Seems that the building databases stage takes about 20mins.

The downloading of the updates for blockchain makes sense. Just the second part makes me wonder. Still takes about 5 minutes of hd grinding away after open program and can actually do anything.  That is closing the program and opening back up a few minutes later. Not sure if this is normal or costs of not using bitcoind.exe instead... More curious than anything. As I mentioned above, can choose the appropriate timing. Just if want to actually spend the coins, then bit of a hassle is all.  The grinding noise, not the waiting time. If it could do it all in ram and not max out my system for 20mins, then thats fine.


Was running a previous version that would crash because didn't have enough ram. Had to wait till this or (0.88?) version in order to use hd space instead. Or something along those lines.
Currently  Running 0.89.99-16 beta now

First gen intel i5 quad (2.5ghz)
4gig ram, of which until I see 3gig retinstall as 64bit windows and possible at in another 3gig stick.