Poor Windows Performance on New Build

[janp]

Greetings all,

Wondering if somebody can offer some advice on some problems I'm experiencing with a new build.

Firstly, gaming performance is absolutely fine, really happy with the results. Most games play at max settings with around 50-60fps (v-sync on, 1920x1080 resolution).

But general performance in Windows is pretty appalling, from a fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premium, the windows updates took over 3hrs to download and install. A friend of mine did the same on his lesser build, and it took 15mins.

Installing (not downloading) anything from Steam will take at least 30mins.

Last night, I used SABnzdb to errrr download some linux distros from Usenet. As soon as it started downloading, my whole PC pretty much ground to a halt. Firefox took around 2mins to refresh a webpage. I checked out task manager, and my CPU usage was only 3% on one of the cores. As soon as the download completed, the computer was pretty quick again.

This to me would indicate a problem with my SSD, but I've ran CrystalDiskMart and checked the SMART data, and it all looks fine.

Has anyone got any ideas of what the problem might be, or any benchmarks that are worth trying?

Here is the spec of my PC:

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Running at stock
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
EVGA GTX570 (SC edition)
Crucial V4 256GB 2.5" SATA-II SSD (used for my O/S + steam)
Seagate 2.5TB SATA 7200rpm Harddrive

 

[janp]

Have you got the SSD set to ACHI in bios?

Indeed

I haven't tried a different SATA port though. I'll give that a try tonight. Memtest came back clean.

 

[janp]

install windows 7 ultimate lol

also i know sounds daft but you did remember to use 64bit not 32bit?

How would Ultimate edition help, I don't require the additional features. And yes, I definitely installed the 64bit edition

 

[janp]

Why would you buy a Sata 2 SSD on a Sata 3 MB ? Just wondering...
Make sure you connected your SSD to one of the Sata 2 ports and not to a Sata 3 one (you have 4 of each). In theory, they're backwards compatible...in practice, some of them might give issues.

I do have it connected to an SATA-3 port. I brought the SSD before the other components, for my old machine. My old mobo was SATA-2.
I haven't tried a different SATA port though, like you said I figured it would be backward compatible.

 

[janp]

Hard to tell, but have you installed all the motherboard and chipset drivers?

Have you memory tested for errors?

Memtest came back fine.

Installed the chipset drivers and network drivers from the motherboard disk. The rest I let Windows Update do it's thing.

 

[janp]

The drivers on the DVD that came with the modo are almost certainly not the latest.

I would check Gigabyte download site for latest drivers and BIOS.

I will check that out as well. I was under the assumption that windows update took care of driver updates these days.

My god, I sound like a complete noob. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[janp]

Sata 2 ssd still would only take 15 minutes max to get windows installed.

The installation took around 30-45mins. It was the windows updates that took 3+ hrs to download/install.

 

[janp]

Read qoute above yours hes tried ACHI

Are you using a 6gig cable? some people say it don't matter if its 3 or 6 but from personal experience the 3gig cables didn't work right on my rig until i changed to a 6gig cable.

I didn't know there were different SATA cables to be honest. How could I tell, I used the cables that came with the Motherboard, which I assume will be SATA-3?

 

[janp]

If'll say on the cable whether it's SATA 2 or 3. As for the cables that came with your mobo. Seen as though your mobo has both SATA2 and and SATA3, chances are both types of cable came with the board.

You mentioned that you don't have any issues with gaming. The games you play, are they online games? DO you have performance issue when using offline applications?

I've checked the cables and no mention whether they're SATA-II or 3.

As for online gaming, yes that's fine. Guild wars 2 run extremely well in fact. I'm on a pretty stable (touch wood), 120mb cable connection from Virgin.
As for offline applications, it's hard to say. Steam takes forever to install a game, I even copied my Steam folder over, so no re-downloading required.

 

[janp]

theres no difference between sata2 and sata3 cables speedwise they are identical

make sure your fully upto date with the bios and that you on the intel sata3 ports and not the marvell or asmedia or whatever other third party sata3 ports as they are slower

be sure to use the latest intel rst drivers and try enabling x.m.p profile for your memory

check your ssd is 4k aligned or formatted to ntfs and 4096mb

I tried installing the latest RST drivers, but Windows wouldn't boot after restarting. Just got stuck on "Loading Windows". I had to do a system restore to get it working again.

 

[janp]

I wonder if it is still a corrupt installation of Windows that's causing the problems?

It's possible. I also had 10 windows updates to install, mainly security updates. It took 6mins to download and install, but 5 of them failed.

I've got an SSD at work I can pinch for an evening, I'll try installing W7 on that, and see if everything improves. I'm just attempting to update every driver from Gigabytes website, including RST (wish me luck!). And finally before bed I'll update the bios.

Appreciate the advice guys

 

[janp]

RST successfully installed that time. Wow, the improvement is incredible. Really pleased with the results now.

Thanks again for all your help guys