Intriguing problem with two e8400 builds

[proto_prime]

first of all
i have two systems (not bragging, just background info on specs):

system 1
CPU: e8400 @3ghz
MOBO: 780i SLI
RAM: a-data 2gb 800mhz
GFX: 8800gtx
OS: Windows XP home sp3
HDD: 7200.11 500gb 32mb
PSU: 700w FSP

system 2
CPU: e8400 @3ghz
MOBO: Asus P5Q Pro
RAM: G.Skill 2gb 1066mhz
GFX: 8600gt
OS: Windows XP home sp3
HDD: 7200.10 8mb 160gb
PSU: 750w PC power & cooling

both systems are not performing as fast as they should be. they are slow just doing simple things like opening up word documents. The reason i have two systems with e8400s is because i first had the problem with system 1. so i kept buying replacement hardware to rule out 1 by 1 hardware-related issues. it didnt do the trick and now im stuck with two systems that are not blazing fast, with regards to the e8400, which everyone raves about. Both harddrives have fresh installs of windows, has no viruses. all drivers and BIOS are up to date. nothing is tying up my CPU. each computer does not contain similar programs (to rule out specific programs that might be causing this). CPU--speedstep and c1e are off on both systems aswell. RAM speed is fine.

i am new to intel CPUs and Nvidia chipsets,.. maybe theres something im supposed to be doing, but not, to these builds. i dont know

very intriguing, isnt it? any suggestions or ideas would be very appreciated.

 

[chris312]

what are your cpu temps? the only possible thing i can think of is throttling due to overheating

 

[b1kshad0w]

Are you running the hard drivers in ahci mode? I have a e8400 oced to 3.8 ghz on the P5Q PRO with 8 gigs of ram. I have two 500 gig seagate drives in raid0. Not sure why, but the first time I built my raid array it was very slow. In sisandra it said about 30-50 MB/s xfer and very sporatic. I rebuilt the raid and reinstalled and it's just fine now. 90-140 Megabytes a second.