PC recomendation for cd ripping

The best ripper of all is dbPowerAmp, and it is priced very low. It also uses the multiple cores of your processor to speed things up.

As for ripping to FLAC, use Level 5 or 6. This will net you files about 60% the size of the original with full fidelity...

-RW-

Dvdgreco, ripping is executing a console program, so laptop quality will effect the speed but not the quality of the rip,

But in the case of running JRiver to serve the data, the quality of your laptop is very important for sound quality. Basically a faster cpu, more RAM and disabling unnecessary services from startup will improve the sound quality.

Don't, that simple. Use the time to listen to music. Among the many cd players I have used, I've found that a Sony CDP-CX355 is a better alternative to ripping. I have two, so I can load 600 cd's and just enjoy the music. One of the units has been in continuous hourly use for 18,000 hours, still going strong. Enjoy the music.

PC shouldn't affect anything. The drive might, and having scratched or dirty discs certainly will. Use something that can give accuraterip results so you can monitor results. EAC can do this, as well as DB Poweramp. Also, you might want to embed album art while you are doing the rips. I didn't do this when I ripped my collection a few years ago, and wish I had. I don't know if JRiver has a similar feature.

I have ripped hundreds of CD's using Jriver. I used iTunes before and really found Jriver much better. I have used 2 different PC's and heard no difference in sound quality. Started ripping with WAV and have switched to FLAC as no difference in sound was detected in A/B listening tests. I have tried different compression settings for FLAC and heard no difference so am using the default setting of 6.
I agree with Riffer in making sure discs are really clean and dust-free before ripping.
I think Jriver is all you need for playback and ripping (use Copy mode: secure, and a Read speed of 2x).
Good luck!