> Try booting with the CD drive disabled (via userconf) with "disable cd*", basically no change:
stest: {5} vmstat -i interrupt total rate TLB shootdown 1693 28 cpu0 timer 5716 95 msix2 vec 0 1465 24 msix6 vec 0 2438 40 ioapic0 pin 21 45 0 ioapic0 pin 20 52 0 ioapic0 pin 17 10888895 181481 ioapic0 pin 4 1136 18 Total 10901440 181690 stest: {6} With "disable pciide*" as well, well, gone: stest: {1} vmstat -i interrupt total rate TLB shootdown 1736 27 cpu0 timer 6120 95 msix2 vec 0 2168 33 msix6 vec 0 2559 39 ioapic0 pin 21 44 0 ioapic0 pin 20 83 1 ioapic0 pin 4 1153 18 Total 13863 216 stest: {2} Seems disk I/O is quite a bit snappier now. Looks like a custom kernel is in the cards for this one. (I had to sneak in "-c" via /boot.cfg, because the second-stage boot loader didn't want to listen to my serial console input, while the first-stage boot selector did...) As for the actual root cause: input sought. Thanks, - HÃ¥vard