[Plugin: WP Super Cache] Super Cache Slow?

Just some observations I made:

I noticed with Super Cache it adds 5-6 seconds to the load time for some reason. What happens is when I click to surf to my blog, there’s about a 5-6 second delay before my blog begins loading, whereas when the cache is disabled my blog begins loading immediately. I also noticed this to be the case when I try using Gzip (I’ve tried using both the inbuilt gzip and a separate plugin by Filofoso). There’s always a 5-6 second pause before my site begins to load.

I think it’s obvious that the processing power on my server isn’t powerful enough to cache and gzip my files instantaneously (or I simply don’t have enough alloted to me), which is why there’s always this short pause before my site even begins to load. Ironically enough it means my blog loads faster without the caching system and gzip than it does with it. Kinda sad actually. =P

As an alternative solution I will have to explore using mod_gzip instead to compress my files instead of using a php script solution via super cache, which I understand is not the ideal solution anyway. As for caching, I guess I should only reserve that for times when I know I’ll be getting massive traffic.