[mdl2783]

hi i think my system has a few bottlnecks in performance as it dont seem to run as quick as it should (a bit sluggish sometimes) i think it could be the hdd (i could be wrong) so i intend to upgrade to a 1tb also it could just be my cpu as its a old x2 6000+

any thoughts welcome on what it could be and future upgrades many thanks mdl

 

[Apocolypze01]

Nope. if its 3.4ghz dual core like you say, you got no worries. A quad core wouldnt hurt though.

...Actually, on second though it is bottlenecking a tiny bit. But not by alot. The bad performance you might be seeing in games is due to the video cards you got there. Yes they might be in crossfire, but they are a pretty poor card. Think of the 3870X2's performance.

My advice, sell up your 3870's and buy a GTX 280, GTX 285, or GTX 260 core 216 even

Hope it helped,.

 

[rmvvwls]

No, the HDD has practically nothing to do with application performance. The only thing a new HDD will improve is loading times. Or is that your problem?

First thing to try is a defrag and disk cleanup. I forget whether Vista does it automatically, I use Win7.
Also, try to remove all unnecessary startup items, they slow down boot times.

After that, if apps still load slowly, then yeah, it could be the HDD. But a 1TB drive isn't gonna be a huge performance increase, unless you go for one of the WD Blacks or something like that.

Edit: Apocolypse is also right, depending on whether it's sluggish in games or elsewhere. A bit more info would be good next time.

 

[Apocolypze01]

Oh yes. The HDD's arent a problem. Its probably fragmented heavily.

If you really want fast load times, buy yourself a WD Velociraptor.

 

[mdl2783]

hi thanks for your imput have thought of selling the gpus already thought abought the 3870x2 or a 4870 will look at som prices

 

[Apocolypze01]

ahhh dude. dont bother with the 3870X2, it will be a little lower in performance than your current two 3870's. Or about the same.

Think of getting either HD 4870 or a GTX 260, 280 or anything alike.

Cheers.

 

[mdl2783]

hi thanks once agin will look at the 4870 or 4870x2 then as i have crossfire would like to buy another in the future

 

[Lxcivic2k1]

Just a bit of info, I went from a X2 5600+ @3GHz to this X4 940 when I had my 3870 Toxic, in the CS:S benchmark program I went from 78fps avg, to 224fps. My 3870 felt bogged down in games until I got my 940.

 

[mdl2783]

hi thanks for the reply so i would be better of getting a quad core instead of upgrading my gpus that is a big jump in frps

 

[BlackOmega]

Mdl, the first thing I have to ask is when was the last time you re-installed your OS? If its been a while like over a year, it's probably a good idea to re-install. After installing stuff and uninstalling stuff there will be a lot of fragments left over from the programs. Every once in a while it's a good idea to re-install. I know when I do it there is a noticeable speed improvement.
Also, another thing you could do when you reinstall is run your 2 WD160's in RAID 0. That should decrease your boot up and load times by 50-100%. I know when I set up my RAID array there was a noticeable speed improvement.
Also, like LXcivic2k1 suggested, getting a newer quad core would also be a considerable speed improvement. Hell even a tricore like this 720 BE.

So do a re-install, set up a RAID 0 array and get a better CPU, and if your performance still sucks then get a new GPU.