[p3y0t3]

...of ram, you could try setting a larger heapsize for the game. To do this, go to My Games in steam, right click on Team Fortress 2, click properties, then click the launch options button. If you already haven't, add:

-novid (removes the start-up videos..)

and

-heapsize 1024000 (will set memory heapsize to 1gb)

so, in launch options edit box you should have:

-novid -heapsize 1024000

This may help the hard drive thrashing due to all the swap file in use. Also, have you considered defragging that HDD? =]