Ripping audio CD's... How to determine if DMA is enabled??
 

Is there anything else i need to consider as well?
The fastest i seem to be able to rip a disc is 3.5x .. Using Gnome app, 'grip'.
i have installed 'easyubuntu' on here as well as it was supposed to enable dma and also enhance video/audio playback all round.

*edit - actually by the time it gets to the end of the disc it is around 5.0x ... I would obviously prefer if it didnt take 20 minutes fo figure out what it can handle - thanks

Actually, this can be disregarded now. changed some pref's and it is sitting around 9-10x
using grip (cdparanioa) for ripper
using lame as encoder
and picked the option to encode audio after all ripping is done..
this seems to have done the trick..

also, use $ hdparm -d /dev/cdrom
to check whether DMA is enabled.
if it is not then use $ hdparm -d 1 /dev/cdrom