iTunes MP3 encoder! Is it good?

[Jake]

OK I finally decided to encode my favorite 100 CD's to MP3 and dump them onto my aging 6GB MP3/WMA player that has been gathering dust. I am leaning towards iTunes because it can be automated and I can create VBR MP3s giving me some compatibility. Has anyone used the iTunes VBR encoder? I will have to play around with the QUALITY setting but I guess MEDIUM seems to be the way to go. I am still on the fence with what kbps to use. Since this is not serious audio I would like to maximize my space. That being 128 kbps I figure.

This is one of the original Creative Nomad units that weighs in at about 2 lbs! Needless to say it will be sitting on top of my stereo and not sliding into my back pocket It has 2 line-outputs plus headphones output. I have thought of acquiring a 20GB drive to swap out the 6 GB one. Then I could encode my entire collection and even bump up the encoding to 160kbps. Any thoughts?

PS: I used to use Lame but I have not seen a CDDB interface GUI for it. Is that still the case?