Well, if M&B doesn't take ages to load at start, the HD can be ruled out. What I was talking about are vendors that sell "high-end" computers, but put in budget parts where they think you won't notice them (like the HD, the motherboard, or the memory sticks). I recommend to put all M&B settings on lowest (DX7 mode), then check and see whether you still get the spawn delay. If so, it could be worth to measure your HD speed with the hd speed tool from steelbytes.com. Only do a read test, or it will destroy the data on your disk.