System kind of sluggish

[chang9905]

I need a little help...I have noticed that my system that I've built about six months ago is slower than I expected when I built it. It's not terribly slow, but it isn't as fast as I expected it to be. It runs Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1 (up-to-date) and has a Pentium G630, 8 GB DDR3, a 500GB Seagate HDD, and a Foxconn H61MXV motherboard (H61 chipset). I do not play games, I run Windows Server/Linux in Vbox (and I also do the less-intensive tasks, such as music, web surfing, office tasks, etc.).

I have disabled System Restore, the pagefile (I don't need it as I don't go near 8GB even when running several Vbox instances), indexing, yet the system still takes about 45 seconds to boot. I've even installed Windows from scratch--which rules out malware, but this was never a problem to begin with--and it's especially noticeable after several Windows updates (is MS sabotaging Windows 7 to sell Windows 8 ). Nothing is running in startup other than Avast! antivirus. When opening a program, it takes a few seconds to load. For example, Firefox takes about five to ten seconds to open. While I realize that my system is not on par with a high-end gaming system running a Core i7 and an SLI video card setup (which I don't need), why is my system sluggish?

Also: why is it that my system slows to a crawl when I'm installing an OS in Vbox either from an .ISO image or an actual CD/DVD? Whenever I do this, my machine is so unbearably slow that I can't even switch/move/minimize/maximize windows whenever this happens. It's never happened before, I was able to install a virtual OS without a major slowdown (it was on a different system though). I have VirtualBox 4.1 or 4.2.

Should I...
*buy a video card? (I've been thinking about buying ASUS GeForce 8400GS 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI--I have integrated graphics, and this should be all I need)
*buy an SSD? (I have one 500GB Seagate HDD...I don't really want to migrate to SSD because I have created a system image with *all* my settings and programs and do not want to build it from scratch again)

My CPU is sufficient for my tasks, as I came from an Athlon x2 system before this and never had a slowdown. Same with my memory: 8GB DDR3 is more than enough, the most I've ever used was 5GB. (I don't give my Vbox machines more than 1.5GB).

 

[AMD Radeon]

dude... pagefile is important... it doenst work the way you think

 

[chang9905]

So if I enable the pagefile, should I notice an improvement in regards to boot times, application launch and responsiveness, etc? I assumed that pagefile was only useful for <4GB, or for extra-intensive tasks (like AutoCAD rendering for example) any amount of memory.

Should I choose to enable it, what should I set it at? 2GB? 3GB? 12GB?

I have the exact opposite experience in Ubuntu-- there is no slowdown whatsoever, even after updates (but then again Linux is structured differently than NT, from filesystem to kernel and everything else--apples and oranges there :lol: ). I don't use it as my primary OS because it doesn't have all that I'm looking for, plus it has a few flaws, such as crashing when it wakes up from sleep--supposedly a widespread problem in 12.04 LTS with no forseeable fix (having it wake up from sleep is a basic no-brainer essential).

 

[AMD Radeon]

enable pagefile, set auto

for a little boost : enable sata AHCI

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=313676

 

[chang9905]

Doesn't a statically managed pagefile have an advantage (same init value as max) over an automatic (dynamic) pagefile, which is dynamically sized based on demand?

In other words, in theory, a static pagefile with the same set values would have the performance advantage as it wouldn't be constantly growing/shrinking in size, which will cause fragmentation, right?

So would 12288MB (1024MB * 12GB =12288MB) as initial and maximum suffice? It is in line with the old '1.5x of physical RAM' rule. That way, it's always 12GB, and not 4GB one time, and 2GB the next, and so on (which, in theory, would cause moderate fragmentation).

edit: ACHI is enabled, I always make sure it is enabled in the BIOS before proceeding to an install.

 

[chang9905]

I should note that even though I enabled the pagefile (12288MB) I saw no noticeable increase in performance, in fact I would say it took 3-5 seconds more to boot. Application launch is the same; my Vbox images I have not tried yet.

So, should I bite the bullet and use an SSD as my OS drive? It turns out that I can transfer my system image that I've made (in Windows Backup and Restore) can in fact be transferred to an SSD (please verify if I am correct...)


Thanks
chang9905