MY SLOW GAMING PC

[Shamal]

Can any of you hardware expert please tell me whats wrong with my computer. I have just bought some gear which I have listed below, but am quite dissapointed about the performance.

I used to have:

AMD X2 4200+

AUS A8NE Ultra

ATI X800XT PE

OCZ 1GB PC2 5400 DDR533 PLATINUM

2 x Seagate 250GB SATAII

But I have recently bought the following:

INTEL E6600

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 775

XFX 7950GX2

OCZ 2GB PC2 6400 DDR2 800 PLATINUM XTC

1 x Seagate 250GB SATAII (My OS & All the Programs)

3 x Seagate 320GB SATAII (For all my porn.. LOL)

The problems Im having are;

1. The computer takes over 1min to start up

2. The applications + games dont open up as quickly as it used to with the AMD

3. Even general exploring sometimes takes long (eg.when I right click on a folder, explore HDD)

Mind you the games like FEAR never lags on the highest settings anymore and .AVIs convert the .iso much faster than before.

I have taken every precaution to minimise HDD fragmentation. I have done a defrag straight after intall of OS using Diskeeper, and probably after every app --- so that leave defrag out!

Can you please suggest what would fix this problem? Hopefully its not switch back to AMD! LOL

Thanks in advance!

[ripken204]

what are the temps for everything u have?

if temps are not an issue then do a memtest and a hddtest.

[CptMurphy]

There's another way. Google a program called bootvis. It is, or was, a microsoft created utility to arrange the boot order. So the drivers that take the longest would be loaded last. You'd get into your system faster. With that said, you wont find it on the MS site since they don't support it anymore. BTW, you got a lot of money to throw around like that.

[mark strelecki]

B) Here's another piece of general housekeeping advice:

Under the WINDOWS folder is a folder called PREFETCH. Delete all entries in that folder and reboot.

Prefetch entries are created as the system is used and help determine load order and defragmentation placement.

For better general performance, do what I do:

Place your TEMP folders and swapfiles on a seperate physical drive from the boot/system drive for best performance.

Be certain to use a swapfile/virtual memory, even with 2GB of some kickass-fast DDR2 RAM. Consider setting the swapfile to a Fixed Size (for you I'd use 4096MB, or 4GB).

As mentioned, BootVis is a good tool to use when optimizing performance is your priority.

Be sure that your mobo BIOS settings are conducive to the kinda speed you're seeking. Memory timing, SMART settings, latency controls and many more will dictate how fast you can go.

I'm assuming you're using all the latest drivers for the mobo/chipset, videocard, soundcard, disk controller, etc. The Order you install these things has a LOT to do with how well the system performs.

I like to use Nuhi's nLite program to slim down the XP installation, integrate the latest fixes and drivers, and turn off services and apps I will never use. Maybe it's time to rethink the whole idea of another clean install, this time:

1. Make all hardware/BIOS settings first; this can be Very Important!

2. Then install a lean and mean OS (nLited XP Pro SP2 with latest DirectX 9.0c and all updates included; I like to integrate all my drivers in my nLite XP CD, including Bashrat's wonderful Driver Packs))

3. Install all mobo drivers (chipset, controllers, etc.)

4. Defrag and reboot several times for good measure, cleaning out the PREFETCH folder when complete.

5. NOW begin to add apps and install oldest apps First, newest apps Last, and defrag with DiskKeeper to suit.

I know I'm leaving stuff out, but it's late and I gotta hit the rack soon.

Best wishes on your quest for best performance - I've been on that path for about twenty years now....

Let us know how it goes!

[Jeremy]

Install CCleaner and clean out your system.

Start > Run > msconfig and disable anything you don't use on a frequent basis (stuff you don't want loading in the background because you can just open it when you need it).

Prefetch won't be as big a deal on faster systems.

Install jv16 PowerTools, clean out your registry and defragment it, then reboot.

Defragment with Diskeeper.

Disable unnecessary Services (Start > Run > services.msc (performance increase is slight)

[CptMurphy]

Instead of using msconfig, get a program called startup cpl. It's an advanced way to see what programs are starting up at bootup.

[Zxian]

Under the WINDOWS folder is a folder called PREFETCH. Delete all entries in that folder and reboot.

Prefetch entries are created as the system is used and help determine load order and defragmentation placement.

Not this again... *shakes head*

So... if the prefetch entries are used to determine the optimum order of files to be loaded, why would you want to remove them?

[Jeremy]

Instead of using msconfig, get a program called startup cpl. It's an advanced way to see what programs are starting up at bootup.

Or this (what I use).

[jcarle]

If I read your post correctly, you went from Two hard drives in RAID for your windows to a Single hard drive?

[CptMurphy]

Instead of using msconfig, get a program called startup cpl. It's an advanced way to see what programs are starting up at bootup.

Or this (what I use).

That proggy is not bad, but starupcpl seperates the loading programs via tabs. http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

[Jeremy]

That proggy is not bad, but starupcpl seperates the loading programs via tabs.

No, it tabs the start-up types and where the information is within the registry. AutoRuns does the same thing and shows even more. You don't need all that to control what start-up and what doesn't. It's a nice program, though.

[Shamal]

Thanks for everyone's input on the subject, specially to "mark strelecki" for taking the time..

I will post on how it goes. Will make another Unattended CD and strip it to bits and leave only the essentials.

BTW I downloaded the program "Bootvis".. still trying to make sense of how to use it! LOL

[Fox Mulder]

You can just use the following command instead of BootVis:

rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

Note: Microsoft BootVis forces ProcessIdleTasks to run before it profiles your system, which is why people think BootVis optimizes your system's boot speed (BootVis itself does not optimize your system at all).

From MSDN:

"The file placement optimization, which is done no more often than once every three days, is an example of a task that is carried out when the system is deemed to be idle.

System Restore and other features of Windows XP also attempt to defer some work until the system is deemed to be idle. There are also some done-once-after-setup work items that also operate under the Idle Task Scheduling mechanisms.

All of these "idle tasks" are controllable by a system API in advapi32.dll: ProcessIdleTasks.

The API's sole purpose is to allow benchmarks a simple way to force any pending idle tasks to be executed immediately, without having to wait a lengthy period of time."

As you can see from the MSDN blurb, there are many things that can fall under 'idle tasks' which will be executed when you run this tool. It can take quite a long time to run if your system has a lot of pending tasks.

This is from the tools of the excellent Dial-a-fix utility.

http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix

Dial-a-fix is an advanced utility for 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows written by DjLizard in Borland Delphi 7 that repairs various Windows problems, such as:

* Windows Update errors and problems with Automatic Updates

* SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification) issues

* COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries

* and more.

[bledd]

get a raptor instead of seagate drive

seagate's are nice and quiet, but they're not the fastest..

http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark...13&devCnt=2

[ripken204]

getting a raptor has nothing to do with it tho, his comp should not be lagging with or without the seagate.