Load AVG

Hello, I have a XEON server with 8 cores, 24GB RAM and CPANEL + WHM installed. We used 2 APACHE with PHP (FCGI) + MYSQL for customer applications We have approximately 130 customer accounts on that server. The server has shown a very high load avg and a large memory consumption too. Also seen that the PHP processes are open, in sleep, causing even more slowness on the server. Could someone help me optimize this server? TOP: top - 14:59:42 up 335 days, 30 min, 1 user, load average: 22.55, 25.99, 22.86 Tasks: 857 total, 5 running, 846 sleeping, 2 stopped, 4 zombie Cpu0 : 68.1%us, 16.8%sy, 0.0%ni, 12.8%id, 0.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 2.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu1 : 58.6%us, 18.6%sy, 10.1%ni, 3.6%id, 8.5%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.7%si, 0.0%st Cpu2 : 64.1%us, 19.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 15.0%id, 0.7%wa, 0.0%hi, 1.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu3 : 60.5%us, 19.3%sy, 6.3%ni, 7.6%id, 6.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu4 : 60.3%us, 20.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 16.6%id, 1.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 1.7%si, 0.0%st Cpu5 : 58.8%us, 18.6%sy, 5.0%ni, 16.6%id, 1.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Cpu6 : 65.3%us, 17.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 15.2%id, 1.7%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.7%si, 0.0%st Cpu7 : 53.2%us, 20.9%sy, 2.3%ni, 18.3%id, 5.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 24556504k total, 23827364k used, 729140k free, 995504k buffers Swap: 4194296k total, 811744k used, 3382552k free, 14749480k cached ALOT PHP PROCESS WITHOUT USE: 13561 X1 20 0 186m 15m 7268 S 22.1 0.1 0:30.35 php 13022 X2 20 0 190m 21m 6972 S 16.5 0.1 1:49.11 php 16003 X3 20 0 197m 26m 7272 R 15.8 0.1 0:18.77 php 11628 X1 20 0 187m 18m 6936 S 14.5 0.1 2:03.24 php 17177 X4 20 0 201m 32m 6948 S 14.2 0.1 0:23.35 php 18267 X5 20 0 192m 23m 6828 S 13.5 0.1 0:05.18 php 16384 X6 20 0 183m 13m 6852 S 13.2 0.1 0:14.08 php 15657 X4 20 0 192m 21m 7036 S 12.5 0.1 1:13.98 php 15380 X4 20 0 193m 23m 8160 S 11.2 0.1 1:31.62 php 17738 X1 20 0 188m 17m 6764 S 10.9 0.1 0:05.47 php Free: total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 23980 23209 771 2 974 14034 -/+ buffers/cache: 8200 15780 Swap: 4095 795 3300 A little piece from httpd.conf # These can be set in WHM under 'Apache Global Configuration' Timeout 300 TraceEnable Off ServerSignature Off ServerTokens Full FileETag All StartServers 10 MinSpareServers 5 MaxSpareServers 10 MinSpareServers 5 MaxSpareServers 10 ServerLimit 500 MaxClients 500 MaxRequestsPerChild 10000 KeepAlive On KeepAliveTimeout 2 MaxKeepAliveRequests 5000 RewriteEngine on RewriteMap LeechProtect prg:/usr/local/cpanel/bin/leechprotect RewriteLock /usr/local/apache/logs/rewrite_lock