For reference, my 2 year old Netbook with an N270 Atom processor runs at less that 20% CPU when upsampling from 44 to 176, using flac files. Without upsampling it runs at less than 5%. By comparison, it runs at 25% for 44 to 96 and at 50% for 44 to 196. This is Windows 7 Starter with 1 GB memory. Pretty much nothing else running. So, you do not need a real fast machine just to do the upsampling. For comparison, my 3.2 GHz I5 system runs at less than 2% CPU usage when upsampling from 44 to 176. and at less than 5% when upsampling from 44 to 192. Of course, some people will argue that the very fast processor will give you better sound. I will not get into that discussion. Just thought the CPU usage would help you. My DAC upsamples, so I do do not use MC to do it.