Gaming rig - what to do????

[Harry_Krishna]

My specs:

ASUS A8N32 SLI DLX (1103 BIOS)
AMD 64 X2 4400+
3 GIG Corsair XMS RAM
SB X-FI Extreme Music
(2) EVGA 7900 GT CO (12.03 BIOS) in SLI mode and 84.56 drivers
500 GIG Seagate SATA II HD
(3) Maxtor 350 GIG SATA I HD
LG Lightscrive DVD burner
Liteon DVD burner
3.5 floppy
(4) 60mm fans
(1) 120mm fan
Gigabyte G-Power Pro CPU cooler
Silverstone Zues ST75ZF 750W PSU (quad rails)
Samsung 20.1" LCD (6ms) which runs at 60mhz, and using a dual DVI cable connection

For some reason, my system seems to either be getting slower, or the games are getting tougher for it to run well. *** = see below

Now I am wondering what to do next? I have seen reviews and heard that Intel has finally gotten its act together now with the CORE 2 Duo, and is now the choice for a gaming rig. So now I am wondering what to do next? I play mostly military sim-like games (GRAW, BF2, BF2142), racing sims (GTR and soon GTR2), and online games like WoW and EQ2.

Would it be worth it to upgrade the mobo, ram, and CPU? But on the other hand, it seems that the consoles are now getting MORE importance, and PC games are starting to dwindle! Epic even stated that they will not be making a computer version of Gears of War, which from the screenshots I have seen, looks killer! So would getting an X-Box 360 be better? Or wait for the PS3 to finally get back to normal pricing? What a tough decision!

Now, if I go with the Intel Core 2 Duo, which is the best mobo, and which CPU? These have gotten more complicated than the old days when a Pentium P90 meant it was a 90mhz speed CPU. Now it seems that you can't tell what speed ANY Intel or AMD chips are.

Thanks

*** = for some time now, I have had the strangest problem when booting to the desktop. The wallpaper and icons will appear fairly quickly, but the TASKBAR takes about 4 minutes before it physically appears, and close to maybe another 4-5 more minutes for all the icons to show in the notification area by the clock for the background programs runnig. And during this time, I can not run anything at all. I have been able to start the task manager to see what is going on - the CPU at times is pegged at 100% usage, I see that VSMON is using a ton of memory and CPU time (I use the paid & registered version of Kaparsky and Zone Alarm), and I also notice that explorer (not the internet, but the actual taskbar version) is using a lot of resources as well. I have tried cleaning up the desktop, removing items from the quickbar, stopping things from loading at start - all to no avail. Gets to be a real PITA at every boot.

Also, for some time now as well, Internet Explorer seems to take forever to start up - sometimes taking up to 4 minutes to appear on the screen, and many times it times out when it does.

[Capper]

are you crazy!!!!! Thats still a great system

[drew and not u]

It sounds like an OS issue. I would run the full suite of virus/adware/spyware sweeps and see what that turns up. If that doesn't help I would nuke windows and install a fresh copy. That system is still a beast, and should have absolutely no trouble with even the most demanding offerings in current games.

[Hitman]

I have that exact same system, except I only have 1 7900GT CO and my system is running just fine. Maybe you just need to do a fresh install or something.

[stinger608]

First and formost

WELCOME!!!!

On the system, have you run apps like say, jv16 powertools???

I am thinking that you have a ton of crap running around in your registry that is causing a slow down.

How long has it been since you did a defrag??

Just a couple of things that may make a difference.

Oh yea, god don't go over to the other guys, (intel)

[sktworkshop06]

Drew and Stinger have some good ideas. If the problem continues just back up everything on your master hdd and reinstall windows. Yuri's solution would be to get rid of windows and install Fedora Core 6. lol...

[Harry_Krishna]

Never heard of the jv16 powertools, but will check that out. I have run Registry Mechanic and other similar products, but never seemed to help any. Kaparsky does a full system scan once a week, and I use Spyware Terminator for spyware.

I own a registered version of Diskeeper, it runs every night, so the system is always defragged.

Perhaps it is time to start fresh again with the OS - just have so many things I customized, it would take some time to redo them all :(

One thing I do know, and have known for years (back when McAfee caused lockups and video corruption in Win95), is that the more "PROTECTION" we have to run to keep our systems safe, the slower they get. With firewalls, anti-virus, spyware, and who knows what else, all having to run realtime in the background, it will bring any system to its knees. But we NEED to protect our data, as we store everything under the sun on our hard drives.

Thanks all for the quick replies. I guess I will go and buy just another hard drive to reinstall everything little by little, and then swap them when its all done.

Sorry if I caused a problem asking this?????

[Harry_Krishna]

Whew, thought I said someting wrong. Been on other forums where some get touchy (try the Blackwatch Lotus Elise forums - if you don't agree with what ever Randy Chase the owner says or believes, he bans you instantly!).

Well, I've been with AMD chips for some time. Even had one of the ancient 486 chips eons ago. But thought it was maybe time for a change back to Intel. The E6600 sounds mighty interesting, nice features, and is faster than the X2 5000+ I read in one of the gaming mags. The ASUS reviewed here sounds good too for the mobo - but already have a $$$$ investment with my dual EVGA 7900 GT cards, and it seems the ASUS only supports ATI Crossfire :( Also, as we all agree, it is time to install a fresh OS - and so if I were to switch to the E6600, now would be the time to do it all in one shot. As we ALL know what a pain it is to integrate a new CPU/mobo with an existing OS.

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by Harry_Krishna

Whew, thought I said someting wrong. Been on other forums where some get touchy (try the Blackwatch Lotus Elise forums - if you don't agree with what ever Randy Chase the owner says or believes, he bans you instantly!).

Well, I've been with AMD chips for some time. Even had one of the ancient 486 chips eons ago. But thought it was maybe time for a change back to Intel. The E6600 sounds mighty interesting, nice features, and is faster than the X2 5000+ I read in one of the gaming mags. The ASUS reviewed here sounds good too for the mobo - but already have a $$$$ investment with my dual EVGA 7900 GT cards, and it seems the ASUS only supports ATI Crossfire :( Also, as we all agree, it is time to install a fresh OS - and so if I were to switch to the E6600, now would be the time to do it all in one shot. As we ALL know what a pain it is to integrate a new CPU/mobo with an existing OS.

If you want to go Core 2 duo just because you want to, then go for it. The point we are all making here is your current system is no slouch. It still has some life left in it.

[simple_inhibition]

nuke the OS if the spyware/adware/antivirus/defrag doesnt help. sounds like a classic example of M$ OS CRUD buildup