New build not working well..

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strewart

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Every thread I've made so far I have made myself look like an idiot... Oh well, sorry about that. I upgraded my PC and built it, have done so before. This is the parts I got:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition $152.00
1 Sony AD7240SGB 24X SATA DVDRW OEM $29.00
1 G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $119.00
1 ASRock 890GX Extreme3 Motherboard $133.00
1 NZXT Phantom Case Black $179.00
1 OCZ Fatal1ty Series 750W Modular $129.00
1 Gigabyte Radeon HD6850 1GB Overclocked $209.00
1 Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 7200RPM


My problem is, the PC is a bit noisy. I suspect something us wrong just from that. The fans are all fine and quiet. But overall, it runs slower than my old computer, which was obviously nowhere near as powerful as this one. It is useless at multitasking in windows, does so very very slowly. Firefox often completely freezes for a minute or so while it tries to figure things out, I recently tried to play some mp3 songs in both media player and winamp and neither worked (press play and nothing started) although sound does work on it, games have proper sound and I have played video files. Its not just a corrupted mp3 either since I have a playlist of ~3000 and I pressed shuffle and went through a few with nothing working.

Why would this build be doing everything slow? It was a fresh install of 64x Windows 7. I do somewhat suspect that the HDD I bought is the slow part of the PC, but really... Its horrible so far. :(
 
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strewart

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I haven't completely narrowed it down... Either CPU or graphics card. It is intermittent, en it does happens it sounds a little bit like a fan is rubbing against something so slowing it down. I have thoroughly checked everything, there are no cables in the way or anything.

Also, forgot to mention.. I got all the latest drivers installed for motheboard and video card, updated from the internet after the cd installs.
 
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strewart

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At the moment, CPU temp is 44C, mobo is 32C, video card is usually about the same as CPU but can't see it right now. I have oveclocked the CPU a tiny bit with the ASRock OC Tuner (CPU frequency up a little bit) but nothing else is messed with.

I do have another HDD, but it might be a while before I am able to test it unfortunately... Would this HDD cause everything to run really slowly?
 
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strewart

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Well, I have fixed the sound problem. That was driver related. I disabled the High Definition Audio in the Device Manager and reinstalled, then put the k-lite codec pack on and songs play now.

I do have a 9600GT video card I could try. Is that really likely to cause everything to run slowly? I would have more suspected the CPU, especially since it struggles with multitasking, if its not just because I haven't optimized settings or drivers somewhere...

I'll try some hardware switching in the meantime and see what happens.
 
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WR2

WR2

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It's certainly possible that the CPU was damaged during installation.

But to check that you'll need to remove the CPU cooler and CPU. And that's about the last step you want to do after you've checked all the other possible parts that are easier to get at and ruled them out.
 
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strewart

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I have found the source of the loud intermittent noises, it is the CPU fan. CPU is now running at about 42C when in windows, which seems a little bit high, so the stock cooler is probably not that good, right?

I wouldn't think that would cause everything else to run slow though, would it? So I am now looking to buy a new CPU cooler, which I probably should have done from the start anyway, will probably buy from MSY. This one seems to have good reviews and looks good, would it be worth it?
http://msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=1341

Any other suggestions? Another thing leaning me to this one is the blue LEDs since there are others in my case.

Also, thank you very much WR2! You have been extremely helpful and very fast to reply in all my threads so far, it is very much appreciated.
 
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WR2

WR2

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If the CPU cooler isn't installed correctly the CPU might need to 'throttle down' to keep the CPU from cooking. That 42C during idle operation is not out of line though. You'd expect the temps to be higher with a cooler not installed properly.

The good thing about getting an aftermarket HSF is you'll get a chance to inspect that CPU for bent pins.

The CM Hyper 212+ is a good cooler and not very expensive. But I don't believe it's included fan is a blue LED model. Just a plain fan as far as I know. You could get a blue LED 120mm case fan - just make sure it's a PWM 4 pin model and the CFM is about the same or a littler higher
The 'old Hyper 212', not the Plus model, had a blue LED fan which is where they probably got that picture from
A blue LED fanned CM CPU cooler. When they have a LED fan it usually shows up in the spec sheet.
 
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strewart

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Fan is loud now, PC has been sitting idle in wondows with only Skype open (haven't been using it) and temp is still at 41C. The fan is running at 3500rpm right now, CPU at 3440MHz.

The lack of blue LED is not a problem really, if its a decent cooler and probably about what I would want to pay that suits me fine.
 
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strewart

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Its a fairly cool day today, wouldn't be much more than 22C in the room and the wondow is open. Looks like I'm definitely buying that CPU cooler. Unfortunately tomorrow is a public holiday here so I won't be able to buy it until tuesday at the earliest, and I have a lot on tuesday. I'll try to limit my use of the computer until then.

Is there an overclocking page around that I can read? At the moment in the ASRock OC Tuner, I have CPU frequency at 210 and CPU multiplier at 16. Should lower it a little bit maybe to keep the CPU not working as hard.

Still... Is this temperature really responsible for it running slower than my old 2.8GHz Duo core?
 
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strewart

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I read through the review properly of the Hyper 212 + CPU cooler. Looks like to install, you need to take the whole motherboard out of the case. That seems like a lot of trouble. Is there a model of comparable price/efficiency that will just go straight onto an AM3 board without having to unassemble everything?

I really hope its just the cooling thats wrong and not the CPU. I haven't even had the PC running for a week yet.
 
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strewart

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The stock heatsink seemed like it was installed correctly, however, it would not come off and was stuck very hard to the CPU, which is not good. I did a bit of a google search and lots of people seem to have that trouble, the stock thermal paste seems more like glue than thermal paste. With a fair bit of twisting it came off. All the pins on the CPU are still perfectly straight.

Unfortunately, the CoolerMaster was not available when I went to buy it, they suggested instead the BlueOrb II from ThermalTake, which is fairly old now but reviewed well. It was designed for AM2, but the website says it works on AM3.

To stay consistent with the language in the manual here, I took the retention module off, and attached the AM2 clips to the backplate that was in there already. I found that even fully screwed on, they were not secure because the mounting holes seem too long, so the clips sit off the motherboard not flush with it and can move up and down a bit. This is obviously a problem.

I took my motherboard out and switched the backplate with the one supplied with the cooler, but it had the same problem. Have tried searching around but I haven't come across anyone else with the same problem, is there anything I can do about this? Or will screwing the heatsink on tightly force the two pieces together and be enough to stop movement?
 
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WR2

WR2

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I haven't seen or read about the same type of problem problem you're describing here.

I think it's probably a good idea to bump this issue over the experts. It deserves a topic of it's own.
The Overclocking forum has the Coolers & Heatsinks section. Hopefully someone who knows more about that issue will jump in with an answer.
A topic title like 'AM3 CPU cooler mounting problem' will have the best chance of getting the right person's attention I would think.
 
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