I noticed that the current release feels slower than the beta versions and 7.1.4
I believe that one reason is a changed way to write the vmem file.
After just a few days of usage I see vmem files fragmented into 6000 pieces.
After I first noticed it I defragmented the drives and used my VMs as usual for a few days.
When I checked for fragmented files the top ten went all to vmem files. Newly created vmdks or other larger files were not fragmented at all.
Repeated the experiment twice and verified the results.
What is going on here ? - this problem was known on ext3 with Linuxhosts in the past. I thought it was history ? 
(this is on 2k3 EE 32)