Ok, there's a lot of inaccuracies in the advice in this thread, so let's clear it up.
You need to look at where the conflict is. The most likely bottlenecks are as follows:
- Hard drive speed
- Memory and pagefile usage
- Processor usage
- Competing applications
iTunes has to stream data from the HDD into memory, and decode it/decompress it before it can be relayed to the audio drivers. This is very processor intensive, and iTunes 7 specifically is known for performance issues in the area of processor usage.
Your first mistake, in all honesty, is trying to play a highly processor intensive game at the same time as iTunes is doing all the above. Winamp may be lighter than iTunes, but it still has to do the same work essentially.
And twite, you need to check your facts. iTunes does not use 256MB of memory - that's ridiculous! Have you actually ever fired up iTunes and checked the process tab of your task manager? I guess not, or you would have seen that it uses at most 40MB. This is nowhere near enough to cripple a system. I have a production SQL server database with several millions of rows, 500+ tables and high throughput, and that just about runs to 256MB when stressed out.
The recommended requirements for iTunes says 256MB in the PC, not just for iTunes. To assume, as twite did, that "it probably won't take up all 256 Mbs, but it will be close" is ludicrous.
So it's unlikely to be memory, but you're onto something with Norton. Norton will scan any file accessed on your pc. This will include mp3 files. So, if you add "scanning for viruses" to the list of things your pc is doing when you play an mp3, you'll see that Norton can have a big effect on HDD speed and processor usage.
With that said, virus checking will only be an issue only when the file is accessed. And this will only manifest itself as a delay in starting the track, along with a decrease in the performance of your game. But you'll get this with any virus scanner, and although Norton is quite heavy, it's quite good at finding viruses, so what's your priority?
One solution could be to play your music, from CD, on a hi-fi system, and let your PC get on with maintaining a hi frame-rate in your game, instead. At least play the music on a lightweight audio app from a second CD drive in your PC (assuming the game needs a disk inserted).
I hope this clears things up. It's a shame that people make assumptions and don't check their figures before they post "advice" on these forums. They only make themselves look foolish, as to people who do know what they're talking about can spot them a mile away...
