Hi. [TL:DR yes, pretty normal] There could be many reasons why your system utilises 100% of the system when recording audio. How much RAM, C.P.U., hard disk etc is used will depend on how you have your settings when recording. That'll be sample rate, bit depth, block size. The higher each of these values go, the more system resources will be required. When you add a A/D conversion this will require some more system resources. When using a dedicated audio device, like the Audiobox USB, all this heavy lifting will be offloaded to the audiobox, reducing the overall system load. So, when the computer has less to do, it will be reflected in your task manager. Also, please keep in mind the fact that background programs like antivirus, browsers etc eat ram. Google Chrome can use a fair amount of RAM if you are running that in the background while recording. Still, all this is just generalisation without an idea of your system specs. But yes, offloading the audio conversion to the hardware will allow you to do more with the software.
