Trying to get my PC to run better, more stabile, possibly OC, optimizing H/S Ware

[UsernameTaken]

Alright I've noticed my system has been slowed down considerably since I bought it last August. I multi task a lot, I usually have Azureus running in the background with Firefox, Opera, AVG, ZoneAlarm, iTunes, and a few others. I am running an anti-virus scan with AVG. I just opened Task Manager and it's going between about 8 and 50 % CPU, and 763MB PF Usage, which I'm pretty sure is RAM.

So here is my quest to make my computer run better. It is definitely not fast enough, although I guess you could say I put it to the test. I never really noticed Azureus getting that bad, which means it's time to switch. The problem is I don't see a good alternative, there is no way I'm trusting uTorrent. Also I will have to find something to replace SafePeer, and I loved SafePeer because it *only* affected torrents which meant I could browse over to myspace, anywhere really and it wouldn't care. since the last time I've used PG2, I got Vonage. I don't want anything to mess with that.

I guess it should be noted that the reason I even typed this up was because I was cleaning up my system. It only has 29.7 GB of free space. I figured that a cluttered HDD would probably slow it down, but honestly I don't think it should be this bad. So I'm in the process of getting videos off drive C to my 500GB MyBook, and music is next.

So I want to know if this is because of software or hardware? Is it really that bad or no big deal? Could overclocking help? I'm a little weary about that because it's a big deal and also because this is a Gateway so OCing might not be so good. I may be overreacting, but I would expect more from "dual core." Now I'm just suspecting that it's just the new buzz word, the 1080p of CPUs.

Dual Core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz)
2GB of RAM
GPU onboard GeForce 6100 (256MB)
Realtek AC'97 Audio onboard
320GB hard drive partitioned to C (293 GB) and H:, H: is a recovery partion.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I have a file that won't delete because it says it's in use by another program. I got it from a torrent a long time ago, and I have it backed up on my MyBook, so now it's just sitting there wasting 414 MB of space.

 

[Nick]

lol nice quote from trotter, anyways, download: TuneUp Software International - Download, that basically clenas up crap off your hdd, do a disk cleanup and defrag

use the bios to overclock your 4200+, raise the frequncy gradually and at the same time rasise the voltage, for example my athlon 3800+, i rasie the frequency to 210 and add .20 to the voltage, i doubt u understood that as im rubbish at writing instructions on how to do stuff, i know how to O/C RAM but im rubbish at that too so i wont go into that,

i doubt that was any use

 

[Oreo]

Right, i also have 2GB of ram, like you, and a E6300 which is about the same speed as your X4200. I am experiecncing a similar problem, i have to wait a while to us emy pc while it loads everything on the dektop, however once it gets going i can honestly say its pretty good.

Maybe your hard drive is the problem. What RPM is it ? and what cache does it have. Mines a bog standard 7200RPM and 8mb Cache. So it is unlikely to be your hard drive, especially at 320GB its likely to be quite new.

Overclocking may help you. I am overclocking my CPu from 1.86Ghz, to 'Hopefully' 3Ghz of higher, but that requires in excess of spending £120, and i'll be spending even more soon. And its pretty complicated.

You might be better off just doing a small overclock, however i dont know how well your X2 4200 will overclock. I'll read into your problem and updat emy post soon.

 

[UsernameTaken]

Right, i also have 2GB of ram, like you, and a E6300 which is about the same speed as your X4200. I am experiecncing a similar problem, i have to wait a while to us emy pc while it loads everything on the dektop, however once it gets going i can honestly say its pretty good.

Maybe your hard drive is the problem. What RPM is it ? and what cache does it have. Mines a bog standard 7200RPM and 8mb Cache. So it is unlikely to be your hard drive, especially at 320GB its likely to be quite new.

Overclocking may help you. I am overclocking my CPu from 1.86Ghz, to 'Hopefully' 3Ghz of higher, but that requires in excess of spending £120, and i'll be spending even more soon. And its pretty complicated.

You might be better off just doing a small overclock, however i dont know how well your X2 4200 will overclock. I'll read into your problem and updat emy post soon.

yeah im getting a new computer at the end of the month. its an E6320 with 2GB of RAM and a 7600GT, and im getting a 7600GT for this X2 4200+ so those should be about the same. i think my HDD cache is only 2MB, but im probably wrong. yeah i was reading that the reason the Core 2 Duos overclock so well is that you dont have to raise the voltage as much.

im going to reinstall windows at the end of the month, but im not just reinstalling im making an nLited installation which removes unused components and should make my box run a lot quicker. lets hope it goes well