core 2 duo - not snappy

[coolingoff]

Hi,

I just bought a new pc - ASUS P5W, E6400 and X1900XT.
My system is mildly overclocked to 2.6Ghz.

My processor just doesn't feel very snappy for a brand new core duo.

My older system was a P4 with a gig or ram and the ATI 9800, I was expecting a huge
boost in performance, but it feels as though its just slightly better than my previous system.

For eg, I was installing COD2 and it took like 20-30 mins to complete installation,
uninstalling AOE3 took like 15 minutes. In task manager, the CPU shows 30%-50% usage.
But usually core 1 is used more and the second core looks under-used.

I tried hotfixes and some other stuff suggested by a thread on the extreme systems website.

what should I do? Re-install windows?

 

[KingGheedora]

n00b, the time it takes to install and uninstall games and/or applications is not dictated by your CPU. It's dependent upon the speed of your drives, since install/uninstall is mostly IO related: copying from optical drives, and writing to hard drives.

Optical and hard drives are orders of magnitude slower than your CPU, so any operation that primarily involves data on drives is going to take FAR FAR longer than things that happen entirely on the CPU and/or RAM.

 

[n7]

Ahh, that's that hard drive issue i've heard about.

IDE HDD on the controller i think.

I'm not sure what the fix is, but i hope someone coming into this thread does.

I've seen threads here about the same sorta troubles on that mobo.

 

[coolingoff]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
n00b, the time it takes to install and uninstall games and/or applications is not dictated by your CPU. It's dependent upon the speed of your drives, since install/uninstall is mostly IO related: copying from optical drives, and writing to hard drives.

Optical and hard drives are orders of magnitude slower than your CPU, so any operation that primarily involves data on drives is going to take FAR FAR longer than things that happen entirely on the CPU and/or RAM.

The celeron 1.4Ghz with a seagate 4200rpm drive on my acer laptop installs much faster than my desktop, so I'm guessing its not just due to the speed of my hard drives.

7200rpm, should be good enough, for most things.

Anyone else having similar issues?

My specs:
E6400 @ 2.77
Asus P5W
X1900XT
Patriot 2x1GB
Seagate 250GB 7.2k (perpendicular recording)

 

[River Side]

Yes.. I just tested out my build and well the results were underwhelming.. I was expecting a BIG boost in performance, considering my older rig.. but I guess I have my old rig tuned up pretty well as the new one didn't really feel that great..

I place the blame squarely on Windows XP .. my old comp is SP1 (i refused to go to SP2) and I have turned off all eye candy and other useless crap services etc.. It's quite snappy considering the ancient technology..

compared to that.. the new system boots slower! and is a little lethargic.. but I haven't tuned it yet.. maybe when I get some time i'll tweak it, but what good is a brand new processor if u still can't use all the eye candy the OS offers?

I may also try Linux to see if it's just the XP pro causing it to run just ho hum.

 

[Bobthelost]

If you're getting anything to do with hard drives or DVD drives running slow make sure you've checked you're not in PIO mode.

 

[coolingoff]

Originally posted by: River Side
Yes.. I just tested out my build and well the results were underwhelming.. I was expecting a BIG boost in performance, considering my older rig.. but I guess I have my old rig tuned up pretty well as the new one didn't really feel that great..

I place the blame squarely on Windows XP .. my old comp is SP1 (i refused to go to SP2) and I have turned off all eye candy and other useless crap services etc.. It's quite snappy considering the ancient technology..

compared to that.. the new system boots slower! and is a little lethargic.. but I haven't tuned it yet.. maybe when I get some time i'll tweak it, but what good is a brand new processor if u still can't use all the eye candy the OS offers?

I may also try Linux to see if it's just the XP pro causing it to run just ho hum.

It's th exact same thing for me!!! I think I might try SUSE, and see how it goes.

even then, any ideas, is it a XP issue? Any fixes? C'mon guys!!!

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
If you're getting anything to do with hard drives or DVD drives running slow make sure you've checked you're not in PIO mode.

Did you check what was already suggested? Also, did you install the Intel chipset drivers (assuming Intel chipset board)?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

lol there's no way you can't tell the difference from an ancient PC. Unless you had too high expectations. It's a desktop processor -- not a Super Comp. Not to mention you got a $2xx model...

 

[TanisHalfElven]

come on. defrag you hdd. prolly thats the casue.

 

[Mogadon]

Originally posted by: coolingoff

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
n00b, the time it takes to install and uninstall games and/or applications is not dictated by your CPU. It's dependent upon the speed of your drives, since install/uninstall is mostly IO related: copying from optical drives, and writing to hard drives.

Optical and hard drives are orders of magnitude slower than your CPU, so any operation that primarily involves data on drives is going to take FAR FAR longer than things that happen entirely on the CPU and/or RAM.

The celeron 1.4Ghz with a seagate 4200rpm drive on my acer laptop installs much faster than my desktop, so I'm guessing its not just due to the speed of my hard drives.

7200rpm, should be good enough, for most things.

Anyone else having similar issues?

My specs:
E6400 @ 2.77
Asus P5W
X1900XT
Patriot 2x1GB
Seagate 250GB 7.2k (perpendicular recording)

I see you have the Seagate 7200.10's. Did you remove the jumper on the drives to enable sata II? The drives come with sata II disabled by default, you'll find a jumper you need to remove on the back if you haven't done so already.

 

[Rommel44]

Originally posted by: Mogadon

Originally posted by: coolingoff

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
n00b, the time it takes to install and uninstall games and/or applications is not dictated by your CPU. It's dependent upon the speed of your drives, since install/uninstall is mostly IO related: copying from optical drives, and writing to hard drives.

Optical and hard drives are orders of magnitude slower than your CPU, so any operation that primarily involves data on drives is going to take FAR FAR longer than things that happen entirely on the CPU and/or RAM.

The celeron 1.4Ghz with a seagate 4200rpm drive on my acer laptop installs much faster than my desktop, so I'm guessing its not just due to the speed of my hard drives.

7200rpm, should be good enough, for most things.

Anyone else having similar issues?

My specs:
E6400 @ 2.77
Asus P5W
X1900XT
Patriot 2x1GB
Seagate 250GB 7.2k (perpendicular recording)

I see you have the Seagate 7200.10's. Did you remove the jumper on the drives to enable sata II? The drives come with sata II disabled by default, you'll find a jumper you need to remove on the back if you haven't done so already.

Even in SATA I it should be faster then 4200rpm HDD.

 

[zsdersw]

At any rate, your CPU is not to blame.. so the title of this thread should be changed.

 

[Conky]

Did you do a fresh install of the O/S? Did you check to make sure the drive is not in PIO mode? Just because everything is running doesn't mean they are running at optimal conditions.

 

[jcgrcm]

Try downloading seatools from seagate and run the diagnostic tests. You may have a marginal drive.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: Mogadon
I see you have the Seagate 7200.10's. Did you remove the jumper on the drives to enable sata II? The drives come with sata II disabled by default, you'll find a jumper you need to remove on the back if you haven't done so already.

That shouldn't hurt performance should it? There's no way they are going to saturate the 150mb/s channel (except maybe in burst mode, maybe) and that way you know that NCQ is disabled.

I still think it's worth checking your adressing mode. PIO is like attaching leg irons to a sprinter.

 

[Mogadon]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: Mogadon
I see you have the Seagate 7200.10's. Did you remove the jumper on the drives to enable sata II? The drives come with sata II disabled by default, you'll find a jumper you need to remove on the back if you haven't done so already.

That shouldn't hurt performance should it? There's no way they are going to saturate the 150mb/s channel (except maybe in burst mode, maybe) and that way you know that NCQ is disabled.

I still think it's worth checking your adressing mode. PIO is like attaching leg irons to a sprinter.

Oh totally, other options have already been suggested, i'm just pointing this out so the OP can optimize his system. Granted sata II will not make a huge difference in most cases but that doesn't mean it makes sense to not have it enabled if you have it.

 

[coolingoff]

Sorry guys, I'm not in any way trying to degrade the processor. I like the core duo, I'm just concerned my system is not optimized.

My drives are NOT in PIO mode, already checked that (I had issues with reading from my DVD drives initially, and changing the pio was the fix)

I tried re-installing XP - one question though - OC after windows install or before?

I'm going to set my HDD to SATA II, and download seatools.

Any more suggestions? Thanks

 

[Acanthus]

Sounds to me like a chipset driver issue.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: coolingoff
Sorry guys, I'm not in any way trying to degrade the processor. I like the core duo, I'm just concerned my system is not optimized.

My drives are NOT in PIO mode, already checked that (I had issues with reading from my DVD drives initially, and changing the pio was the fix)

I tried re-installing XP - one question though - OC after windows install or before?

I'm going to set my HDD to SATA II, and download seatools.

Any more suggestions? Thanks

Did they stay in UDMA, there was a brief rash of problems with that recently.

OC whenever you feel like, but after you've made sure everything is working. You may have voided the warranty by using a 3rd party heatsink, but overclocking will definitly void it. I never overclock untill the system has had a few weeks to settle in and make sure it's not going to suffer instant death.