Please help! My brand new gaming pc lags terribly!

[secondincommand]

Need help from anyone who may have insight into why my new gaming pc lags. Here are the components: CPU

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

CPU Cooler

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler


Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard


Memory

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage

Western Digital Black 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive


Video Card

Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card

Case
BitFenix Neos Black ATX Mid Tower Case


Power Supply

EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply


Monitor
Acer S220HQLAbd 60Hz 21.5" Monitor

Keyboard

Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Wired Gaming Keyboard

Mouse

Logitech G502 Wired Optical Mouse

I installed the stock cooler that came with the CPU but I am wondering if this could be causing the lag. The pc worked perfectly for two weeks then just started lagging. Not sure what to do, any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Calculagator]

It could be a lot of things. The fact that it used to work leads me to suspect that you have installed either malicious or poorly configured software. With your slow hard drive, it wouldn't take much to bring your system to a crawl if something is reading or writing to your drive frequently.

If you changed your cooler and didn't install it correctly, that could cause problems, but they would most likely be immediately noticeable. Both the 212 and the stock cooler are sufficient to run your computer without "lag" provided that they are installed correctly.

 

[secondincommand]

thank you for this helpful answer. I don't think I have installed any malicious software as far as I know. I used the stock cooler but thought I would install the hyper 212 evo to see if that helps. Do you have a suggestion on my hard drive? I was under the impression that it would be fast enough. The games that are lagging are
CSGO & Skyrim and unreal engine 4 is also lagging. Thanks again for your expertise. I really appreciate it.

 

[Calculagator]

Changing your cooler will not help. You need to find what changed.
You can try using HWmonitor to check your system temps. If they are high, you could have a problem with your cooler or airflow. If they are normal, I would go back to blaming software.
You might try removing your GPU drivers and reinstalling them.

 

[secondincommand]

thank you again, I will try both of these things that you're suggesting. Hopefully that is the problem.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there secondincommand,

Do you experience these lags only when gaming?
I would agree with Calculagator and say that it may be a good idea to measure the temps as well as reinstall your GPU drivers.(Sometimes rolling them to an older version is a good idea as well. So it will not hurt to try that as well.)
Regarding your HDD, I would say that only boot and loading times should be affected by its performance. Yet, it will not hurt to test it with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=ttRcsz

Another thing you can try is to observe Resource Monitor when playing and see whether there will be something abnormal like high usage of something.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[secondincommand]

thank you D_Know_WD, I am going to try that. I hope it works, it's very frustrating. I appreciate your help very much.

 

[vlxedits]

and?