x99 PC slow - Why?

[Meddling-Monk]

Having used the precessor (X79 and 4930k so basically the gen before the one you obtained) for 10 years, I'd suggest the following:

Make sure you have all the Chipset and attached Devices Drivers installed (Back 10 years ago, many motherboard manufacturers were cutting corners and used sub-par or eventually discovered to be troublesome devices when paired together into their motherboards and this can cause slow downs if there is no software to update them).

The Spectre thing meant that Windows (10 and onwards) would microcode patch up and thus the system would lose performance. Some were more heavily affeceted than others in performance loss depending on if you had a BIOS patch (from motherboard maker including the patch) or needed a software one (Windows). Other OS was impacted less by the patches.

Turn off any and all extra's in the motherboard that you are not using; USB2/3 that are not needed (some are known troublemakers from back then), PATA/SATA that aren't needed, SD Card Reader slots, etc. Again, due to the above listed reasons, these can just cause problems for you.

In BIOS make sure it's not limiting the CPU Cores, there's an option in there that might be limiting them to 4, etc.

Check CPUID (software) and check out the CPU and RAM, make sure the RAM is all the same type and timings (and not mixed and trying to run out of spec even a little, this can add to instability that the system might be able to tolerate but slows it down from recalls being done).

Make sure your Windows Power settings are not set to aggressively downclock you and make unnecessary power savings (like PCIe shutdown/downclock, or hibernating the system, etc) as these can cause the system to slow down as it powers things up and down instead of just leaving it on; they're useful for Laptops and other mobile devices, but a power hungry and always on (mains powered) device should not have them enabled.

The system you obtained might now be a (aged) Lemon; where it might have just about passed QC when it was first sold and fitted together, but over time, degredation in the motherboard and the CPU (The X79 and especially the X99 chipset motherboards from what I remember reading) were providing a lot more voltage than what was required for the devices (Motherboard and CPU) and degraded those systems quickly causing issues such as instability, slow downs, etc. This might be the case here as well potentially.

 

[FatRakoon]

Ok, well the BIOS in this board is VERY VERY full. Not the basics here, but it seems that each and every bit of the thing, is as adjustable as it can get. I will frel;y admit that it is way more complex than it needs to be.

In saying that, thius is NOT the first time I have posted in these forums about this very motherboard.

I have had nothing but issues with it for the time I have had it, and in the past, I have had help from one guy, who guided me around it, as he had a nearly 100% identical system to this, and so, we set about sorting it out.

I can now, fully wipe the BIOS to factory settings and I know what needs to be done to get it to a reliable setup. The guy who sold it to me, says that I must set it to profile 2 and that is the worst thing to do for it as that way I cannot get it to the desktop notr can I get it to install Windows 10, Pofile 1 allowed this, but the longest I have had ,is roughly 15 minutes before a BlueScreen.

Mind you, this is with the same RAM , CPU and board that I bought from the MM.

I have now swapped the RAM out with my 7700K RAM and they both seem,ed to run fine on it. That alone has helped massively.

It now seems to be flawless in Linux and annoyingly so, since reinstalling Windows, it has not crashed on that either... Admittedly, I have not done that much, only copied my Steam folder and thrown a few MP3s on while watching some YouTube while waiting really, so nothing hard work wise has been done.

I have moved the Audio cards about... The Recon3D is back in it, but it is now in a different slow, and that alone seems to be helping.

I really think that there is just something iffy about this board. I did notice it under Linux, but sometimes, I had trouble getting it to play any sounds and not that long ago, I threw a card into every slot I could, and I saw that sometimes they were seen and sometimes not, and so I got the Recon3D recognised and then I took the others out, only for the recon to go awol again. and now I have swapped the port over again and the sound is once again back after once again swapping cards over. You see, I sometimes have issues with the speaker setup... loads of inputs and Digital or Analog and whitch ones do I select etc etc, I get confused easy and then I ... Sod it. Its not a 2 minute job.

Onboard Audio is a load of junk by the way, or I would prefer that, but again, when I enable that, I get other issues too, hence thinking the board is just iffy.

A while back, I was seriously considering buying a cheap x99 board, just for the giggles, and the thing is, that these boards are very much saought after and I could in theory get a new nasty board for less money than if I sold this one, but then its just a mess about board and I could not really be that bothered... But Im considering it again now, just for the giggles. I keep giving my son all my old stuff and he loves it all.

But I also know that its fat-boy-roy over here that has to keep going over to fix his stuff. he has my baby Saphire PureBlack x58 with the 980 CPU and a pair of 380 cards and he is in love with it... Its old hat, but it still runs everything he throws at it.

Thats got double RAID and Crossfire and he thinbks its the best thing in the world.. If I can sort this out, I will be no less than a god in his eyes!