hey guys, this is sort of a stupid question but it boggles my mind and i cant think of anything else to do.

when im running FLStudio4 i see that it uses a lot of CPU resources, particularly with the VSTs (from 50 % to much higher! 30% sometimes for just a kick drum and a couple other patterns!) also, the program sometimes stalls by getting stuck on a sound and then the computer becomes unresponsive. the other thing is during the export of mp3 files, it often becomes unresponsive before finished (unless i choose background rendering, which usually works)

okay so the obvious thing to say is my computer sucks... .yeah, but not that badly, i think. it just blows my mind why this is occuring and i was hoping that someone might have a clue as to what's going on or why.

i have a 1.7 ghz amd athlon xp 2000 processor (which survived the risk of damage when a fan blew in the past)
a brand new asus mobo
512 mb ddr ram
brand new monster hard drive with fresh windows xp installation (less than one month ago)
brand new turtle beach santa cruz soundcard
new fans
the only other hardware being my cdroms.

since pretty much all my other parts are new, i thought first that a 1.7ghz processor just didnt cut it... but talking to a knowledgable friend, he said it should certainly be fast enough for this program. and i asked him if he thought this was due to the fan that blew out in the past and his response was that if the processor was damaged, it wouldn't work at all.

well if my processor is fine, and everything else is pretty much fresh and new, ie. no reformatting etcc needed .... what the hell is my issue? any help will be much appreciated, thanks