Whats slowing my rig down?

[Apollo127]

Hey guys I built this computer december of 2012 and it is really starting to become very slow and pretty damn loud which I think is due to my top fan being broken so I am going to replace that asap. I don't really have much money at all to upgrade but my computer is really starting to become so slow that I cant bare. The only thing I use this computer for is gaming (World of Warcraft, and Diablo 3). What do you guys think is the biggest thing that is slowing down this computer? I know its not viruses/malware or anything its just due to my older parts and I am wondering what I can upgrade to make this run better. Keep in mind I don't really have much money to upgrade but I need to figure something out to get this setup running have decent until I can do a full upgrade! Thanks!

Here are my current specs
AMD FX 4170 Quad Core 4.2ghz
8gb Ram
Windows 7 64 bit
Nvidia Geforce GTX 650
Cool Master Elite Power 460w power supply

 

[choctawfootball]

it is almost impossible for us to diagnose your pc problems over the internet, on this issue.
it could literally be a hundred things wrong with your pc that is causing this slowdown.

but i will try to give my best response (bc i have had similar issues in the past).

in my opinion it is your OS that is causing the slowdown, and nothing will fix this problem but a complete re-install of the OS.
if you try to defrag your HDs, in my opinion you are wasting your time.

other possibilities...
1. your anti-virus is taking up more system resources than you think (thus slowing down your pc).
2. you are having other hardware related problems (anything and everything from motherboard, to ram, to HD issues).
3. you may be running low on HD space, so windows is constantly having to use your HD for cache instead of using your memory.
4. 8 gb of ram is not a lot of ram for 64 bit windows (in fact even though i dont think this is the main cause of your pc slowdown i do think that this may be the easiest and best way to possibly fix your slowdown issues).

HOWEVER, i dont recommend upgrading your ram.
ram prices are elevated/expensive atm and i doubt that ram prices will decrease (bc ddr3 facilities are being taken down to build ddr4 facilities).
i highly doubt that ddr3 ram will decrease to the lows we saw 3+ years ago.

you may want to try to buy some used ram off ebay...

 

[Apollo127]

Thanks for the reply choctawfootball, on #3 of your suggestions this could be very true because I am ~75% full on my HD. I will try some of your suggestions and see what helps, however are you saying that all my computer parts are fine and if everything is running as should that I shouldn't notice any low performance? I don't really have any slow boot times on windows, mostly when running World of Warcraft it takes a little bit to get it running, and then I seem to have some lower then expected performance while ingame, and I don't think my video card is the issue because it should be more then enough for my computer to play wow, but I was thinking maybe my motherboard might be the issue.. I only have 2 slots for ram so would running 2 8gb sticks be the best idea for helping handle 64bit? I was always under the impression 2 4gb sticks is usually the happy medium for computers but that might not be the case for 64 bit! Thanks again

 

[Apollo127]

Also I have a unused copy of windows 7 32 bit, would that make a difference if I kept my 8gb of ram and used the 32bit OS? I can always re-install the 64bit OS but I don't have any of the install discs because I lost them so I'm not sure if that would be possible!

 

[Spectre694]

Also I have a unused copy of windows 7 32 bit, would that make a difference if I kept my 8gb of ram and used the 32bit OS? I can always re-install the 64bit OS but I don't have any of the install discs because I lost them so I'm not sure if that would be possible!

If you install 32 bit Windows you will only be able to use 4GB of RAM

 

[tiny voices]

If your computer is loud, check the CPU and GPU temps to see if anything is overheating causing the fans to go quickly.

 

[Darren Kitchin]

Can you check the FSB/Northbridge temperatures? These could be affecting performance is what apps are you runniong? what mods in wow? How old is the OS installation? these are all factors that can cause such problems

 

[Apollo127]

heres a link to my temps after running world of warcraft for a solid hour, seems like only my GPU fan and one other fan are running, gunna have to go replace them asap, I bought one a while back from bestbuy but they wouldnt connect into my power supply they had the wrong connection. heres link http://i57.tinypic.com/vrrmzr.png

 

[Apollo127]

Can you check the FSB/Northbridge temperatures? These could be affecting performance is what apps are you runniong? what mods in wow? How old is the OS installation? these are all factors that can cause such problems

I'm only running 25mb of addons, mainly Elvui, Bigwigs and auctioneer, OS was installed back in end of 2012/ beginning of 2013, thanks!