Build multiple insert strings to max=packet size and only then send to
mysql it gives a similar speed up to load data infile, and you dont
need the arrays.

INSERT [INTO] tbl_name [(col_name,...)]
    {VALUES | VALUE} ({expr | DEFAULT},...),(...),...

in a test I did years ago on a slow (compared to now) ide disk, 800
meg athlon it went from 26 inserts a sec to 2800 inserts a sec

Dave Caroline