Slow computer

[toucam]

My computer is slowed down enormously when splitting some APE or FLAC files (CUE Splitter) and converting them to Apple Lossless (dBPowerAmp) simutaneously coupled with the following programmes running: Winamp, iTunes (running in background), Overnet (P2P), more than 10 windows of IE +Firefox opened and a few others. If a DivX file is played it gets even worse. I thought new dual-core CPU is supposed to handle multi-task better than this. Will upgrading to Conroe improve this slowness by a signigicant margin?

CPU is Opteron 170 (@ stock), Asus A8N32, 2GB Ram, X1900XT-X, WD 250 SE 8MB

 

[uk_sam]

No expert myself since I don't have a dual-core system (yet!) but maybe its the hard disk thats the limiting factor. Maybe a faster hard drive would help...a raptor maybe?

 

[Defcon5]

Might i ask why youre doing all that stuff at once? 10 IE windows?

 

[toucam]

Well I have a habit of clicking open in new window and with the "tab thing" in Firefox and IE 7 I get carried away quite easily.

 

[nikebee]

eleborating on Defcon's questions... why IE and Firefox... surely its one or the other

press Ctrl+Alt+Del and see your peak CPU usage, available memory and see how much your processor is being used...

yes they're dual core and yes they can run a couple of applications better than a single core CPU... but come on, what were you expecting... miracles???

 

[drunkenmaster]

well theres a bunch of possible reasons, hard drive is most certainly a possibility, if p2p software is uploading a bunch of difference files trying to read from all over the place, while trying to encode stuff and write/read from hdd at the same time, added to trying to read a video file thats very very possibly the issue.

but, its a dual core cpu, if you're using a multithreaded encoding program(not sure that it is) if its set to use a high priority it won't matter if you're on a 1Ghz ath t-bird or a dual core 4Ghz opteron, if its going to use 100% thats still 100%. the difference would be that on the t-bird it would keep your computer clogged up and running slowly for 5-6 times as long as the opteron.

main question here is, you're computer might be running slowly while its encoding, but is it finishing the encoding in half the time? if thats whats happening you can either tell the encoder to use one thread(or use task manager to set affinity to one core) which will free up the other core and maintain a very responsive system.

 

[Rick_Barnes]

so basically, conroe wont help you out much really.... dual core is still dual core

 

[Darkwave]

Back up what you need and then reformat. The only reason I can think of for a PC of that spec running even slightly slow is tons of spyware and random processes using up all the system resources.

 

[toucam]

well theres a bunch of possible reasons, hard drive is most certainly a possibility, if p2p software is uploading a bunch of difference files trying to read from all over the place, while trying to encode stuff and write/read from hdd at the same time, added to trying to read a video file thats very very possibly the issue.

but, its a dual core cpu, if you're using a multithreaded encoding program(not sure that it is) if its set to use a high priority it won't matter if you're on a 1Ghz ath t-bird or a dual core 4Ghz opteron, if its going to use 100% thats still 100%. the difference would be that on the t-bird it would keep your computer clogged up and running slowly for 5-6 times as long as the opteron.

main question here is, you're computer might be running slowly while its encoding, but is it finishing the encoding in half the time? if thats whats happening you can either tell the encoder to use one thread(or use task manager to set affinity to one core) which will free up the other core and maintain a very responsive system.

Sorry, I haven't made myself clear as I'm currently running 2 other harddrives along with the one mentioned above (Caviar 320GB SE 8MB and Desktar 250GB 8MB). Decoding/encoding music files are done on one and P2P runs on another. I think locating CPU resources is the main factor here, many thanks for the suggestion of setting affinity to one core and free up the other for other purposes. I will surely give it a go and report back if it does help.

Cheers.