Ral,
The Lynx card only has the HD26 pin out, therefore, your best single cable solution is a HD26-to-XLR cable. Otherwise, you're talking two cables - one to convert HD26 to XLR and then an XLR-XLR cable. Of course this would degrade sonic quality since you have multiple connectors in the signal path.
If you are the least bit handy technically you can save big $$ by buying the components for the Zalman yourself. That's what I did. It's pretty simple to install the motherboard, Lynx card, memory, optical drive and SSD or spinning driver yourself. But you do need to know your way around WinXP and be comfortable assembling hardware. Goodwins is a class outfit so that's the way to go if you want one pre-built.
My netbook runs WinXP Pro and it comes standard with Remote Desktop Connection. You just run it to connect to the Zalman. You need to set up a domain and a password, but that's easy.
In terms of playback software I use Samplitude as I've found it sonically superior to all the other programs. However....!!!...it is a pro piece of software and only plays one song at a time so it's not for everyone. I also load my music files into a RAM drive as it sounds better than having them pulled off the SSD. Also, solid state drives (SSD) sound better than spinning drives. Again, these things may not matter or be audible in some systems so to each their own. If you want maximum convenience and user friendliness than MediaMonkey is a good choice as a software player. I would not use iTunes.