Query regarding necessity of CPU upgrade

[wyrmwraith]

Hello all.

I'm thinking about upgrading my cpu (currently a Athlon 64 3200 "2ghz").

Reason being while simultaneously writing cd's and extracting archives while surfing the net etc etc i am experience a fair bit of lag. This is understandable all things considered.

Thing being that i'm often finding that the cpu is registering only say 30% usage and still the computer seems to struggle when for instance minimizing/ maximizing windows (rams not an issue) .

Is this natural and could it be remedied by an upgrade? Any thoughts appreciated. Maybe a better question would be why is my computer struggling all round when registering a quarter cpu usage and a quarter ram usage?

 

[LeChuck]

You should also consider the speed of your HDD. For optimal speed, you should use 2 physical drives, install windows on the first and put the virtual memory file on the second. The processor can do alot, but HDD are still mechanical units - if you overload them you will get lag until they manage to finish their tasks.

 

[wyrmwraith]

Thats interesting to note, i'll read up on it. I have a 2nd drive with a linux distro on it, i'm wondering if its possible to use it for both. Also the 2nd drive is a bit older, might be ok for this purpose though. I'm thinking that will require a NTFS partition. Hopefully easy done.

 

[foozy]

Post your full specs, that'd give people a better idea of whats wrong.

 

[wyrmwraith]

If you think it will help :

Field Value
Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name DESKTOPPC
User Name Compaq_Owner

Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3200+
Motherboard Name MSI RS482M2/RX482M2 (MS-7093) (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset ATI Radeon Xpress 200, AMD Hammer
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (03/03/06)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM) (256 MB)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM) (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (25958JA036880)
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (25958JA036880)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter ATI SB400 - AC'97 Audio Controller

Storage
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller
Disk Drive ST3160023AS (160 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Disk Drive ST340810A (40 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Disk Drive Generic USB SD Reader USB Device
Disk Drive Generic USB CF Reader USB Device
Disk Drive Generic USB SM Reader USB Device
Disk Drive Generic USB MS Reader USB Device
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GWA-4166B
Optical Drive UK5095D SOM632E SCSI CdRom Device
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 146474 MB (78460 MB free)
D: (FAT32) 6130 MB (1690 MB free)
Total Size 149.0 GB (78.3 GB free)

Input
Keyboard Compaq PS2 Keyboard (2K - 3)
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC (192.168.1.254)
Modem Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem

Peripherals
USB1 Controller ATI SB400 - USB Controller
USB1 Controller ATI SB400 - USB Controller
USB2 Controller ATI SB400 - USB 2.0 Controller
USB Device USB Mass Storage Device


The other drive isn't shown in everst. I'm looking at using g-parted to partition the drive with linux. Which may lend some credence to LeChucks suggestion. The more effcient the better though. Thanks.

 

[dmill89]

I see two likely causes of this slowness.
1. Your video card uses turbo cache which allows lowend video cards with limited memory gain more resources by useing system ram.unfortunately this has a detremental effect on system preformance. I recomend a video upgrade above all else. Since you have an ATI chipset you may want an ATI video card sinve chipsets and cards from the same manufacure usually preform better.
2. One of your hard drives is a 5400 rpm IDE drive. Not only can this slow a system down but mixing IDE and SATA can lead to lots of problems. I recomend you remove this drive if you don't need it. If you need the storage space replace it with an SATA 7200rpm drive to improve preformance and reliability.