Yup, right now I'm CPU bound. I have a Toshiba 40x CDROM, ripping takes ~.5-.75x song length while encoding is about 2x song length. I haven't been able to detect a qualitative difference in the VBR ripping so far, but am sticking with if for the moment over 128 CBR (for now, I set min 96K max 160K to try to keep file sizes down somewhat, but may try some more deliberate listening tests to guide this a bit more).

Agree DDJ is limited. I haven't even figured out how to delete anything through the interface, and it could be easy for stuff to get out of sync (especially if I space out and run grip while su'd -- files not going where I intended!). Still, I thought I'd install it to get the MySQL interface and db spec initialized. Might find some other uses for that database later on as you suggest.

Wish list? Configurable default file directory for grip. A tool to synch DDJ (or other player) playlists with Empeg. A grip option that would "encode only" in batch mode against a specified subdirectory (while adding m3us, tags); that way I could rip while awake, encode while asleep, and avoid spending money I don't have on that new motherboard and CPUs!)