New Computer Teething Problems

[»X«]

I just wanted to get others opinions just in case I'm going crazy.

Yesterday I built my own PC using the following:

Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600

896MB XFX GTX275 XXX 670MHz

Intel Core i5 750 2.66G s1156

Asrock P55 EXTREME MoBo

1.5TB WD SATA2 WD15EADS 32MB

120GB SSUNG 2.5 SATA HM121HJ

Cmaster ATCS 840 Silver Case

GH22LS50 22X SATA BLK RETAIL

Once I had built it I noticed that my own stupidity had shone through. Buying a 2.5" laptop HD for my PC :p

But I thought I would use it anyway.

Now I just need some advice, with all this gear I would assume my computer would run like **** off a shovel. And to be fair the games I've testing (Batman: AA Demo with all settings on max) have been running super fast. But its overall windows 7 performance. It seems to take ages to boot up and it just doesnt feel right once its booted. iTunes takes ages to load, Firefox takes longer than usual.

Its beyond annoying as my old rig was faster to boot up than this.

The only thing I think it can be is that im using that laptop HD as my main OS HD. Was that a wise move? Should I get a new HD?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[jnelsoninjax]

I would be surprised if the HDD was the issue for your slow boot times, I would tend to think that the problem is simply windows and pre-fetch and indexing starting to analyze your drive(s), one other thing would be to check and see what is loading at start-up, and also removing features that are not applicable to a desktop (tablet, bluetooth, etc.) see if that helps any! :)

[+PeterUK MVC]

I did say the 2.5? drive might of run fine being that its a 7200 rpm one like a desktop and since VelociRaptor are that size despite 10000rpm it should work like a desktop drive...

Have you installed the Chipset Software?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Des...52〈=eng

Run HD Tach

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index...?request=HdTach

The manual I'm looking at for your board show BIOS settings as:

SATAII Operation Mode [iDE] which is ok but

SATAII 1,2,3,4 Configuration [Compatible]

SATAII 5,6 Configuration [Enhanced]

I don't get why 4 SATA ports are set to Compatible so see if you can change it to Enhanced.

Edited September 15, 2009 by PeterUK

[»X«]

Ok ill look into it. :)

I'll give you an example to my problem. Now for example I'm installing GTA IV, been on my shelf for a weeks since it wouldnt run on my old PC. But even while installing my system grinds to a halt. Even opening web pages takes forever and even typing this, I can be typing and the screen will freeze up, my fingers are typing but no text appears and then a few seconds later, it all pops up. Another example and is when the game is installing, if I open a txt document it took almost 60 seconds to bring up wordpad. It's unbeleivable.

It's really annoying. I shall try changing those settings and see how things go. Ill post back soon.

Edited September 15, 2009 by NORR

[»X«]

Ok. I changed the setting to enhanced but noticed no difference in performance. I also updated the chipset drivers and again saw no difference.

Attached are my results for both my new HD's.

[+PeterUK MVC]

The HDD test show the OS drive to be slower but still not to the point where it would slow things down as bad as you say.

For testing disable the following in the BIOS (you may have to scroll the list down to see them in the menu):

Intel ? SpeedStep tech.

Intel ? TurboMode tech

Intel ? C-STATE tech.

[sc302 Veteran]

yesterday I too had a pc teething problem.....man that thing bit me so hard I was bleeding for an hour. Just thought I would share.

as for your other issue, have you tried a defrag? I don't care if your os was just installed right now, that thing is fragmented to hell after a install.

[»X«]

Just to be sure, I swapped out the laptop HD with my original 80gb SATA. Attached are the results.

On this hard drive I did notice it was even worse. While installing GTA IV I could barely even move the mouse.

It's really starting to get me down, ?850 worth of kit and its slowing installing games than my 4 year old system.

[+PeterUK MVC]

Did you disable the above BIOS settings I listed above?

[»X«]

I did. Still seem to be getting the same problem. Like even posting this, I can typing the entire post (while a game installs) and nothing appear on the screen, it lags all to hell sometimes.

I don't know what else I can do to sort this. The thing is, once installed, games run super fast and everything is ok, but anything that needs to use the HD extensively grind the whole system to a halt. (typos because the system lagged so much is missed my keystrokes).

Heres an example, if while installing the game I close firefox and then re-open it, it takes about 1 minute to load. Normally it should take seconds as you know.

Edited September 15, 2009 by NORR

[carmatic]

i could sound like im farting out of my mouth here, but if you tried using a pair of hard disks which are both sata2 ... instead of one sata and one sata2 ...

[+PeterUK MVC]

Enable in ACPI Configuration ?ACPI HPET Table? and in Hardware Health Event Monitoring set ?CPU Fan Setting? to full on.

[»X«]

Just checked the BIOS, those settings are already enabled.

[Robbie Ride]

Does you hard drive support 3GBs transfer speeds, if so do you by any chance have a 1.5GBs jumper clip on the HDD?, I know its a bit of a longshot.

Also try setting the Bios to defaults and see if the performance improves.

Check for Bios updates, this should have been your first option after noticing performance issues

[»X«]

I updated the BIOS yesterday to its latest.

I will try a BIOS reset, see if that makes a difference.

In regards to the HD, I dug up this information.

[hjf288]

The 2.5" Laptop drives often have higher seek times than their 3.5" Counterparts (The exception is the velociraptor which is a 2.5" 10,000 RPM drive with fast seeks but that isnt really a laptop drive)

Have you tried a good defrag?

[»X«]

According to windows its 20% fragmented. Is that enough to cause all the issue I have currently?

[+PeterUK MVC]

Just what make/model 700W PSU do you have?

[Robbie Ride]

  NORR said:

According to windows its 20% fragmented. Is that enough to cause all the issue I have currently?

No not really, you won't notice any performance degredation if Windows is 20% fragmented.

[Robbie Ride]

I'm thinking that your problem either lays with the CPU or Memory, what is your Windows Experience Index?

[»X«]

My PSU is this

Heres my Index

[Robbie Ride]

  NORR said:

My PSU is this

Heres my Index

I recommend that you buy a 3.5" HDD and then check what the performance is like after that, it could be that Windows 7 is trying to get more out of the 2.5" HDD but can't.

Have you tried Windows XP or Windows Vista to see if the performance issues can be reproduced?

i would rethink the PSU, try this http://www.amazon.co.uk/EZCOOL-Silent-700w...y/dp/B0010YOVF0

Edited September 15, 2009 by Windows Tester

[.bin]

  Windows Tester said:

I recommend that you buy a 3.5" HDD and then check what the performance is like after that, it could be that Windows 7 is trying to get more out of the 2.5" HDD but can't.

+1. Definately.

[»X«]

I did try my other 80gb sata from my old system. That has never played about in the past, but when connected to this new rig, its performance was even worse than the laptop HD. When installing GTA IV it even lagged the mouse to the point the computer was unusable.

If it is the PSU then wouldn't it show fault when running GTA IV? When I play it, it can run flawlessly with no lag or hiccups.

I'm already over budget on this, going from ?300, to ?500 and now spending almost ?900 on it. I can possible afford one of the 2 items but not both.

[Foxxx428]

Just curious as to why this is:

  Quote

Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600

on a dual channel board.