M-Powered 7.1 + Delta 101lt: optimizing performance

[Bernardo]

So, I just tried recording for the first time on our new 1010lt / MPowered system, and recording 8 simultaneous tracks proved to be a problem. We could always get one take, but as soon as we tried recording a second one (or hit "play" with the tracks rec enabled), the computer went on hold for several seconds, and then either gave me DAE Error -36 or told me the drive was to slow or fragmented to record, at which point I had to restart Pro Tools to get it to record again. Please note that this is a recently formatted, nearly empty hard disk (and it's not the system disk, it's a second internal 120 giga drive), and it's Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Our Mac is running 10.4.8, and it's a Power PC G4, dual processor, with about 800Mhz and about 800mb of RAM. I know it's not a lot, but the session was at 44.1k, 24 bits, and I've done far more intense things than eight simultaneous tracks of 44 / 24 on far lesser systems in old macs using old interfaces. I tried several settings of buffer size and CPU usage with little difference between them.

Anyone got any ideas about whhat I could do to optimize the system performance? I'm already starting to fear that my plug-in filled mixes will be a problem in this machine.