precision 670 performance problems

Note: forgot to mention they are dual xeon processors...

I've got the same system as you minus 2 gigs of ram.  I wondering how you came to the conclusion that your system was only running at 25%.  It makes me wonder if mine has the same problem.  With PCMark04 Free (benchmarking software) I think I've been getting low scores.  My highest score was  5613.  It would be nice to compare it to someone with almost the exact same set up.  The software can be found at http://www.futuremark.com/download/?pcmark04.shtml.  How to here from ya.

I am not sure what applications you are running, but you have more than sufficient memory to forgo virtual memory. I don’t have a page file under Windows XP, I allow the application to work with the actual memory, and not use the page file. I runs very fast since there is not read/write to the drives.

Also I have Server 2003 configures as a workstation operating system. I have a page file but it resides in a drive where the Server operating system is not installed. If you have a 15K drive, the use it for the page file, and remove the page file from the drive the operating system resides in.

Also check the operating system to see if it’s using large cache pools, and if under the folder view there is an option to “Lunch folder windows in a separate process� this setting stabilizes the system better when multiple applications are opened and you have sufficient RAM memory.

I have a program called CachemanXP and it’s very intensive in auto optimizing and managing the system’s memory as opposed to windows being in charge.