Comp runs slow! Could it be HW?

[harbinger]

Alright, my comp runs like @$$

Heres the stats:

Lian Li Case w/500watt dual fan PSU
Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra Board
AMD XP 2400+ Processor
1 GB ram (2 256 sticks DDR 333, 1 512 Stick)
200 GB HD space (1 80gb main drive, 1 120 archive disk)
Radeon 8500 128MB vid card
SB Xgamer sound card

My comp is slow, even right after a re-image of the main disk with XP Pro SP1.

AVG & Avast say I'm virus free.

This system more than exceeds the RECOMMENDED req's for WoW and WoW runs like CRAP. The system takes forever to boot, etc.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[King of Kings1]

very wierd, with those stats there shouldent be anything wrong. It must be a connection problem

 

[harbinger]

I'll have to try re-seating everything tonight I suppose.

Its not a bad thing I'm mixing diffrent size sticks of RAM is it?

Would RAID'ing the HD's prove beneficial?

Also: The HD's are on one IDE Channel with the 80GB as master, and I have a CD burner and a CD drive on the second channel with the burner as master.

 

[Feircepc]

www.srtest.com

choose wow and test run it. i think your ram could be making it slower because its a lot of strain on the memory controller and ur processor isnt the greatest.

 

[harbinger]

Thanks for the link -- will have to try that when I get the net back @ home. The bill got out of hand and there aren't many "free" wireless NW's around.

What do you recommend then? Getting diffrent RAM (IE matching sticks)? Or a diffrent processor?

 

[Feircepc]

i think just get one 512 stick and take out the 256 sticks and it will be fine. or if u can get 2x1gig sticks so u have 2 gigs. would make a huge performance difference in ur pc.

 

[harbinger]

Well its running better now -- I re-seated all the hardware and blew the case out with my air compressor. There was about 2.5 years worth of dust bunnies in there.

Added three HD's and RAID'd the lot of them (except for the 120, thats going in the xbox sooner or later).And then re-imaged the RAID 0 section with XPP1. Reloaded all the mobo drivers etc.

So as stated its running a lot smoother now -- have no net @ home so I haven't tried WoW yet.

Even so I'm thinking an RAM upgrade and Vid card upgrade are in order.

Anyone have any luck with AGP Pro cards? my board supports them but I haven'
t head anything about them good or bad.

 

[Trivium Nate]

Defrag
and go to msconfig and disable any thing you dont need

 

[harbinger]

I defrag on a farily normal basis, so thats not an issue.

Running a fresh install too so I don't have much running in the background, but I can double check.

Anyone here good at reading hijackthis logs?