thinking of next upgrade - need suggestions

[Tayls]

My current system:
ASUS M2N Deluxe SLI
AMD 4400+ AM2 at 2.3GHz
Wintec 2GB via 4x512mb AMPO ddr2 800 (pc6400)
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
Western Digital Caviar 250GB HDD split into 2 partitions (C: 100GB for Vista and 150GB general storage/backups/games/anime/etc)

Thinking of upgrading:
ram to 2x2GB G.Skill ddr2 800 $150
or
AMD 6000+ 3.0GHz $160
or
Second 250 GB HDD to run with current HDD in RAID 0 and New Sata 3.0gbps DVD burner w/ LightScribe $140 (my old burner is starting to die on me)
or
Dedicated Sound Card (currently using SoundMAX integrated digital audio)
or
Agiea physx card

Vista rates my lowest score as my CPU at a 5.0 and then my HDD at 5.4.
Ram and Video are 5.9.

I've just been noticing general slowdowns and lagginess on my system and can't tell whether it's my HDD or my CPU is slow. windows takes longer to load, applications take a long time to load/install. I don't run very many processes: Avast, Steam, Ralink wireless utility, windows sidebar, fraps.
those r all on at all times (boot with windows and stay on) Steam and Sidebar take the longest time to load.

I dump windows once every 3 months or so and run regular spy\ad\virus checks and they always come up clean.

My only conclusion can be that my system needs an upgrade and I cant decide between the HDD and the CPU. I don't really need new ram do i?

DiRT, Call of Duty 4 Demo, OrangeBox all run at about 50FPS at max settings with max AA and AF and load fairly quick with a few sputters here and there, but im sure thats the video card

I'm also using an integrated sound card. so would it help to get a dedicated sound or physx card to help take some load off the CPU?

[Panda Man]

No need for any upgrading (especially the physx card ) Your system is blazing as is. That CPU might actually be a slight bottleneck from what all I've been reading about from people testing the 8800GTs performance, so if you do upgrade get the CPU.

Anyways, windows vista updates did nothing for me but fuck things up. Uninstall ALL the updates. Go to control panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates. Uninstall them all except for these 2, they are the only ones important -

KB938194
KB938979

You'll probably want to run a reg repair tool, I'd grab a copy of registry mechanic and use it to repair and compact the registry. I'll PM you about that.

[Tayls]

I'll run it later today (getting ready to leave for school)
so definitely the CPU over the HDD
currently using a singe 250Gig HDD, would be upgrading to a Raid configuration. and i only have about 50 Gig free (but thats due to fraps)
(I recorded a video of Portal)

which is the better CPU deal then:
6000+ 3.0GHz for $160
or
6400+ 3.2GHz for $209

[Panda Man]

I'll run it later today (getting ready to leave for school)
so definitely the CPU over the HDD
currently using a singe 250Gig HDD, would be upgrading to a Raid configuration. and i only have about 50 Gig free (but thats due to fraps)
(I recorded a video of Portal)

which is the better CPU deal then:
6000+ 3.0GHz for $160
or
6400+ 3.2GHz for $209

I'd shoot for the 6000+, 200Mhz doesn't quit justify the extra $49 IMO. If you really need it you can just OC it later

[TristanX]

Did you defrag your hard disk regularly? Your data in your hard disk will be a mess if you don't unless you set your Disk Defragmenter on a schedule to defrag it.

A dedicated sound card will help just a little since the built-in sound cards these days uses little CPU power.

[Tayls]

I defrag often with Auslogic disk defrag 1.1 and occasionally IOBit Smart Defrag

im using the integrated card's Coaxial SPIDF port so i dont really want to get a different card cause im not very knowlegable with sound devices, i just know that SPIDF is digital sound. (it's easier to just set my speakers to dolby digital mode instead of fiddling with FFAUDIO settings and my 4.1 systems' various mode settings(Prologic, Dolby Digital, Stereo, Stereo 2X, and Quad) but lets not get to far off topic.

BTW
am running RegMechanic right now and the Deep Scan is taking forever to get through the WOW6432Node entries but it has picked up 222 errors so far (Vista Ultimate x64 btw)

[Panda Man]

BTW
am running RegMechanic right now and the Deep Scan is taking forever to get through the WOW6432Node entries but it has picked up 222 errors so far (Vista Ultimate x64 btw)

Does it on mine too, some bug it that causes it to loop there. Only in the x64 version, just let it run it will eventually get out, never screwed up anything

[Tayls]

i just found a fix for it so it doesnt take long at all.
regedit-->HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-->Software-->Wow6432Node and at the bottom of this entry is ANOTHER Wow6432Node that is empty(other than more directorties, but all these folders are empty too). It is safe to delete this empty copy of Wow6432Node.
And RegMechanic scans right through it with no problem
Don't worry it's safe. Just backup ur registry first.

***Make sure u delete the SECOND Wow6432Node***

[Panda Man]

Oddly enough when I went into the registry I never found a second entry. I'll look again though, thanks

[Tayls]

the second entry lies WITHIN the fisrt entry
the second is a subfolder of the first

[Panda Man]

the second entry lies WITHIN the fisrt entry
the second is a subfolder of the first

I know, never found it :\ at work btw

[Tayls]

hmmmmmm?
R U running Vista or XP?
I think this is only repairable in Vista

[Panda Man]

I haven't looked again yet, I'm at work Vista x64

[Tayls]

so anyway, I should deffinitly go with the CPU over the HDD?

I'm leaving it up to EP to make a rather expensive decision for me

Off topic:
Hey what happened to the old "red X in picture box" smilie? (noticed it wasn't there while skimming to find an appropriate smilie for the above comment/question)
edit:
where do i go to request/suggest new smilies? PM plz

[Panda Man]

so anyway, I should deffinitly go with the CPU over the HDD?

I'm leaving it up to EP to make a rather expensive decision for me

Off topic:
Hey what happened to the old "red X in picture box" smilie? (noticed it wasn't there while skimming to find an appropriate smilie for the above comment/question)
edit:
where do i go to request/suggest new smilies? PM plz

PM? well ok

Anyways, unless you need the space, and really need it, I'd go with the CPU. What you have now is good but if anything you'll see the biggest performance leap with the cpu. Don't even consider the physx cards, those things are pretty useless and have been known to have a ~1FPS performance hit anyways Nothing wrong with your onboard audio, onboard has come along way and is a pretty decent choice. That DVD burner you mentioned has one hell of a price tag, I couldn't justify it no matter what.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151141

For the record, the only advanta a SATA drive has over an IDE drive is cable management, you won't notice a difference as far as performance goes.

Now the RAM...... I don't know, I do know that AMD USED to have some slight problems running 4 sticks of memory, the memory controller couldn't handle the load and would underclock the memory, but I don't think that problem persists in AM2 socket cpus.... 4GB is slightly overkill atm anyways, so I say pass on that as well.

Anyways that takes it down to HDD and CPU... Your CPU could be a slight bottleneck for your video card, and upgrading it wouldn't hurt, and the only advantage getting a new HDD will provide is more space, which obviously is kind of stupid if you don't need it So I say the CPU