extreamly high load on cp

[neuron]

/tmp2 is on raid
/tmp isn't

debian:/tmp# time cp x x2

real 0m26.286s
user 0m0.066s
sys 0m1.413s

fair enough
debian:/tmp# time cp x /tmp2

real 0m18.059s
user 0m0.067s
sys 0m1.633s

a few more tests got it to
debian:/tmp# time cp x /tmp2
real 0m5.817s
user 0m0.061s
sys 0m1.758s



now raid -> raid:
time cp x x2

real 0m59.256s
user 0m0.062s
sys 0m1.831s


while copying raid->raid the system load goes to more than 4.

any suggestions? this is a 2.4ghz xeon with a gig of ram, and a 3ware scsi controller. The same thing happens on 2.4 and 2.6 kernels (not sure about the load, but the speed problems are there).

also another guy testing on the same box says it's fast sometimes and extreamly slow other times.

[neuron]

setup 4x2 raid, formating sda1 is about 30 times faster than formating sda2, so we'r pretty sure this is a hardware problem.

(damit, brand new hardware too)