New Desktop Built, Oddly High Quad Core Usage!?

[spoleto]

Hello everyone, I have just built a new desktop with Windows vista home premium 64 bit edition and am experiencing what I consider to be oddly high usages on my cpu

Specs
Case-Antec P182
Cpu - Intel Q6600 Stock + AC Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink
Ram- 4gb Geil Black Dragon 5-5-5-15 800Mhz
Hdd- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250 gb x 2 (no raid)
Mobo- Asus P5K Deluxe Wifi Edition
Gpu - 7900gs Nvidia 512mb

It may be nothing to worry about but from respectable 4-8% idle usage on all cores whilst browsing the web and on desktop with aero usage readings jump to **up to** 30 % on all cores when I move the mouse erratically/ highlight things or draw selection boxes, after trying my best to draw selection boxes over icons and have aero do its resource hogging thing I managed to get usage on core 3 all the way up to 80 %!

Now I don't know what I should be expecting but I was under the impression that with these new Core 2 processors you shouldn't be able to get usage above 30% on desktop... especially on a quad core..

I will admit that normal usage would never involve me highlighting so many icons and moving the mouse so fast but it still bothers me that doing somthing so simple resulted in such high usage of cpu..

I proceeded to run every test I could find to see if there was anything untoward with my cpu and after a windows rating of 5.9, idle temps about 34 - 35 degrees celcius I was confident that I was just being paranoid

However its been bothering me more latley and I just want to know if vista really is just a resource hog or there is somthing wrong with my cpu..

I have downloaded all updates for vista, haven't flashed bios yet because I am not completley comfortable on how to do it...

Thanks in advance - Liam

 

[spuddyt]

I shouldn't worry about it I just tested and with my amd 4200 x2 i just got both cores to go up to 70% by just waving my mouse around, I don't think it's unusual what your experiencing and I don't think its anything to worry about
If it turns out you should be worried then I'll start being worried but for the moment, meh

 

[aevm]

It's probably just Vista doing lots of very intelligent things in the background.

You should get AdAware and Spybot if you don't have them already. If this is caused by malware they'll find it.

 

[spoleto]

Hmm, probably so, I think im just worrying too much but thanks alot for all your help, and if anyone else can throw some light on what exactly makes vista do this I would appreciate it!

^^

thanks again - Liam

 

[CNeufeld]

What mouse and drivers for it are you using? I'm using a Microsoft Optical Mouse 3000 with the 01/29/2007 drivers (the version 6.0 drivers, I think), and I can't get my CPU utilization over 10% by wiggling like heck. This is using Vista Ultimate, with an E6300 processor, mildly overclocked.

I'd probably start by looking for driver updates, as there may be improvements in later versions.

Clint

 

[spoleto]

Im using the microsoft habu mouse and have all the latest drivers/firmware

To be honest, if i wiggle the mouse about without going over icons it wont go over 10 percent but Its when I start highlighting icons and drawing selection boxes that it becomes a problem...

As long as it won't happen when moving the mouse about in games I don't mind tbh

Ill try looking through settings ect and seeing if I have some obscure setting enabled.. thanks!

 

[dragonsprayer]

dude - what background stuff do have - is there printers?

check the task manager!

 

[CNeufeld]

I just tried selecting icons all over my desktop as rapidly as I could, and couldn't get more than 25% utilization. Mostly less than 15%.

Clint