Speeding rsync via externalities like file system choice

[Andrew Gideon]

Using rsync --link-dest, I end up with a file system that has a 
relatively large number of directory entries but relatively small number 
of inodes.  Copying this volume takes hours...far more than other volumes 
of similar size.  I blame the much larger amount of directory traversal 
(and comparisons between source and destination) that are occurring.

I'm using ext3, but I'm not wed to it.  Is there a different file system 
that would speed the process?  The one somewhat unusual requirement is 
that this must support ACLs.

Is there anything else I could do to speed these rsync operations?  

Thanks...

	Andrew