ty 
i'm not running any AV, my system is a basic XP install with most extraneous processes turned off for audio performance. i'm still using borland's freecommandlinetools compiler from 20 odd years ago, best compiler ever.
that helps to know and gives me something to search for, i'd seen videos of other people with very fast compiles, so now i know its not just some setting i'm not familiar with yet.