Slow window opening: what is the bottleneck?

[Fausto]

I have an older rig that I've turned into an MP3 "jukebox" of sorts (ripped all my CD's onto the drive and plugged machine into stereo amp via SB Live daughter card). Anyway, when I double-click on the "music" file (containing 3500 mp3's currently), it takes about two seconds to open up. Same delay if I right click to add/edit a file within the music directory. Not fatal, but annoying when trying to put a playlist together. The system specs are as follows:

Older ECS mobo (atx)
PII 266 slot-1 processor
256megs PC133 RAM
Maxtor 60g 7200rpm HDD

Do I need to slap a faster processor in there (the mobo can handle up to 400mhz with the latest BIOS) or do I need to add more RAM and cut down the size of the virtual memory? I'm running XP so no issues with more RAM.

Thanks,
Fausto

 

[Fausto]

*sigh* Come on guys....a little help? Don't make me go post this in OT.😉

 

[Colt45]

Try turning off all the bloated eyecandy.

If that doesnt work try Win2k.

maybe defrag?

The CPU is definately the bottleneck in that rig, but i dont think gettting a faster one would be worth the cash, lol

maybe pick up a Celeron 366@550? Whats the board anyways BX?

 

[Fausto]

I already turned off all the bloaty crap. Drive isn't really fragmented at all as it's pretty much brand new. I've just been steadily feeding it CDs for the last week.

I'll look into scrounging up a new CPU and maybe clocking it up a bit (IIRC the PII's can be O/Ced pretty easily.

The mobo is an ECS P6BX-Me. Kind of a crap board, but it and the proc were free so I can't complain.🙂

Fausto

 

[jcmkk]

Yea, that CPU isn't nearly enough to handle XP. I don't think a 400MHz CPU would help it. I suggest using win2k or 98.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

i would think it is a slow cpu... how fast a cpu required to open it up instantly is hard to tell...

try making a music list with say 1000 mp3's and see if it opens instantly...

if there is a delay, try a list of 500 mp3's if it works fine increase it to 1500 etc... see where the cut off for the system is and try and scale from that. 😉

run task manager in the background and keep a check on cpu % and ram useage...

get back to us with results... 🙂

edit: spelling etc

 

[Fausto]

Thanks all. I'll give these suggestions a try once I'm home.🙂

Fausto