using phpmyadmin do an optimize of the DB.
If the problem persist, enable debug mode and you should see why it's so slow.

I reduced the entrys per page to three and optimized the database as you said.

seemed to work
thank you

I'm noticing significant slowdowns too. I optimized all the tables and changed the posts to 3 but it is still taking several seconds to load up any page. Also happens when I go to the admin area.

I tried running debug, but didn't see anything alarming there. What should I be looking for?

ran a CHECK on each table and these are the errors I'm getting:

Problems with indexes of table `evo_links`
More than one INDEX key was created for column `link_itm_ID`
More than one INDEX key was created for column `link_dest_itm_ID`

Problems with indexes of table `evo_users`
PRIMARY and INDEX keys should not both be set for column `user_ID`

Is this everyone or just me? Still, those shouldn't be alarming errors to completely bog down a server.

Problems with indexes of table `evo_links`
More than one INDEX key was created for column `link_itm_ID`
More than one INDEX key was created for column `link_dest_itm_ID`

I noticed the same problem, the question is:
- Should we keep index "link_item_ID" or index "link_itm_ID"
- Should we keep index "link_dest_item_ID" or link_dest_itm_ID" ?

I choose to keep link_itm_ID and link_dest_itm_ID, but may be I'm wrong.

link_itm_ID and link_dest_itm_ID are the ones you are supposed to have on a new install, so this is right.
I've added a TODO in the code about it.

The duplicated indices should get removed in the 1.9 upgrade procedure.