Hissing/Popping/Crackling/Cracking in iTunes 6.05 w/ Quicktime 7.1

Question

I reformatted and installed Windows 2000 Server. I used to use Windows 2000 Professional, and iTunes worked fine. Now, installing the latest iTunes 6.05 with Quicktime 7.1, I get hissing/popping/crackling/cracking at semi-random intervals (as bizarre as it may sound, with one song it seems to always occur around 10 seconds into the piece if it is the first song I play with iTunes. In another song it tends to be within the first second, but it's not as consistently within that first second as the other is at 10 seconds. After the first crackle, I usually can listen for 2-5 minutes before another crackle occurs.) . I can play the MP3's fine in Quicktime 7.1, VLC, and Windows Media Player 6.4. I'm running a Creative Soundblaster Audigy sound card. I have muted all items in Volume Control excepting Wave and Master. I have experimented toggling with the Quicktime "Sound Out" section (as suggested in http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93610). I have done various combinations of "safe mode" checked/not checked, 44.1/48/96 kHz, 8/16/24 bit, and Stereo/Quadraphonic. Judging from Creative documentation, it ought be 24 bit/48 kHz, but no combinations worked. I've reverted to iTunes 4 with Quicktime 6? from my iPod CD. Creative EAX and "Sound Enhancer" in iTunes are both disabled, though I have experimented with turning them on and that hasn't helped either. I have used my 5 year old Audigy drivers as well as the latest Audigy drivers. I really don't know what to do.
It looks like the following threads concern the same topic
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=588534&tstart=15
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=588245&tstart=30
Both of which come to no resolution.
Just to be thorough, iTunes is installed on my system disk, a 120 gig Seagate hard drive, and my library is located on a RAID 1 array of Western Digital 120 gig hard drives. I have 640 mb of RAM and an Athlon XP 1700+ on an Abit KR7A-RAID.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

I found new symptoms to my problem. It seems the cracking only occurs when there is hard drive activity on the hard drive where my music is located. When I move a large file to and from the hard drive, the cracking is non stop. This behavior makes sense when you recall that towards the beginning of every track there is cracking as I think this is when the data is being moved from the hard drive to the RAM.
I don't think this has to do with my music being on a Raid 1 array or the Raid controller since iTunes exhibits the same cracking when playing music off other disks, including those attached to the Raid controller and those not attached.