OK, I'm not trying to be a smartass here but when I said I was ripping my CD's I meant that I was recording them from the CDRW to the Hard Drive.

Yes, I know.

That said, why would you buy this thing in the first place if you didn't have an extensive CD collection?

My CD collection is already ripped. Also, any CD I get in the future will be ripped on my computer.

Currently, I am using a Rio Receiver streaming tunes off a server wirelessly located on top of my refridgerator. Check it out here. This setup is not that elegant (ok, ok, it's ugly). Using the Rio Central would eliminate the need for a music server and solve the crappy display problem with the Rio Receiver.

Secondly, why would it matter how noisy the drive is

Hard drive access noise doesn't bother me. Motor noise does. Because the Central is not in a car like the empeg, I assume it doesn't spin-down the hard drive when not being accessed. So, if the Central is on, I would imagine the hard disk is spinning. The whistling of a noisy hard drive makes me go crazy.