Long Standing PC lag/delay/FPS issues

[rjt027]

Guys, long standing issue here, really starting to bring out the Irish in me.
This is my first post here so please, feel free to beat on me

Case - APEVIA X-DISCOVERY-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Power - Rosewill Xtreme Series RX950-D-B 950W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire Ready, Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply - Retail
Fan - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler - Retail
Motherboard - ASUS P5N72-T Premium LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9650
RAM – 2x Transcend aXeRam 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1200 (PC2 9600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TX1200QLJ-2GK - Retail
Monitor - X2GEN MW22R Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Video – 2x BFG Tech BFGEGTX260MC896OC2DE GeForce GTX 260 OC2 MAXCORE 55 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported

OS – Windows 7 RC
Net – DSL basic, ping usually around 200-220

(note: my brothers crappy pc that I built for him, has NONE of these problems)

Problem: Really crappy FPS on video games, occassional but universal “delays/lag” in loading/closing programs.
Ok, this pc which I’ve had since 02/2009, has had problems with generalized “lag”. Watching the process monitor with windows vista ultimate or windows 7 RC.
1) PC temp at full load is around 33 deg C.
2) Processor: First 2 cores seem to range from 30% to 80% with minimal use of the 3/4th.
3) RAM: 50-70% on average w/ intense programs like WoW (2 copies up at the same time)

The computer will “lag”, a window will take seconds longer to open than it should, WoW takes 2 minutes to go from character selection to actually loaded into the game….

Observations: Watching the system monitor, Periodically, I’ll try to open/close/manipulate a file and while the CPU/RAM can even be at COMPLETE REST, the computer hangs/drags/lags for a few seconds before obeying.

NOTE: I just noticed the other day that the Drive Monitor max’d out when trying to load into WoW while the CPU/RAM barely budged passed 30% use. Also, on my Windows Score, my HD is the lowest at 5.6. everything else is a 5.9……?

And singularly most annoying aspect:
On WoW, in Dalaran, no other programs running 
There was no change in the FPS between +/- all addons, full or windowed mode. (~30 fps)
Changing all visual effects to the lowest settings gave me ~60 fps, Resetting to maxed returns to ~30 fps.

Did Naxx, even with lowest possible settings, had huge dps issues.

I went out, bought a 2nd graphics card (same thing), put it in, enabled SLI, updated graphics drivers, ………..
Result: no change /at all/ in the graphics capability.

This has occurred over months. I originally had vista installed.
HD died, bought new HD, reinstalled vista, problems continued,
DL’d windows 7, installed, problems continued
Months later, problems continue.

Solution?
1) What equipment might cause this?
2) What diagnostics can I run to diagnose the cause?
3) What am I missing, what other information do you guys need?

[glc]

I see several possible issues - none of which would DEFINITELY be a problem, but are worth investigating.

1. Nvidia chipset motherboard with an Intel processor.
2. 4 sticks of offbrand high speed ram.
3. Rosewill PSU.

Slow your ram down to DDR2-800 speed and make sure you are using at LEAST rated ram voltage, if not 0.1 volt higher.

[rjt027]

1) I've never messed with the Bios-RAM settings before. None of my friends are trustworthy in this area, and my backup knowitall is at a seminar this week....

Can you point me in the direction any How-to's and why's re: RAM voltage settings?

2) Also, w/ the cost of the CPU vs MOBO, what brand of MOBO would you go for that has quality and manageable price?

3) Offbrand RAM? I knew not all RAM was created equal, but again, is there a first or second choice brand?

4)Rosewill = Bad, read a few posts here after I made mine and see a consensus on this point. Now I get to find a better one. Yay, any pointers?

BTW, Thank you man.

[glc]

When I build with socket 775, I use the Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, with 2x2 kits of Corsair XMS DDR2-800 CAS 5 ram. Note that this board is not SLI-capable.

You need to read your motherboard manual and look up the specs of your ram, and make the adjustments I suggested. If the ram is speced at, say, 2.1 volts, manually set the bios to 2.1 or 2.2 volts. If you can't set the ram speed directly and have to use ratios, you want CPU:RAM at 5:6.

That Rosewill probably isn't too bad - it's just overrated. It probably does put out about 800 clean watts.