My X2 4400 is slow!!!

[JECJimmy]

Hey folks, I was wondering if you could help me out with some computer problems I'm having. I joined this forum because I'm a newbie when it comes to building comps and I finally gave it a shot and built one. Here are my specs:

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe NF4
AMD 64 4400+ ATHLON X2
1GB CORSAIR DDR
ATI X800 Pro
450W PSU
200 GB WD
80 GB Seagate

I read reviews on the new dual core X2 before I bought it and every reviewer is saying that it never slows down, for example, I read somewhere that one guy was playing doom 3, had 20 windows open (don't know why), was having a virus scan and the comp was flying. I'm just running a virus scan, watching a movie, and going online, and the comp is bottlenecking like crazy! Especially when I'm opening a web browser(it really slows down when a website opens up adobe acrobat) or putting windows media player into skin mode (or out of skin mode), it just crawls at a snails pace. I look at the task manager and it's using about 30% of the CPU...so I'm asking myself why is it bottlenecking when I still have 70% of my CPU available? I do encode DVD's to avi and that uses about 60% of my CPU(I don't do this while virus scanning) and my comp doesn't function as fast as it should, it should be running smooth but there are lots of hiccups and pauses. I updated the bios (I have recently found out what flashing a bios means) because I read that some mobo's need an updated bios when installing a dual core processor, and it's still running the same. I have even tried setting the affinity of programs to one processor, and that doesn't seem to help. Do I not have enough RAM? It usually stays at 300MB-500MB, and I have a Gigs worth so I don't think that's the problem. My HD's have been reformatted so I don't think they being fragmented is the problem. I mean, it's bottlenecking like my old Athlon XP 2100 w/ 512MB RAM was bottlenecking...I'm not seeing the $600 performance that I should be getting on this CPU, especially when all the reviews are saying that the processor "never slows down". My temps are normal, usually 37° C, my comp doesn't crash...I'm just wondering why my comp is sooooooo slow. Is it because my expectations on this processor "never slowing down" were too high? Please give me some advice, I would greatly appreciate it! oh, and please forgive this long explanation for I'm a little pissed and I have to vent and I'm not planning on hitting my new system with a hammer

 

[mammikoura]

well it might be the ram, virus scans use lots of it.

 

[JECJimmy]

Ram was at about 513MB....still had plenty considering I had 1GB...(I constantly check my task manager)

 

[Tommy Boy]

what speed is your ram? is it ddr-400?

 

[lhuser]

I think it's DDr400

The problem may come from your video card...

A Geforce 6800 PCI-E x16 256MB can pull out more FPS, faster GPU and all the rest than your X800

Oh and...your PSu is a litle low. I'd say to go with a 500W to 850W...a 550W is recommended

 

[JECJimmy]

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Flash the BIOS.

 

[JECJimmy]

by flashing the bios you mean using a program like ASUS Update, and updating the bios right? If this is correct, then I have already done it...no performance boost whatsoever. Could I have possibly connected something wrong? Oh, and I did some temp tests...what the hell are those 2 125°C? It's not the CPU. Oh, and I'm going to run some SiSoftware and 3DMark tests....I refuse to believe that the speed my CPU is running is "fast", I swear my athlon 2100 ran just as fast.

 

[Kage]

Yeah, I think Flashing the bios might be the best option as TRDCorolla says.

RAM:

I mean, i doubt its the RAM since 1gig is enough for any system at the moment really.

VIDEO CARD:

Plus the video card won't be doing anything if your not playing games, etc, like watching a DVD so thats not the problem, and thats a rather fast card anyway.

POWER SUPPLY:

Plus, I don't think its the Power supply, simply because that should be enough, and not having enough wattage, i don't think would bottle neck it in that way.
800watts+ I didn't think was available and thats just insane...nd pretty pointless at the moment.

So yeah, since the motherboard handles all the talking of the processor to other components, I'd go with checking the BIOS out.

CONVERTING/ENCODING AVI's:

Converting video files and encoding, etc, uses alot of CPU, and might just be using what it has available from the dual cores, to go faster.

A THING TO CHECK (BURN PROTECTION WHILE COPYING):

Oh and, I have a rather fast AMD Athon 64 system (3500+), and I get bottle necking when copying a CD, or on a virus scan. I just take it as being normal.

I mean, copying a CD needs information from the hard drive to the cd drive at a fast pace, and this does slow it down.
Especially if it has a copy failure protection like "Fail Safe" since protections like this when copying a disc, like with Norton with drives that support it slows the computer down on purpose to stop it causing a corruption of the copy and bringing up an error, and so that could be why your getting a slow Internet when copying. (I get this too when I have this feature on), so check that.
Your computer may be fast enough to stop this feature, and still not cause damages to the copies.

I hope this helps.

 

[JECJimmy]

Hey thanks a lot guys....I did flash the bios and no boost but I think I figured out what the problem is....I think my HD is too old (it's like 4 years old) Here's a benchmark of my HD compared to others.....and it's a little too slow. Hopefully this is the problem so I'll just go out and get a new HD. I still don't know what those 125°C temperatures belong to in my previous post.