Generally poor performance
My machine just doesn't seem to be performing up to scratch (yes, I've done the usual, spyware scans {none found}, Virus scans {none found}, Defragged, etc). It's supposed to be a (very) high end machine, but it just seems... bleh at times, far too often not to mention it's far too easy to bring it to a crawl. I have a sneaking suspicion the main offender may be my hard-drive, but I've ran a barage of tests on the machine to see if anyone can spot any other issues, but first, a comprehensive list of the machine...
AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ (S939)(@ stock 2010MHz) with stock HSF.
Asus A8N-E (nForce 4).
XFX (nVidia) GeForce 7800GT PCI-X16 (@ stock).
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (Model 6Y160M0) 160GiB (8MB Cache) SATA.
1GB TwinMoss DDR 400 (2x512 for Dual Channel).
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy (rev 2).
Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical 1.0a.
LiteOn SHM-165P6S-09C DVD+-RW/RAM.
Temperatures are all fine and there's nothing obvious, not even a single other program running normally (except for system processes usually). On a side note, stay away from that LiteOn, it's utter garbage. Takes years to spin up and read things. Oh, found a review for this HD, seems people sing its praises... when it doesn't die... (http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review48_main238.html).
Some benches from graphics programs (although 3DMark has never had a problem with HD mashing).
3D Mark 2001 SE - 22952
3D Mark 2005 - 7555
3D Mark 2006 - 4193 (1723/1694/1518)
PC Mark 2005 (attached)
So yeah, slowness... what gives?
AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ (S939)(@ stock 2010MHz) with stock HSF.
Asus A8N-E (nForce 4).
XFX (nVidia) GeForce 7800GT PCI-X16 (@ stock).
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (Model 6Y160M0) 160GiB (8MB Cache) SATA.
1GB TwinMoss DDR 400 (2x512 for Dual Channel).
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy (rev 2).
Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical 1.0a.
LiteOn SHM-165P6S-09C DVD+-RW/RAM.
Temperatures are all fine and there's nothing obvious, not even a single other program running normally (except for system processes usually). On a side note, stay away from that LiteOn, it's utter garbage. Takes years to spin up and read things. Oh, found a review for this HD, seems people sing its praises... when it doesn't die... (http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review48_main238.html).
Some benches from graphics programs (although 3DMark has never had a problem with HD mashing).
3D Mark 2001 SE - 22952
3D Mark 2005 - 7555
3D Mark 2006 - 4193 (1723/1694/1518)
PC Mark 2005 (attached)
So yeah, slowness... what gives?
0
Comments
Maybe this can help you,
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=11499
You can use HD tach to test your HDD,
http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach
The problem has been the access time ~22 ms.
That comes under the obvious.
Yeah, I read about this before when I thought it was the reason for not being able to install XP (rather than it saying "Windows is detecting your hardware" and then going to a blue setup screen, it would just stay black, nothing would happen.
Anyway, taching it now.
Ok, just checked that link, it's only an issue with Diamond Max 10 and upwards, mine's a 9.
Your drive performance is about what I would expect for a DM9. No issues there.
Are there many better drives? I've been looking into SCSI again but I'm not really sure where to start (I'm not really up for RAID, the whole 2 drives to increase performance doesn't work for me and the amount of times drives die on me is too much, doubling the chance doesn't seem like a bright idea).
So... with me thinking about SCSI... where to start and what should I be looking at? (in a not-obscenely-expensive pricerange...).
Hi Enverex,
Personally, I don't think the issue is your drive. If you are getting a lot of thrashing of the drive in games, it could be that you are simply running out of physical memory. I recently moved to 2048MB of ram, and I saw a significant improvement in games like Oblivion. Even with dual raptors in raid-0, I got a lot of disk thrashing previously. Could you be more specific about the performance issues you are seeing? Is it gaming only, or even general windows use?
Either way, I'm curious about upgrading to a high performance SCSI drive anyway now...
I hear ya, seems like just yesterday that I was getting by with 512MB. This may also be worth a read if you haven't already.
In regards to SCSI: I have messed around with some higher end SCSI drives in the past (namely Maxtor Atlas 10KIVs etc). Most modern 10K models are really nice drives with low access times, but the added cost and complexity of having to run a disk controller card makes them less appealing IMO. Since most are PCI-based, the 130MB/s bandwidth of the PCI-bus also poses a limitation. Take a look at some high end 7200RPM SATA drives, or the WD Raptor. Once you factor in the cost of the scsi controller, the raptor may actually be a better buy. You could even keep your existing drive as a storage drive to keep the main drive from filling up.
How much free space do you have on that drive btw?
There must be something else.
Have you tested your memory ?
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
Turn the Cool'n Quiet off might help.
If there is no obvious HW problem, then I am saying what most people hear - Reinstall OS. :banghead:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=81429&highlight=patch
Problem is this is a High end SATA drive. The Raptors I was looking at are interesting, but they are far too small. The 36G version costs the same price as a 250GB drive and the larger one is just massively overpriced.
~60GB.
With Memtest86+ a little while ago.
It's never been turned on.
Reinstalling the OS would be pointless as it's a relatively fresh install as/is (and technically what you suggest would be an infinite loop anyway. I install all my programs but then need to reinstall windows due to installing all my programs, so then I reinstall windows to reload on my software on to then have to reinstall Windows due to installing all my software, repeat ad infinitum). Also I applied that patch and did the timer flag quite some time ago as lots of games were unplayable before hand.
Only Daemon Tools and VNC.
Run cpu-z and post an image on all tabs. After you have loaded cpu-z, run a tool called A64 tweaker and post that image as well. I have a feeling it might be some settings on your mainboard as Asus have weird settings at default. Lemme see those images and i can tell if i am right or wrong.
The system bogs down considerably when doing any HD work, I thought I posted something about this a while back but I must be imagining things. HDTach only reported 4% processor usage, but the system normally seems to go bleh.
Doing it now.
Anyone else having poor HDD performance with NF4 + Maxtor?
Some folks are using two WD SATA-150 rapors in raid ~190 MB/s.
Oboy wouldn't I like to have the 150 GB, SATA-300 Raptor-X hard disk drive.
I know I will not be able to use it all, but it is not the having, it's the getting !
First being the two 250GB SATA2 Hitachi drives which I intend to RAID (didn't realise how cheap drives were now). Not touching the Raptors, that's pure extortion, the 150GB one costs nearly £300. These Hitachis cost £61 each.
Also bought another 1GB of RAM. Should be arriving Thursday or hopefully if I'm lucky, tomorrow.
On the plus side, a before and after picture. Old drive VS. new RAID array. Settled on 64k stripe, 32k clusters after benching almost all the options. 16/8 worked out well too but had increased CPU usage and was a little less fluid.