My system is working better, but I still have a few problems to overcome. Gradually, I'll pick away at those. They are:

1. MIDI hangs - still getting stuck notes that don't shut off. I have to find the note on the keyboard, hit it, and it stops.
2. Big lag in sound when recording several tracks. A PC with this kind of power shouldn't overload on four MIDI tracks (with a couple of VSTIs open as well), should it? I notice that the system won't take any more input from the keyboard (MIDI controller) at times, as if it's overloaded. I set the buffers down to 512, but I wonder if I need to make them bigger again?
3. I still wonder if I have my MIDI hooked up right: the diagram in the Steinberg book says to go OUT from the keyboard to IN on the interface, then OUT to the IN on the keyboard, and then THRU to the JV-2080 synth module. The way I have it hooked up is OUT from keyboard to IN on interface, OUT from interface to IN on JV-2080. Is it because I don't have anything coming back into the keyboard that it hangs up (can't receive note-off messages?). I had it hooked up the way the book says and it didn't work any different. The second way I described is how I've always done it, but in the past, it always worked. What's different now?

Other than this, I'm coming along. I'm not losing hope or getting mad. I'm just chipping away and still checking with the forum to see if I can't get any tips or tricks to knock down these obstacles and end up with a good, fully functioning music system.

I'm still wondering, too, if I shouldn't strip it all down and reload everything bit by bit, one at a time. The Cubase, WaveLab, Finale, etc shouldn't take too long, but it's the NI Komplete I'm worried about - that will take hours. I also wonder if I shouldn't set it up as 64-bit and make a directory for those VSTIs and plugins on the main hard drive. I put the projects all on the second hard drive, so that should clear things up a bit.