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looking for a modest speed up...need help

B

bpimmerman

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 5, 2001
Messages
1,067
Currently:

1700+
768 pc2700
radeon AIW(original, no numbers)


i don't really game, but use my computer a lot(i do video encoding a lot).

i notice a lot of delays in my computer when i even just move a window around the screen, it shows 100% cpu usage. Would a newer graphics card help this out? Also, when i open folders with pictures(which i do a lot), it takes about 15-20 seconds for the images to appear. is this purely cpu? If I could get some suggestions that'd be great. Thanks.

one more thing: is it bad that i have two harddrives on one cable? I don't know how i could eliviate this, I have two hd's on one cable and a dvd and burner on the other. Let me know if this is not good as well.
 
Hey
I am not an expert on computers. However if your computer's hardware is that old i would suggest to go out and buy a new computer (even a $500 one would probably out perform that one) or upgrade yours to a Athlon 2500+ (maybe...just a suggestion.) I believe your so loading pictures are purely a result of a slow CPU. The cpu works with the video card to keep it supplied and i guess your CPU cannot keep up. (My belief). To answer your harddrive question....well i am not sure. Sorry:confused: I hope a helped you a little and I am sure more people will have more and better suggestions
:)
 
Nah, you don't have to buy a new comp; upgrading would be better.

Can we see more specs? Like mobo, etc.

I think a very good jump would be to step up to an Athlon XP Barton chip, but once again, we need to know your mobo to see if it'd work as intended.

The dragging windows thing, that's not video card related, at least I don't think so. On my system with a 32 MB Radeon (the one the original AIW is based on I think), I haven't seen problems.

Hard drives: having them on the same channel makes no difference; maybe a very negligible performance hit if any. Are they 8 MB or 2 MB cache drives?

Post back with detailed specs and I'll try to help some more.

Oh yeah, Windows XP right? (Or Linux)
 
I would get a P4C ( Hyperthreading ownz )

I shouldnt have to say more, but until you use a PC with hyperthreading, you have no idea what im talking about
 
*sighs* No, having both HDDs on one chain and both optical drives on the same chain is the recommended way of doing it. Nothing irks me more than the morons who keep spouting this bullshit. It never was an issue and never will be.

And no, don't buy a new computer. You can upgrade. Since you don't play a ton of games, you don't need to drop some serious cash. Maybe an AthlonXP 2500+, Abit NF7-S, and an AIW 9000, 9200, or 9600. Go to newegg.com and add some thinks to your wishlist to see what it would cost you to make an upgrade.
 
i have an epox mobo, i'm not sure exactly what model, but i know it supports ddr(i bought it from a friend when he upgraded). I'm thinking of going for the 3000+ barton. I would see a noticeable increase, right? thanks for the info.....winxp sp1.
 
Originally posted by bpimmerman
i have an epox mobo, i'm not sure exactly what model, but i know it supports ddr(i bought it from a friend when he upgraded). I'm thinking of going for the 3000+ barton. I would see a noticeable increase, right? thanks for the info.....winxp sp1.
Click to expand...

Save $100 and go with the mobile 2400+. It overclocks VERY EASILY TO over 3200+ speeds.
 
i'm not much of an overclocker...would i just need to make some changes in the bios? and because it's mobile would it be cooler than usual so i could do it with my volcano 6cu? thanks for the advice, this might be the best bet.
 
Whatever you do, don't waste money on a 3000+ go with a 2500+ or a mobile 2400+, they both easily overclock to 3200+ speeds.

I'd say a mobile 2400+ (and a new motherboard if you need it), 512 or a gig of RAM and a 9600 pro (if you feel the need to upgrade your video).

The dragging windows around and lagging sounds more like a software problem to me, how long's it been since you reinstalled your O/S?

Also, you have your hard drives in the correct configuration.
 
Without overclocking the 2400+, I think the default FSB is 133mhz (not sure) and the voltage is like 1.45v (not sure on that either :p, but pretty close)

All you would have to do is change the FSB to 200mhz or so and the move the voltage up until the computer is stable with Prime95. When you get it stable, you can try messing with a multiplier higher than 11.0 or increase the FSB a little more too. Getting that baby to 3200+ is pretty much a given, though.

And yes your volcano would probably do just fine with it.



Good Luck :D :)
 
i figured out the model is the: epox 8kha+ thanks for your help. ...i'll need it more for overclocking
 
so.. have you decided to overclock your current computer, buy cheap upgrades and then overclock or just upgrade? Sorry, I did not understand your plan:confused:
 
I doubt you'll be able to get your front side bus too high with that motherboard (it doesn't support 400 mhZ dual pumped front side bus speeds, does it???), but you can still set the 2400+ fsb to as high as the board will go and raise the multi from there. It will be worth it!
 
did the "move the mouse around.. uses 100% cpu power" and "laggy when you open a directory with a billion pictures" just happen recently?

i'd say... when was the last time you reinstalled windows?
if it was a while back, why not try reinstalling windows and see how it goes from there. i usually find that when my pc feels like it's starting to slow down.. a fresh installation does the trick.
and it's cheaper than upgrading too ;p
 
I hope this isn't an overly simple thought, but for these window dragging problems you are having with picture folders I was wondering if you are using the thumbnail display. If you are I would not be suprised if that is the cause of the long loads and dragging problems. If there are a lot of pictures your cpu has to go and read either from all those pictures or an index file to generate thumbnails and then spend a fair amount of cpu power displaying all of them, and then has to redraw all of them individually if you move the window. If you are using thumbnails, trying going to detailed view and see if the problem persists. Just a thought.
 
I would highly suggest doing a defrag on your hard drives, clean up any stuff on them that you don't need, run Spybot S&D and AdAware. Then do a virus scan. Your problem doesn't sound directly related to a slow CPU. It just sounds like your Windows installation may be very cluttered and the hard drives are fragmented.

Also, as previously mentioned, if you have the thumbnail view on, it's going to slow your system down a lot especially if you have a lot of pictures in the folders. Try turning that off (if that is what you are using) and run the above maintenance routine (if you haven't already) and I'll bet you get a nice speed increase. When running the thumbnail view, your system is going to do a lot of reading from the hard drives which is the slowest thing in any system which will slow your system down overall.
 
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