modest home recording advice

[rzzzzz]

I've got an Odyssey sitting in a local NoVa repair shop, which pushed my ADD just enough to take the plunge of acquiring a few soft synths. I've loaded them as stand-alone onto my (667) DVI Titanium. I am knocked out at how good these sound, but they sure tax my poor 4 year old cpu to the max.

 

Don't see how I could possibly use my laptop to both play and record these synths at the same time. Last time I really got into home digital, I was running Deck II on an 8500 with a 2 gig Seagate scuzzied in. (Actually, I still have the Mackie hooked up to it, so I could take another whack at 12yr old technology.)

 

Just wondering what other folks might be doing to max out on modest hardware.