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Very long load times + upgrade suggestions

Tags:
  • EVGA
  • Intel i7
  • Hard Drives
  • RAM
  • CPUs
  • SLI
  • Motherboards
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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October 13, 2014 1:51:27 AM

Hello,

First things first, I have the following specs:
Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI
CPU: Intel i7 930
Video board: Radeon HD 7970
RAM: 3 x 2GB DDR3 @ 1600 (can't remember brand)
Power supply: Corsair 650W
HDD: 1TB Western Digital (NOTE: initially this was an external HDD; I was on a budget when I initially built the computer so instead of buying a new hard drive back then I just butchered the external enclosure and used this as my main drive).

1. Issue: Windows load time is atrocious (can be counted in the minutes). After I enter my credentials I literally have to wait a couple of minutes before the system loads up and it becomes responsive. I can play the most recent games on high settings and develop just fine afterwards with a couple of exceptions:
- starting up games is very slow (worst was Battlefield 3/4; it would take 3-4 minutes to load a map even though I could run the game flawlessly at close to max details)
- if I'm in a game and I alt tab back to windows it sometimes takes forever
- bringing up the contextual right click menu anywhere in windows is pretty slow (didn't add much to it besides sublime/notepad++ and 7zip so that shouldn't be the cause)
- opening up folders is quite slow (every time I open let's say a folder with lots of files I can see the computer slowly populating the correct icons for each file; opening the uninstall menu is quite slow as well)

Now what I'm thinking is that there's a combination of 2 issues: my HDD for some reason has quite low read access and I don't have enough RAM for what I'm doing. This is why I think these are the culprits:
- If I play a recent video game or start developing something, that takes quite a lot of RAM; add chrome with a couple of tabs to the equation and my system most certainly always makes use of the page file
- Because my HDD runs so slowly access page file access also takes a hit (probably it's also a bit fragmented considering I didn't set it to a fixed size)

No idea whatsoever why my HDD is running so slow (@ work now so can't provide benchmarks). So this is my first question: what could be affecting my HDD to such a degree (I run CrystalDiskMark and my numbers were 2 to 3 times lower than a friend's HDD)?

Possible money driven solution: was thinking about buying a Samsung 840 EVO 256GB + 2 x 8GB DDR3 memory bars.

2. Question about possible upgrade to the system:

2.1. I talked at point 1 about purchasing 2 x 8GB DDR3 memory bars. They cost around 140-150 Euros where I live. Would I regret buying these now that DDR4 is slowly making its way towards the market?

2.2. Do you think I can "survive" with my current processor + motherboard at least until Cannonlake?

Thank you for any suggestions!



More about : long load times upgrade suggestions

a c 204 à CPUs
a c 486 V Motherboard
October 13, 2014 2:03:25 AM

i would first boot up is safe mode and make sure you only had one anti virus software running. if it old I would uninstall it and install one of the newer ones. I would in safe mode do a malware byte scan and hitman pro or other anti virus scan make sure your system was clean. in safe mode run hdtune check for any warnings. in safe mode run msconfig turn off everything in start up but your anti virus and then reboot see if the system is faster. if it is faster reboot back into safe mode run ccleaner make sure your hard drive has some room. in safe mode run defrag or defragler. in standard windows mode make sure you have the newest intel chipset drivers loaded. if your drive is fine but windows is still real slow. I would back your personal files up to the cloud (google drive). then rerun windows installer and wipe the drive and install a fresh copy of windows. if the system is still slow...see if a friend has a spare drive to try a clean install on. if the system runs better then replace the drive.
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a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
October 13, 2014 2:14:56 AM

Other than what has already been said, if you want faster loading get an ssd, all your other specs are strong enough and you should see an improvement
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