Dell PowerEdge2400 - poor performance with Windows 2003

We are running in to serious performance issues running Windows 2003 Server on a Dell PE2400; have upgraded all of the firmware/BIOS/drivers to the latest revision as specified by Dell.  The server did not experience this problem running NT 4.0  It was wiped clean, then Windows 2003 installed from scratch.  The server is a Dell PE2400 w/dual 733 MHZ processors + 1 GB of RAM and a PERC2/DC RAID controller.  

Data copied from disk to disk on the PERC controller is fine; the performance is unacceptably slow when copying data to or from the network, either to disk or tape.  We have tried different utilities, Windows explorer, xcopy, robocopy, or tried running a backup to a local DLT4000 drive using BE 9.1.4691.   Performance using explorer,xcopy, or robocopy is on the order of 12 MB per MINUTE.  I have checked the Cisco 2950 switch the NIC is attached to, changing the patch cable, nailing up the connection to 100Mb Full, checking error counters (everything is clean).  We have a second, identical Dell PowerEdge 2400 and had the same problems which "corrected" itself after the server was wiped clean and rebuilt (again) from scratch.  Before the second rebuild, the server was showing the same 12 MB per MINUTE performance while copying files; this improved to 300 MB/minute  (5 MB/sec) after the rebuild which is what I would expect on a server of this vintage.

 

I have compared all the driver revision levels and BIOS/firmware levels; everything I've seen is identical.

We have contacted Dell support and, in effect have been told that Windows 2003 will run on a Dell PE2400 but just because it will run doesn't necessarily mean it will run well.

Any thoughts as to what's going on?  The next step is to rebuild the server but this is a Windows 2003 DC and can only be rebuilt as a last resort.

 

Thank you.

Tim Pittson