c-9c0b-50a42efb3a5f"
/dev/sda2: UUID="0ad4c2d0-b171-4f7e-91aa-8b030ce4d574" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="d40c8730-bb58-44be-aa49-54aab272c7e2"
/dev/sda3: UUID="6d3bddaa-bf1f-4ebc-b93f-165add20fcad" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="7c2bc6df-9d4c-40b9-a2a2-b3a5642324fa"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="SACD4TB" UUID="0CF4AB21F4AB0C50" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="My Book" PARTUUID="b7dc417d-6f8d-4b7e-a2ab-f07abc4a67d4"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="PCM4TB" UUID="70B808DDB808A426" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="My Book" PARTUUID="eea88db6-37cb-4158-a3f3-3b073930c44b"

If you will have 2 or more disk with the same UUID search on Internet the procedure to change it without lost data.

To mount a filesystem on a disk use:

mkdir /audio/0CF4AB21F4AB0C50
mount /dev/sdb1 /audio/0CF4AB21F4AB0C50

root@hqplayer:~# df -k|grep audio
/dev/sdc1 3907015676 3295776132 611239544 85% /audio/0CF4AB21F4AB0C50
/dev/sdb1 3907015676 3291775028 615240648 85% /audio/70B808DDB808A426

to umount

umount /audio/0CF4AB21F4AB0C50

I have created a service to mount all USB disk and start HQPlayerd, you can modify to mount other filesystem type (I have only NTFS).
The mount point include the UUID (the Universally unique identifier of each disk) so after the switch-on this does not change and the library does not need a new rebuld.
Remember ciuffoly is my user but you can have a different user name.

Create the file /home/ciuffoly/start_hqplayer.bash

Create the file /home/ciuffoly/stop_hqplayer.bash

Add execution permission for these scrpts

Create the new service file /lib/systemd/system/HQPlayer.service


[Unit]
Description=HQPLAYER
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
User=root
Nice=-10
IOSchedulingClass=realtime
LimitMEMLOCK=1G
LimitNICE=-10
LimitRTPRIO=98
ExecStart=/home/ciuffoly/start_hqplayer.bash
ExecStop=/home/ciuffoly/stop_hqplayer.bash

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

The NTFS filesystem will be mounted in read only but if you add another module is possible to mount also for write.

apt-get -y install ntfs-3g

I am using a laptop as HQPlayer computer so it is necessary use this following setting editing the file /etc/systemd/logind.conf

HandleLidSwitch=ignore
HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore

service systemd-logind restart

and enable on bios Restore AC power loss. 

Always with a laptop could be useful check battery status with

In my case the audio tracks are in /audio/0CF4AB21F4AB0C50/Audio_SACD so I have created a new directory.

Now we have the comand to move the selected Albun in the new directory.

cat lista |awk -F'/' '{ print "mv \""$1"/"$2"/"$3"/"$4"/"$5"\" "$1"/"$2"/"$3"/Audio_SACD_to_conv/." }'|sh

ex:

mv "/audio/0CF4AB21F4AB0C50/Audio SACD/(Astor Piazzolla) Katona Twins - Le Grand Tango (2004) [SACD-ISO]" /audio/0CF4AB21F4AB0C50/Audio_SACD_to_conv/.

If your audio tracks are in a SACD image (.iso) it is necessary extract these and convert in DSF,  the best solution is use the following free software by Sonore (a Windows interface to the sacd_extract program).

Now install the packages to configure the wifi interface.

apt-get install -y --fix-missing  hostapd 
apt-get install -y --fix-missing  iw

Check if your device will support the Access Point mode 

root@hqplayer:~# iw list |grep AP                  
                 * AP 

Create a new directory (mkdir /etc/hostapd) and a new file /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf with hotspot configuration (use vi or nano)

# Wireless interface
interface=wlo1
driver=nl80211
ssid=hqplayer
channel=1
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=valvole001
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

iface wlo1 inet static
  address 192.168.42.1
  netmask 255.255.255.0

Create the file  /lib/systemd/system/hostapd.service

apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
apt-get -y install git dkms
git clone https://github.com/Mange/rtl8192eu-linux-driver.git
cd rtl8192eu-linux-driver/
make
make install

Mirror for this module here:   rtl8192eu-linux-driver.tar.gz

Create the file  /lib/systemd/system/hostapd.service