In reply to:
My only concern is that I want to optimise my site to reduce the CPU usage within my own development box before putting it on a DH server.
It is going to be difficult to properly optimise your site on the development system without some live traffic. You could always upload the site to DreamHost, enable CPU reporting and, if CPU usage seems on the high side, optimise it there.
CPU reporting can be enabled in the Web Panel at Status -> Statistics -> Customize
Mark
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