The first thing I would recommend is faster drives on your server. If you are using SATA drives, moving to SAS or SSD will make a big difference. Also, make sure you have at least a RAID 1 array as that will cut down read times. If your computer does not have a hard drive controller that can do RAID, you can use the RAID built into Windows which is excellent for software based RAID.

Secondly, make sure you have at least 4G of RAM in your computer and uninstall any unnecessary software that you are not using.

I say all this assuming your server is less than 3 years old.

For further reading:
http://amazingcharts.com/ub/ubbthreads.php/topics/63159/Re:_Things_I_have_found_that_c#Post63159

JamesNT

James Summerlin
My personal site: http://www.dataintegrationsolutions.net
james@dataintegrationsolutions.net