Video lag + Audio Latency with core i7 + 32gb of ram?

[Wesdood]

Hey guys,

Let me start out by saying this is my first complete build. I've done upgrades on older machines back in the day, but I've been a Mac user almost exclusively for the past 4 years. I'm fairly familiar with building a computer, but by no means claim to be an expert. I've been troubleshooting all over the internet, fixing one issue at a time. I've been fixing issues, but I feel that all those I've solved are stemming from this overall problem.

I keep getting lagging/freezing windows when I drag them around. I am also getting some bad audio latency (static, laggy) whenever I do anything that causes the lag. Even something as small as making circles while dragging a windows explorer window.

EXAMPLE - http://youtu.be/iCBT2SDqB60 - (Music streaming via Pandora for effect.) This is what happens when I just drag a windows explorer window around in circles. Internet Explorer was open with Pandora in 1 tab and this post in another after a reboot.

I have 1 monitor plugged into my graphics card (res - 1900x1200). I have my speakers plugged into the onboard sound.

I just did a fresh install of windows 7 and just updated my drivers (most recent, no unrecognized hardware) and I'm already having this issue. I tried enabling/disabling drivers before and the problem just got worse on my last Windows install. If I open a game (ie Counterstrike Source) the framerate stays up; never dropping below 60 fps, so I don't think this is a graphics card thing. The visual lag is there and there is some audio lag as well.

Here are my specs -
OS - Windows 7 64 bit
CPU - Intel Core i7-2600K (Stock 3.4GHz)
RAM - Corsair 32 GB Dominator CMP32GX3M4X1600C10 (4 x 8 GB, 1600MHz)
Graphics Card - EVGA GeForce GTX460 SE
Motherboard - GigaByte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3

Primary Hard Drive - OCZ Vertex II SSD (60 GB)
Secondary Hard Drive - Samsung HD103SJ (1 TB)
Tertiary Hard Drive - Hitatchi Deskstar (3 TB)

Case - Antec P183 V3
PSU - Antec CP-850
Cooling - Corsair H50 / Side of case open
Optical - LG WH10LS30K (Blue Ray burner)
Bluetooth - Targus USB

WiFi - Rosewill RNX-N150UBE USB (Driver caused issue previously, currently not in use) (sharing connection with Macbook)

Here's what CPU-z is showing -

Not sure if this means anything, but it's defaulting to the onboard card vs my graphics card?

I'm pretty much out of ideas here, not sure where to start looking anymore. Any suggestions, thoughts?

 

[Raiddinn]

Download and run a program called MemTest86+

Leave it running for like 24 hours. Normally people can get through 10 passes of this test in 1/3 the time, but you have 4x the RAM of a normal person, so it will probably take that long.

See if you get any errors on there, they should show up in red.

OR

Take all that RAM out and put in 1 stick of some regular 1333 RAM that is 2 or 4GB and see if you have the same problems.

Many boards have trouble with single sticks of 8 GBs in size and almost nobody ever needs them.

I generally tell people to shy away from 8 gig sticks for this reason.

Servers are the only things that need huge amounts of RAM like that. Most normal people experience no gains above 8 GBs in total.

Anyway, my gut feeling is that its a RAM problem.

Try to borrow a stick of 4GBs from somebody for a day if you have to. Maybe an IT guy where you work would let you sign for one and bring it back the next day when you come in.

 

[Wesdood]

Download and run a program called MemTest86+

Leave it running for like 24 hours. Normally people can get through 10 passes of this test in 1/3 the time, but you have 4x the RAM of a normal person, so it will probably take that long.

See if you get any errors on there, they should show up in red.

OR

Take all that RAM out and put in 1 stick of some regular 1333 RAM that is 2 or 4GB and see if you have the same problems.

Many boards have trouble with single sticks of 8 GBs in size and almost nobody ever needs them.

I generally tell people to shy away from 8 gig sticks for this reason.

Servers are the only things that need huge amounts of RAM like that. Most normal people experience no gains above 8 GBs in total.

Anyway, my gut feeling is that its a RAM problem.

Try to borrow a stick of 4GBs from somebody for a day if you have to. Maybe an IT guy where you work would let you sign for one and bring it back the next day when you come in.

I had already ran Memtest on the ram when I first got it. It took roughly 14 hours or so for it to finish and came up with no problems.

I took out 2 of the sticks of ram leaving it with 2 8gb sticks and that seemed to fix the issues I was having. I guess the addition ram was doing something, just no idea what.

 

[Raiddinn]

Sounds like a needle in a haystack problem.

If you had to find a needle in a haystack quickly, would you want a haystack that is 4x the size?

Perhaps looking through the extra 24GBs of RAM caused it to perform worse.

 

[Wesdood]

Best answer selected by Wesdood.