Understood. Well, then for yourself, being able to rip your music and play via Roon is well worth the effort in my experience.
Regarding ROCK, I’ve run it on a couple different standard PCs, currently circa 2013 Dell mini-pc that only consumes 25w at idle, slightly higher processing convolution and upsample but still very low. As long as the PC can be placed out of the room, no need to spend $ for fan-less. Slow moving fans still cool quite effectively.
By far the most significant gains I’ve found has been in software, specifically custom made convolution filters for my speakers, room, seated position. See Home Audio Fidelity thread(s). I have no connection other than a very satisfied, and wildly impressed, customer.