Optimizing your hardware configuration
The hardware you use affects the performance of Illustrator: the faster the processor or hard drive, the faster Illustrator can process information. Other hardware enhancements, such as installing additional RAM, using a multiprocessor system, or optimizing and defragmenting drives, can also improve performance.
Processor speed
The speed of Illustrator is limited by the speed of your computer's Central Processing Unit (CPU). Since Illustrator manipulates large quantities of data and performs many calculations, its speed is greatly dependent on the processor's speed. Using a computer with a faster processor will increase Illustrator's speed.
Installed RAM
If Illustrator has insufficient RAM, it uses hard disk space (that is, virtual memory, scratch disk, or both) to process information. Illustrator is fastest when it can process information in memory, without having to use a hard disk.
Hard disks
As you add, delete, and move files on a hard disk, available space is no longer a single, contiguous block. If the system does not have enough contiguous space, it saves fragments of a file to different locations on the hard disk. An application requires more time to read a fragmented file than one saved to a contiguous location. You can test your hard disk by using ChkDsk. You can defragment files and optimize available hard disk space by using Disk Defragmenter. For more information on these tools, see your Windows documentation.
Since Illustrator reads and writes information while working on a file, the faster the access speed of the disk containing the file or the Illustrator scratch disk, the faster Illustrator can process file information. To improve the performance of Illustrator, work on files saved on drives with fast access speeds, such as an internal hard drive, rather than those with slow access speeds, such as a network server (a network drive) or removable media (for example, Zip drive, or floppy disk). Removable media often have slower access times and are more easily damaged than internal hard drives.
When you want to save an Illustrator file to a network or removable drive, Adobe recommends you first save the file to an internal hard disk, and then close the file and use Windows Explorer to copy the closed file to the external or network drive, or save the file to the network using Adobe Version Cue.
Printer language
For best results when printing from Illustrator, use a PostScript printer. Most non PostScript printers rely on display information, host computer resources, and proprietary printer drivers to relay print information to the printer, so they may take much longer to print than a PostScript printer.
Adobe Customer Support: www.adobe.com/support/
Microsoft Knowledgebase: http://support.microsoft.com