E8400 low WEI score?

Hi,

I've just built myself a new system:

Intel E8400 (retail heatsink)
Asus P5N-D
NVIDIA 8800 GT
8GB OCZ PC6400
Vista Ultimate 64

When I run the Windows Experience Index I get the following result:

Processor: 5.0
Memory (RAM): 5.9
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming graphics: 5.9
Primary hard disk: 5.7

According to Tom's Hardware CPU Charts (http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_ [...] &chart=442) I should get a Processor score of 5.7. I've also confirmed this with a friend who has an E8400 too.

Any ideas why my CPU score is so low?

Any help would be very appreciated.

Don't go by the WEI, it's worthless. If you really do need to see figures, try running some CPU benchmarking software, like SuperPi, or maybe try 3dmark06

Even if I agree with Kraynor about WEI being worthless, I can still be a symptom of something being wrong. I wouldn't have worried about a 5.6 or even a 5.5, but scoring 5.0 when you should have got a 5.7 could mean something.

First make sure your CPU runs at the right speed (333MHz FSB + x9 multiplier = ~3GHz or, if idle, 333MHz FSB + x6 multiplier = ~2GHz). I know some older MB used to sometime default to lower FSB if some events occured, for example, if yours was to default to FSB 266 (1066), your CPU yould run at 2.4GHz top.

Also check that there were no CPU hungry application running in the background like a Virus scanner running a first full system scan for the first time or a Windows Update installing stuff. Just basic IM or live scanner shouldn't matter.