Fan drawing too much power?

J

just_sum_dude

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Joined
Nov 1, 2004
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Alright, so I'd decided to build a WoW-Box for my sister, using the components from my old computer.

However, I've hit a snag. You see, the game seems to run okay once I get get into a zone, but the actual loading is taking FOREVER. Just loading into the starter zone takes like, 5 minutes. I'm hardly even exaggerating here.

So here is what I'm working with:

AMD XP 3000+ Barton @ Stock
Asus A7V8X-LA
350Watt Antec Basiq
200GB WD 7200RPM
1GB (512MBx2) G.Skill PC3200
Albatron 6800 Nu @ Stock (Ghetto Fan Mod)

So I had a problem with my Albatron 6800's fan; it was shot. No problem right? I took off the cover, removed the fan, and mounted an 80mm to blow directly on the heatsink. I had to splice the 80mm to the connector the original fan was using. I get into windows and Ntune is reporting some really nice temps, like 48C idle 59C load or some such, it may have been a little lower than that.

But as I said, WoW isn't running very well. Insane loadtimes, and when I do get into the zone, it's a little laggy.

So personally I think it's either the board (I was using a NF2 board before, but it wont fit in this case, and the Asus was the only mini-atx I had lying around). Or it is the video card having a fit because of the fan I threw on it.

The 80mm was rated at a slight higher amp than the original fan. I know a little something about devices pulling amps etc. Might this be slowly cooking my video card?

I'm going to try setting up an open box with the nforce board, see if it makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for the advice and whats nots.

-Snuffles
 
Is it slow at the loading screen with the progress bar, or is it when you're actually in the game and it just takes forever for the textures and everything to load?

Disk speed can greatly affect WoW. Especially after a fresh install, all the patching will leave the files very fragmented. For best results, use JkDefrag or MyDefrag and sort by the filename so that all the files in the WoW directory get placed together on the disk.
 
I also think it must be disk related, try JkDefrag. Do a hdtach test before and after to see whats what.

Also, just for kicks, try another set of ram, that particular mobo could be picky about ram.
 
For one thing, WoW has become really CPU and GPU intensive as of the last few patches (compared to what it was before anyway). So you have a couple things going against you here.


1) You have a relatively slow processor that has to extract and decompress the data from the games .mpq files as they're loaded into ram

2) you have a limited amount of memory which limits how many textures can be loaded at any given time. Plus the motherboard you have doesn't appear to have a dual channel memory controller, so that'll slow down data transfers a lot as well.

3) Your video card is quite dated. And may not be able to keep a consistent frame rate which can show up as lag. Of course this depends greatly on what settings you're trying to run at.
 
ryan_975 said:
For one thing, WoW has become really CPU and GPU intensive as of the last few patches (compared to what it was before anyway). So you have a couple things going against you here.


1) You have a relatively slow processor that has to extract and decompress the data from the games .mpq files as they're loaded into ram

2) you have a limited amount of memory which limits how many textures can be loaded at any given time. Plus the motherboard you have doesn't appear to have a dual channel memory controller, so that'll slow down data transfers a lot as well.

3) Your video card is quite dated. And may not be able to keep a consistent frame rate which can show up as lag. Of course this depends greatly on what settings you're trying to run at.
Click to expand...

In addition to these 3 factors, I'd also factor in disk speed as InvisiBill mentioned.

So basically any four of those factors (or all of them combined) could be affecting your WOW load times.

Oh and I highly doubt that the fan is causing performance slow down. Maybe indirectly if your card is being downclocked to keep the fan quiet but not directly.
 
One thing you all overlooked is the Addons. Try disabling all the addons and see what happens this is one main factor in load times. But yes run a defrag i always do after i delete big files, move lots of stuff, or install/uninstall big programs. I use PerfectDisk. Also i would run CCleaner.
 
ßeta;1034074716 said:
One thing you all overlooked is the Addons. Try disabling all the addons and see what happens this is one main factor in load times. But yes run a defrag i always do after i delete big files, move lots of stuff, or install/uninstall big programs. I use PerfectDisk. Also i would run CCleaner.
Click to expand...

oh, well yeah, addons can be a bitch. I had assume this was fresh vanilla install of WoW.
 
CPU is too slow to run WoW well on anything but possibly the lowest graphics settings.

No dual channel on that board is gonna kill performance as well.
 
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