I'm looking for a decent MP3 encoder (for a totally legal folk site - I might add)

I've tried the freeware and have, perhaps inevitably, had no joy - programs that crash, don't work at all, produce complete nonsense at the output etc.

I'd be more than happy to pay for something decent. All the shareware that I've patiently downloaded to try, has a screen commenting that 'the encoding option is disabled on the shareware version' Arrggg!

How am I supposed to tell if the software is any good if I don't even get a taste of whether it can do what I want? They could at least offer a 15 second limit on the length of the encoded mp3 file or something.

As I've said I'm more than happy to pay for something that works well - I'm a bit suspicious that I'll send of 30 dollars or so and have the same problems that I did with the freeware.

Any advice?

(my computer isn't the fastest in the world - 133 Mhz 32mb RAM)

Wolf