New Computer - (Computer problems)

I recently just built a new computer around a two months ago. I have experienced numerous problems ever since the computer was built and I just want to try and straighten things out.

First off let me name all of my computer specs.


Amazon.com Deal 3 frequently bought together.
CPU, MBO, Memory

http://www.amazon.com/Rampage-II-E [...] B001KA9PZK

ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA1366 Intel X58 DDR3-1600 ATX Motherboard
Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D Dominator 6 GB 3 x 2 GB PC3-12800 1600MHz 240-Pin DDR3 Core i7 Memory Kit
Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz 8M L3 Cache 4.8GT/sec QPI Hyper-Threading Turbo Boost LGA1366 Processor

Graphics cards:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] P-_-03ship
2x BFG GeForce GTX 280 Video Card - 1GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0 x16, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support, VGA Support

Monitor: Samsung 2493HM 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 10000:1 (DC), 5ms, 1920 x 1200, DVI, HDMI

Power Supply: Zalman Tech Co., Ltd

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817379009

ZALMAN ZM1000-HP 1000W Continuous @ 45°C (Maximum Continuous Peak: 1250W) ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Modular Heatpipe-Cooled SLI Power Supply - Retail

HD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136296
2x Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM

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Now, those are all my computer specs. I am currently running on Windows 7 RC, as I was previously running on W Vista and hated it.


My computer does not seem to run very fast at all. It boots up slow, well it did in Windows Vista, 7 seems a bit faster to be honest.


I play three games:

Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and WoW, occasionally counterstrike.


My problems.

Slow speeds while on the computer. Graphical problems, such as alt tabbing into WoW and the game tears up going 1 frame every 5 seconds with weird looking graphics (I have to alt tab out of game and back in and it seems fine). I run WoW at the max settings for everything (I should be able too...). I have noticed significant lag while playing the game, such as in Dalaran, or just anywhere when I take my mouse and just spin its not smooth if you know what I mean. I have the latest drivers for my graphics cards. I have my Nvidia settings set to enable SLI, and Physx.


I am just wondering if there any problems with my PC. I am not very good with computers yet, I am slowly learning hopefully I will be a geek soon and I can understand a computer entirely etc.


Being a gamer and being on the computer a lot I like to have a very fast and powerful system. I feel like I am at low speeds and its just not fun.


Now I believe in the BIOS everything is set to automatic, so my computer is definately running slow to begin with but I don't think it should be this slow should it? I mean I can tell its running slow if you know what I mean, but its not as slow as I might be describing it.

I have also had a few crashes, which I am not sure if its normal or bad, I have had a recent blue screen (dump memory rebooted etc while I was on the internet watching a movie).



Questions:

Are there any software programs I can run to pinpoint possible problems?

Are there any good benchmarking programs to see if my computer is running up to speeds it should?

Overclocking: I am interested in overclocking my pc to make it run faster. Are there any good forums etc? I cannot do this myself... I need assistance!


Also, when I think about my computer specs, is that processor a bit low? 2.6 ghz just seems low to me. Also when I go into my G 15 LCD monitor and look into my Computer Performance its usually always at this:

CPU: 0-5%
Ram: While doing nothing 44-50% normally
Ram: While playing a game above 60%++

Not sure if that's normal or not...

Could my processor be malfunctioning, maybe factory built it and its got glitches running slow? Maybe my memory isn't working properly?


Thanks for reading, I know I wrote everything that was on my mind or tried too, I probably missed stuff but i'll post more. Please reply with any info you might have. I am trying to get this computer straightened out. I also didn't build it myself. I have a guy that lives near me that's friends with my parents that knows a lot about computers and has built tons in the past. He helped me choose parts and put it together.


Also, I am using the heatsink that came with my processor, as the heatsink we bought didn't fit for some reason.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

So any support on buying a new heat sink for my PC would also be a great help as well! I am looking to overclock in the future and I would also appreciate assistance in regards to pc upgrades etc to help better my computer.

Any tips are also welcome! Thanks!

 

It might be hard to pinpoint a problem because you are using a beta version of an OS. Some of your crashes could be from that. I am running win7 too, and have had some crashes that i just attribute with win 7.
a few things to consider...do you have sufficient air flow in your case? you might want to monitor your temps to make sure nothing is overheating. hwmonitor works good
http://majorgeeks.com/HWMonitor_d5842.html
run it and then do some gaming for a while then check the program for the max temps.

 

Hello, Like mentioned below try downloading HWmonitor and then post back here the results/temepratures so we can figure out if cooling is the problem with your PC. Other then that I'm not sure what could be causing these crashes I mean you have a brilliant future proof PC there, maybe it could be Windows 7? Try switching back to XP or Vista because windows 7 is in its testing stages so it will have problems running some games.

Dacads

 

http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu232/Fragd/Hwmonpic1.jpg

 

This is one of the screen shots of a random time. I have a few more some from startup then slowly more use. Seems like the voltages and temperatures are changing significantly.

 

Is that your gpu temps at idle? I know the 280 runs slightly higher than others, but if thats and normal use, what does it go up to while running games?

 

I believe that is while playing WoW at minimum.

 

that's 2.66 Ghz on each core... with hyper-threading that's theoretically 8 cores.
no problem there.

your idle ram usage seems a bit high?
I am assuming you are running 64bit windows 7?
I've only got 2G ram on 64bit windows 7 and my system sits at about 50% ram with half a dozen programs running.

You could check whether you've got the ram modules in the recommended slots (check the motherboard manual)

I built a very similar system for a mate a couple of weeks back and that thing is blazing fast.

 

http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu232/Fragd/EntirecomputerCPU-Z.png

 

no problems with your config.. vista should be blazing fast.. its fast on one of my frnd's single core celeron with the aero theme disabled.. with ur system.. well i hope u gt the drift..
Gpu's are running hot.. maybe nt gud enuf cooling?? did u use the hdd from a previous system?? your ram usage is through the roof.. i've vista 32 bit ultimate running now with Red Alert 3 minimized to the taskbar and my ram usage is 1.2GB.. u need to check wt's running there.. post a screenshot of your task manager showing running processes.. all of them..