Homebuilt PC Questions! Performance, Gaming

[FresH]

Hello Guys!

I have a couple of questions regarding my Homebuilt System. I build my PC about 4months ago and spend quiet a lot of time thinking about all the components im going to be getting and did some research on some hardware (their performance, price and quality)
And i have to say i would have tough that my performance would have been better.
First of all my specs are:
COOLER MASTER HAF 932
Intel Core I7-920 2.67GHz (stock cooler and speed)
CORSAIR XMS3 6GB DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366
BFG Tech GeForce GTX 295 1792MB (The old version 2pcb's)
CORSAIR 1000HX 1000W
Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm
Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit

Now to my problems. But before i forget i built this for Online gaming!
My first Problem is that the boot time, from a coold start to the time i am on my desktop it takes about 3min. Now i would have thought that it would be faster with the hardware i have in my PC? There a quiet a few things pluged into my USB's maybe thats the reason? Here is a list of devices i have pluged in.
1. Magicjack
2. Razor Mouse
3. Logitech G15 Keyboard
4. Wireless adapter

Now i have disabled in the boot the floopy drive since i don't have one.
Now once i have booted up into Vista. I checked my Task Manager and i have 84 tasks running, now i don't know if that is a lot or normal? I have Tuneup Utilities 2010 for my PC clean up and for performance.

Now the Question i have with the Specs of my build and the things i have listed is it normal for it to take about 3 min to boot up?

My next question would be something about gaming.
I dont play all the newest games, but i play quiet some games ranging from Counter Strike Source to Farcry 2. The things i have noticed that in Counter Strike Source my FPS is bad. I say this because before this video card i had a ATI 4570 and i had almost the same FPS range then i have right now with my GTX 295. I usually get anywhere from 50- 150 depending on the location, players, map. is it because CSS is not made for video cards that are SLI? and the game is only taking advantage of one of my gpu's instead of 2? Also when i play graphic intense games like Farcry 2 for example, my FPS is good with every setting on ultra high/very high. But i notice when my video card is under stress it starts to buzz.. no it is not the fan because that is the first thing i looked into.. its more of a electrical buzzing. it has been doing it for a while but so far it has not caused any lack of performance or any other issues, i thought i would just mention it and maybe someone has a similar problem or could give me maybe a answer why it would do it?

To my last question.
I don't really plan on upgrading any components any time soon. But in case i want to do a overclock with just the things i have and when i say overclock i mean the CPU and my Video card also just with the stock cooling, how much would i be able to go? What would be some reasonable figures i could be looking at?
Right now my specs and my temperatures are:
Video Card Specs (BFG GTX295):
Core Clock: 576MHz
Processor Clock: 1242 MHz
Effective Memory Clock: 999
GPU1 temp: Idle: 48C, Under load: 88C~ (With fan speed set on Auto)
GPU2 temp: idle: 50C, Under load: 90C~ (With fan speed set on Auto)

CPU Spec (Intel Core I7 920):
Processor Base Frequency: 2.66 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency: 2.93 GHz
QPI Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Core1 temp: idle: C Under load: C
Core2 temp: idle: C Under load: C
Core3 temp: idle: C Under load: C
Core4 temp: idle: C Under load: C
I will post the temps once i get home!

Thanks everyone for reading

 

[djg9205]

Slow startup problem:
It's an Asus motherboard, so it could be that your computers taking a ridiculously long time to get through ExpressGate and that's why your boot time is long. You should see if you can try to disable ExpressGate in BIOS, as well as look for any other QuickBoot options. Also, your boot.ini may have a longer timer than needed, which could be causing it to boot slower than it should. A more detailed explanation of where specifically it is hanging during startup could warrant a more specific response, and maybe a possible fix for your problem.

The number of USB devices you have plugged in should not be an issue. Also, I suspect that the absolutely horror of an operating system you have installed there is partially to blame. The number of processes you have listed, is a little on the high side, but the number of processes varies greatly between users. You might try disabling some extraneous programs from startup by unchecking them in the startup tap of msconfig (start->run->msconfig->press enter).

It's also not generally a good idea to leave your tune-up utilities running in the background all the time, if all they're doing is a scheduled defrag or temp file cleanup. See if you can disable them from startup and only run them when you want to.

Graphics Card Issue:
Check to make sure you have the latest drivers and updates for your video card. Im not sure about the electrical buzzing, I'll leave someone else to answer that.

Overclocking Question:
I don't know about acceptable temperatures for your video card, but when you post the temps for the processor, I should be able to help you with that. Assuming that you've applied thermal paste correctly, and the stock cooler is firmly in place, you should be able to comfortably overclock to high 2s. If you want pay about 30 bucks for a Cooler Master Hyper 212 (one of the cheapest, best, under-rated CPU coolers out there) you could probably push it to mid 3s. If you do choose to replace the heat sink, remember to carefully remove any existing thermal paste on the processor with a microfiber cloth and rubbing alcohol. Then apply NEW thermal compound to the CPU and install the new cooler.