New build performs SLOW!!!

[Morfik]

I just upgraded my PC a couple of weeks ago. Here are the new specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
MSI K8T Neo
512Mb Simple Tech DDR400 Ram
Radeon 9700 Pro
20 Gb Maxtor 5400 rpm IDE HDD

When playing games (when ithe PC finally loads and actually gets in a game), I get the desired performance. When working in Windows and Apps however I find that this new PC performs slower than my PIII 500 Mhz with 256 Mb PC 100 SDRAM. By that I mean that things take a while to open and close, like IE6.0 takes quite a few seconds sometimes to open etc...

My question is which of my components is giving me this sluggishness: the cheap RAM or the very bad (and about 5 year old) hard drive? I don't think RAM should make a difference for me since I do not overclock etc. My CPU temps are pretty good (42C full load), so I don't think it's heat.

And so it seems to me like it is my HDD. But I don't want to upgrade the HDD and find that it didn't make a difference. My XP pro is a fresh install (2 weeks ago). Let me know what you guys think? If it is the HDD, some suggestions on what to buy would be great since I have never had to buy a hard drive. BTW, my motherboard supports SATA, but if the price is way more than IDE and performance only a bit better, I would rather not spend the extra cash....

Thanx for any help. It will be greatly appreciated.

 

[jjyiz28]

its ur HD for sure. i have 7200, 5400, 5200, 4300 rpm drives. the 5200 and 4300 is painfully slow in everything, when everything else is the same, ie, cpu, mobo, ram, etc... get at least a 7200 and ull be happy, seems like u might need it too with only 20GB HD

sata is worthless for performance. dont worry bout it.

 

[mechBgon]

An Athlon 64 system with a 5400rpm hard drive is like... like...

...like a home theater system with two 4-watt speakers! Dude, do yourself a favor and smack a shiny 10000rpm 73GB Raptor in there, or... ok, I won't say the S word

Also make sure your DDR400 is actually running at DDR400 speed, make sure you installed your motherboard drivers, and check to be sure your hard drive is in UltraDMA mode and not PIO mode.

 

[Morfik]

Originally posted by: jjyiz28
its ur HD for sure. i have 7200, 5400, 5200, 4300 rpm drives. the 5200 and 4300 is painfully slow in everything, when everything else is the same, ie, cpu, mobo, ram, etc... get at least a 7200 and ull be happy, seems like u might need it too with only 20GB HD

sata is worthless for performance. dont worry bout it.

Yeah... i'll definitely need a new HDD since I will be bringing some of my Maya projects home. And just to be clear, I found out that my HDD is actually 5200rpm, not 5400...

and about SATA, I didn't know the cables were sssooooo tiny (lookes in my mobo box), I mean man, it might be worth getting them just for cable management, but then again my case isn't that crowded. Decisions and more decisions (it took me a month to figure out what hardware to buy for the upgrade, LOL).

 

[Dreadogg]

woooh

 

[Morfik]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
An Athlon 64 system with a 5400rpm hard drive is like... like...

...like a home theater system with two 4-watt speakers! Dude, do yourself a favor and smack a shiny 10000rpm 73GB Raptor in there, or... ok, I won't say the S word

Also make sure your DDR400 is actually running at DDR400 speed, make sure you installed your motherboard drivers, and check to be sure your hard drive is in UltraDMA mode and not PIO mode.

do i check those in the BIOS???

 

[Morfik]

sorry to just throw in a lot of Qs, but my PC knowledge (or lack of) sucks. Anyways, I have a Sony CD Burner (24X, 10X, 40X) and a lot of times when intalling large games etc it fails to copy some files and gives an error message, is this more likely from the HDD or the CD drive???

Thanx again.

 

[fredtam]

Could be both but more often than not it is the cable. As to the performance of your new system yes a new HDD will help but things are still going to take a few seconds to open. I have a comparable system and IE takes 3-4 seconds. and opening someting like Sandra takes 7-9.

 

[Farmer]

I was about to say, 5400rpm drives arent that bad (5400 RPM desktop drives are still being produced for entry-level home PCs, like the Samsung I have in my HP). 5200 RPM is definitely too slow. And get some better RAM too. You Athlon 64 deserves it.

 

[RussianSensation]

Dont' worry about the ram so much. Getting faster (with lower timings) ram will possibly give you +5% improvement in speed. However getting a faster hard drive will definately decrease gaming loading times, the time it takes for windows xp to load, and the general time to load programs like MSN, ICQ, IE, etc.

Depending upon how much space you need you can make your decision.

I wouldn't get the 74gb raptor since it costs more than to get 2 36gb raptors (and put them in raid). Also I am not sure if your motherboard has SATA RAID or PATA Raid. If it does you can either get 1 Western Digital Raptor, or 2 of them hehe....or for the price of 1 Raptor get 2 80GB WD 8mb cache drives and put them in PATA raid 0. Either way you'll notice the difference.

 

[Zinn2b]

Go with 2 raptors raid 0 nice performance booHard drive performance check it outst in your gaming there is a post in this section on

 

[Cerb]

A single Raptor will do you plenty of good, and have your 20GB on the PATA channel.
If your CDROM is using an old cable, try using a new one on it...sometimes they try to run a wee bit fast (HDs sometimes to do this, too, and after the first few, I got into the habit of wontonly throwing away 40-wire cables), and the older 40-conductor cables don't do it, nor will a damaged 80-conductor.

 

[0roo0roo]

somethings wrong, reinstall windows, new drivers. evcen with a hosed drive, i've had much slower snapppy systems. most certainly faster then the slow system u spoke of. course that hd doens't help.

 

[MrChad]

You did install the Windows blaster patch before you connected to the internet, right?

 

[Regs]

Did you reinstall windows, or at least update chipset driviers?

The 5200 drive is slow, but it shouldn't give you that much of a hard time.

 

[PrinceXizor]

It looks like most of your components besides CPU-Mobo and RAM were from an older system. I'd consider replacing them. While 5400 RPM WD drives are certainly not slouches (remember when 7200 drives came out, these puppies still cleaned their clock)...but....newer 7200 drives have 8MB caches which will significantly improve the "snappiness" of your system. The memory is most likely NOT the problem unless its CAS 10 or something.

Additionally, are you sure you have the HT configured correctly for the whole system, I'm not familiar (as in I don't own one) A64 architechture. Just a few thoughts. But I'd get an 80GB w/ 8MB cache HD and see what your system feels like then. Standard After Rebate prices on sales is running about $40 at OMAX or OD right now.

P-X

 

[mechBgon]

I suggested the 74GB Raptor partly because it has quieter fluid bearings Morfik, is your existing drive on an IDE cable by itself? Did you give it the fine-pitched 80-wire cable so it can run at Ultra100 or Ultra66 protocol and not just Ultra33?

 

[foofoo]

and a lot of times when intalling large games etc it fails to copy some files and gives an error message, is this more likely from the HDD or the CD drive???

after you check the cables and get a new hd (hopefully before you do any more installs...)
run memtest. the symptoms you describe are often bad ram.
memtest
good luck

 

[TiziteLayinLow]

I have a maxtor 80gb 8mb buffer 7200 rpm ide drive and it works like a champ.. teamed up with a 52/24/52x cd-rw 8mb buffer.. everything is ATA133 and burns CDs very nicely...as for the 5200rpm hd.. just think about laptops HDs and their slow rpms.. and very pricey..

 

[txxxx]

Originally posted by: Zinn2b
Go with 2 raptors raid 0 nice performance booHard drive performance check it outst in your gaming there is a post in this section on

Raid 0 makes little difference to desktop users...

I do wish people wouldnt keep saying this...is the IT industry just a broken record? YES!

 

[JetBlack69]

Check to see if DMA is enabled on the IDE controller in the device manager.

 

[MrRobercik]

I would start with setting visual effects to best performance, or something in between (right click on My computer>properties>advanced) Winxp has all the bells and whistles turned on by default. I set mine to where it looks almost like win98, but it sure is fast....

 

[NFactor]

Raid 0 makes little difference to desktop users, yes. But Raptors with RAID 0 make more of a difference, even if the amount is small. It is always faster than 2 separate Hard Drives which some people may be getting anyway, especially with the size of the 36 GB Raptor. I would say that the 72 is still a little too expensive for most people to buy.

 

[Morfik]

Originally posted by: MrRobercik
I would start with setting visual effects to best performance, or something in between (right click on My computer>properties>advanced) Winxp has all the bells and whistles turned on by default. I set mine to where it looks almost like win98, but it sure is fast....

wow, that helped TREMENDOUSLY!!! Everything is fine now... I however shouldn't have to do this since my system is suppose to be sort of fast. Oh well...

I have not updated my chipset drivers yet, just installed all the drivers that came with it. So I guess I'll do that next. I will get a new hard drive anyways since 20 Gb is a pain (5-6 large games fills up the whole hard drive :disgust:!!! LOL, and Maya is just impossible with 20Gb...) I won't be getting a raptor since I just don't have the cash to buy a 36 Gb "fast" HDD for the price of a 160Gb 7200 SATA "non-raptor" HDD (No offense, I would have got one IF I had the cash, why not?).

What is a good SATA ~80 Gb HDD???

and thanx for all the replies

 

[SXMP]

Originally posted by: fredtam
Could be both but more often than not it is the cable. As to the performance of your new system yes a new HDD will help but things are still going to take a few seconds to open. I have a comparable system and IE takes 3-4 seconds. and opening someting like Sandra takes 7-9.

You got to be kidding! IE loads in like ~1s or less for me.