I made a few tweaks in a few areas, we'll see how it goes.

I've enabled this option:

Database (automatic forum marking) - this option is the same as a previous option, but forums are automatically marked as read when the last new thread is read.

This is the most usable option for end users, but most processor intensive.
So far, looks tolerable. Kind of a waiting game to see how much performance spikes. Some of my changes to the server that I did before we moved to this system have been undone. Not sure what is up with that but I've reverted to values that should let us run pretty lean.

Don't tell Ellay. :_)