Striker II Extreme 790i, new rig problem. System slow?

[manowar]

Hi all,

Bit of a long winded one, bare with me!

I've recently upgraded my system, my old rig specs were:

Nvidia 680i SLI Nvidia Motherboard
Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz (OC'ed to 3.1Ghz)
Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB
OCZ Reaper DDR 2 4GB RAM
Xi-Fi Fatal1ty Sound card

Last week, I decided to upgrade my rig by replacing the motherboard, CPU and RAM, I swapped my old parts for:

Asus Striker II Ultra 790i Extreme motherboard
OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-Dual Channel 1333MHz Platinum 2GB
Q6600 Quad Core 2.4Ghz CPU

I've also retained the Geforce 8800 GTS, Xi-Fi soundcard which has gone into my new rig.

May I also point out that I'm using the OCZ GameXtream 700w PSU.

Anyway, after doing a clean install of XP Pro 64-bit, installing all the latest drivers etc, I've noticed that the system crawls in comparison to my old rig. For instance, when I fire up Nero 8, it takes ages to load, and when I click on the menu's, the computer just hangs, and 9/10 the application freezes up...

Also, when copying files from one drive to another, the system hangs intermittently for a while, then starts working again....

Another symptom I've noticed is sometimes when I boot the PC, between the XP "loading" screen, and the "welcome" screen, the system hangs for maybe, 30 seconds to 1 minute at a black screen, then starts loading the desktop...

Things do seem mightily slow for such a spec, I'm a bit peeved with it to be honest as I cannot fathom what the problem is.

The motherboard and RAM is second hand. The mobo has been used for about 3 months prior to when I purchased it. I have ran the RAM through two tests using memtest and Win Diag, both tests do not find any problems whatsoever.

Can any of you guys possibly shed some light on this? I'm thinking of maybe upgrading to Vista 64bit, could XP be part of the problem perhaps?

Cheers all.

 

[networkgeek]

hmm Have you looked for a bios update?

 

[NightSurge]

I don't think that XP as an operating system is meant to handle those DDR3 speeds. Get Vista Home Premium or Ultimate if you want to make the most out of your Quad core CPU and high end peripherals. Also, what is your CPU usage when you are lagging a ton? Check some of these things and check your device manager to make sure all the drivers are indeed installed correctly. Then try a BIOS update like networkgeek said. Other than that, I think it's time you joined the glorious Vista.

 

[manowar]

Cheers for the help guys. It looks like I'll have to migrate to Vista 64-bit soon. I just hope I don't have any problems with my peripherals in the process, as far as I know they all support Vista anyway.

As for a BIOS update, I believe I have the latest version, which is Rev 0407. According to Asus update its the latest version, anyway.

I did a fresh install last night, and it was no better. However, after increasing the RAM voltage from "Auto" to the DDR3 recommendation (1.80v) the system does seem to start up quicker and progs like Nero open faster...however, copying data from my C: Drive to other drives is still dreadfully slow, and still causes the system to hang.

I think I'll just bite the bullet and purchase Vista. I feel as though I have little choice.