Just purchased a new P4 last week and got all the clients on it over the past 2 days.

Although it runs amazing, cpu load jumps to like 2.47 without any reason... well I'm sure there's a reason, but I don't know it...

Only about 60 accounts on the server.

All accounts except 2 are VERY small non demanding sites.

2 that are larger are:

1. Just a site with many stunt videos. Does about 140GB a month in bw.

2. Gaming website that gets about 3-4 thousand hits a day...

Could either of those be hurting the server?

I have to start getting more sleep... I had backups set for earlier then I thought...

Is this normal though even though backups are running?

Have you looked at top et al when these jumps occur? It doesn't take but a single poorly written tiny script to cause the load averages to 'skyrocket' when it gets used... I've often been surprised to find that it's one of the "little no-see-m" sites causing the jumps... So yes, one of your big sites, or even one of your smaller ones could be causing it :/

ahhh... backups could cause that too ;)

Deb, appreciate your response. Top showed absolutely nothing of key importance so it must be the backups.

Always provided good responses ;) Thanks!

Do top, top tells you everything, may give you some ideas what have gone wrong.