my pc performance?

Question

I have a fairly new pc, that i built myself.
And am concerned its not running at its potential performance for some reason. Its not being seriously slow like wat you'd expect from an old computer with very crap spec, but for wat the pc is im just not cetrtain its running quite right.

Is there any software that can help this run faster, as i have downloaded some software like ccleaner which was helpful, and also everest and cpu-z but they dont seem to do anything exept tell me wat components i hav which i already know.

My pc is:
AMD dual core X2 athlon
2gb ram - dual channel corsair 800mhz 2x1gb
7800gt graphics
xp pro
500w coolermaster psu
abit mobo
cheap asus case.
160gb wd

Which for xp i think should b pretty dam quick

Any scans i can do to hunt a problem i may have?

Or any idea's wat could be wrong.

Answer 1

Why do you think it's slow?

How is your hard drive set-up? Partitioned? Games?

XP Pro, is it loading every driver available? Did you do the msconifg thing to have it only load your firewall?

Answer 2

That's the most vague question I've ever seen. You don't give processor speed, you don't give FSB, the speed and interface of your Hard Drive. If you can put one together I figured you would give more details in the specs. If you don't have a SATA HD running at 7200rpm. Go get one. If you already have a SATA HD at 7200rpm, get another one and run a raid-0 configuration. Do a fresh install and make sure you update all of your hardware's software.

Set up a another partition with partition magic and create a page file that matches the size of your RAM as well. This will give you slight bump in performance.

It could be nothing at all and your machine is running the way it should. Don't expect miracles from dual core. A dual core processor doesn't mean it will run twice as fast. It just makes the machine better for multi-tasking when it load balances. The only time you'll see significant increase in mulit-processing is with multi-thread applications which isn't many to this day. The newer quad-cores coming out this year by AMD may actually have built in load balancing that means a speed increase, but we'll have to wait and see. The initial benchmarks have been phenomenal.

Sources:
I've built and overclocked more computers than I can remember. People's ignorance about multi-core processors still perplex me.

Answer 3

Wow to answer this one you will need to provide more information. Things such as: do you have an current and up to date anti virus program/spy ware program? Is your hard drive full? Does your system show you have all 2 gigs of ram? (if not, make sure they are seated well on the motherboard) Do both processors work? Is the cooling system working properly? Heat can kill a pc's preference.

Hope these are a few helpful thoughts.

Answer 4

I have an AMD with windows Vist and i keep my pc tuned up by going to pc pitstop. It's free to create an account allthugh you dont have to have an account but it's better if you do because you can view your stats from week to week.
When you get on this page look on the left side and select run full tests.

Answer 5

Your hardware is only good as the onboard chipset. This little guy is always forgotten when it comes to building puters and is the most important piece of your system.

In the CPU-Z program click on the mainboard tab. Identify your chipset, visit manufactures support website and see if there is any updates. It would be wise to go straight to motherboard makers website first.



Here is a link to one of the best hardware benchmark programs. This will tell you the weak areas of your system.

http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_3264&langx=en&a=

Answer 6

run a scan for viruses and spyware and adware. Also i just built my computer and originally put on vista and it worked great. i then formatted and tried xp "thinking the same, it would work very fast" but it didnt run fast at all slower than vista is. so i just changed to vista again.

3 operating systems in 2 days. lol

Answer 7

make sure it has adequate cooling, also make sure the ram and processor are seeded correctly, the power supply could not be putting out as much power as it should. (if it has always been slow it is probably a hardware issue, tinker with everything, check the bios make sure everything is setup right and everything registers)