I ripped my collection of 4000+ CDs and before I started I did some research about the best way to do it. I had an ASUS gaming laptop that I set up next to my listening chair and I used dBpoweramp for the ripping. If you rip to FLAC it will retrieve the meta data for each CD and automatically put it with the music files. It also has a feature that will detect a HDCD and rip it at 20 bits (you have to activate this feature).
The most important thing, however, is that I bought a Plextor Plexwriter PX-891SAF burner along with a high quality external case to hook up to my ASUS using a USB3 cable. This writer is well known to be much faster than a built-in burner in a server or a standard CD burner. In my case it is at least 4 to 5 times faster than the built-in CD burner in my ASUS. If you've got several thousand CDs to rip, speed is really important. I ripped the files to an external USB3 4 TB hard drive. For safety I have backed up my files to two other external drives.
My setup allowed me to listen to music and rip a dozen or more CDs per session. It took me nearly 3 years to get the whole job done but it was a good way to do it. You definitely don't want to be getting up and down to load every CD into the burner.
The most important thing, however, is that I bought a Plextor Plexwriter PX-891SAF burner along with a high quality external case to hook up to my ASUS using a USB3 cable. This writer is well known to be much faster than a built-in burner in a server or a standard CD burner. In my case it is at least 4 to 5 times faster than the built-in CD burner in my ASUS. If you've got several thousand CDs to rip, speed is really important. I ripped the files to an external USB3 4 TB hard drive. For safety I have backed up my files to two other external drives.
My setup allowed me to listen to music and rip a dozen or more CDs per session. It took me nearly 3 years to get the whole job done but it was a good way to do it. You definitely don't want to be getting up and down to load every CD into the burner.