Sluggish Under Load Mid Spec PC.

[Ben Marriner]

ok guys, I'm having trouble and I'd like a bit of advice.

I bought a 2nd user PC from a friend and It's lacking on the performance side of things.
I use a few programs like Jdownloader and convert x-to-dvd, for legal reasons btw.
and when these programs are running the computer slows down and becomes unusable.

At this point I should tell you the system specs.
CPU I5 2500 3GHz, RAM 4GB 1333MHz, GPU HD5970, PSU EVO Labs 550W,
Main Board Asus p8p67 pro, Sound blaster audolagy, 2 x 500 GB HDD...

A little history I was told about the system.

When my friend got the board it had a bad bios flash so he put the disk in that came with the board and it recovered it's self, it's now running on the latest bios.

The GPU has been refolwed and works perfect when gaming. All other parts are new.

Is there a way of trouble shooting the system to see if its a problem component I shouldn't have this problem really, it's a good pc.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks guys.

 

[snowctrl]

I doubt there's anything wrong with it from what you've said - u probably simply need more RAM - upgrade to 8 or 16 Gb, and then consider an SSD - I would recommend the Crucial MX100

 

[Yadhu]

A faulty hard drive can cause very bad performance issues

 

[Iron124]

I believe you simply need more ram, that seems to be the real bottleneck with your system, and explains the sluggish performance when running those applications.

Add this to your system, and it will be like night and day: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cmx8gx3m2a1333c9

 

[invisibilian]

First, i will never consider a rig with HD 5970 as a mid-range PC. yours is still high-end in my book. 550W PSU seems to be awfully small, given that HD5970 is very power hungry. you should definitely get a better PSU from a reputable vendor such as Corsair and Antec.

 

[Ben Marriner]

I'll put more ram in and report back

 

[WhiteSnake91]

yeah like others have said that pc was very good for its time and still hold up well even today. I would add 4gb more ram though for 8gb total. It could also be a power supply or hdd issue, but try more ram first. Also an SSD would help greatly. Even a cheap 70dollar 120gb one, although 250gb go for about 100 bucks now. Might as well double the capacity for only 30 more bucks.