Amen, brother. Space-intensive, but in the long run, entirely worth it. Even the cheapest computers now come with hard drives that can easily store 200+ CDs worth of WAV files, and 1TB of storage (that's 1500 CDs) can be found for under $1K. If you want to rip compressed files for your iPod, you can do it much faster once they're on your HD, and you'll thank yourself the next time you upgrade some audio equipment and start hearing the compression shortcomings more clearly.