Some Computer Help
 

Okay, to be blunt, my computer is acting fairly strange. It is fairly new, under one year in fact, and it gets incredibly loud. Me and my dad know it is one of the fans obviously, but we can't find out. We have three, a motherboard, power supply, and a regular old one. I think it's the power supply. It generally happens the most when I'm playing games, or other graphic related things. But occasionally it'll be loud for no reason. It can get annoying.

To be quick, my computer is to loud. Help me quiet it down. Please.

And on another note, and question, when I'm playing Wow, like everyone one else and there mother. My computer chugs it, badly. Laggy to hell and back. Is it because that I use the on board video card (I think it is.)? Or could it be another reason?

My specifics are:
-256 mb shares on board video card
-just less than 1 gig of ram (My cpu is stupid like that.)
-2.40 gig dual core processor
-Vista (Ugh...)

I only play it for some older games, and Starcraft 2, when I get it, and it works fine on Warcraft 3, even online. Warcraft 3 requires the same system requirements as Wow I'm pretty sure.

Thanks for the immense help in advance.

The lag in WoW is most definitely due to your on-board and RAM; that game just eats RAM.

I'm sorry to say that for SC2 your graphics card will most likely not be sufficient. I would recommend an upgrade.

However, on to the problem!

There are 3 possibilities: system fan (Unlikely), CPU fan (More likely), or Hard Drive (Possibly the most likely). When you're playing games and such, you're likely using the paging file, which conveniently sits on your hard drive. Also, it needs to dig files off of the hard drive. Any heavy access to the hard drive (Playing videos, sometimes music, downloading stuff, transferring files, etc) will cause vibration, and vibration causes noise.

There are a couple of other ways to diagnose this: the first way is to open the case when it's quiet, and see how the fans and the hard drive are running. The next time it gets loud, open it again, and see what has changed.

In terms of fixing it, you have few options. If it is the fan speed, you don't want to change that at all, because it provides an important function. If it's the hard drive, you can force it to run at a lower speed, at the price of performance. Unfortunately, these kind of problems are usually considered at time of construction. I'm assuming that this is a pre-built computer?

One final word: Don't bash Vista. It serves it's purpose, and is a solid OS. I'm just waiting for SP2 before I upgrade, just like I waited for SP2 to upgrade to XP. You could do with a better graphics card and more RAM to have it run more smoothly, true, but that's a function of research, is it not? ;)

The ram is what's killing you. Vista requires twice the ram of most game's requirements. That's why it has its own seperate box now on the requirements list.

If your power supply is whining, there could be several things wrong. Easiest one to check is wiring, make sure everything is plugged in right and there are no frayed wires. If it is whining when under the most stress, such as right after start-up, when you play games, and when you shut down, you aren't gettting enough juice out of your supply. You may need a new one, or to fix something with it.

Not exactly my area of expertise, but I gave you what I could. I had some trouble with that, but a nice guy at best buy prevented me from frying my computer. Now I have killer graphics, and enough power to run two computers. Vista is truly terrible, and its a pretty safe bet to say that any of your problems may originate from it.

True.

I'm loath to assume it's the power supply first off. Better diagnostics are required at this stage.

False. This is wrong. Either back it up or stop spreading information that is greatly out of context and causes more harm than help.

Thanks for the early and fast replies. I know about the whole ram eats Vista thing. It sucks and I know I need a good video card. But it's my dad's computer and he refuses to do anything, cause he prints with it. And maybe uses the internet, which he now does on his laptop.

I'm thinking of jumping it 1.5 gig (for now till I hit the magic 2) and bying a 256 card, most likely nvidia. Would that work? And most likely getting an new fan for it, if so be it.

And damn Frostatine, I'm stealing your computer.

Quick Edit: I agree with Eltargrim. Vista may hog ram and power needed, but it doesn't make it bad. Just lower end computers, like this one, just have to cope. It does just fine with everything else. Hell, it still run Windows Areo.

Ok, let the record show that Frostatine was being completely sarcastic and just jumping on the Vista bashing bandwagon.

It is pretty, I'll give it that.

Upgrades, done properly, only help. If you can give me more information (Motherboard, power supply, where you got it in the first place) I can give you more specific advice.

I'd advise going with 2 or 4. Assuming you have PC-6400 RAM, 2x1 GB (2 1GB sticks) is about 70CAD, probably less in USD. 1 GB will probably be less; check if you have 1x1GB or 2x512 MB right now. This will affect your purchasing options. As for a graphics card, what's your budget? A new line just made it's début, so prices should be falling. A 9600 GT, one of the newest cards on the market, is only 179CAD, and is a brilliant card. Not as good as a 8800 GT, but light years ahead of what you have now.

Remember to wait on the diagnosis before you replace the fan. It wouldn't hurt to have 2 (1 intake and 1 out-take), but make sure you can mount them! Not all cases are made equally.

I'm kind of curious as to his specs; I'm looking at building a budget rig for someone right now, and if I could get a good deal for them as Best Buy, why not?

So, yeah, question for Frosty: what'd you get, and what's the price neighbourhood?

EDITUS:
Sarcasm translates poorly over the internet. Yet another reason why we should get some gorram sarcasm tags with this new tag-frenzy coming upon the forums.

altogether i have spent about $900

I have 2.5 gigs ddr2 ram
A 512 Nvidia card
300 gig hard drive
520 watt power supply
I think my processor clocks in at about 2.8, but I'm not exactly sure.

Let it be known that through assorted discounts and friends in high places (working in electronics at Best Buy being a high place) as well as newegg I've saved a lot on this setup.

Its not perfect, but I love her all the same.

Thanks for the help. It is 2x512 sticks (which suck, one 1x1 gig would be sweet right now.) About the budget, if it is under 50 preferably, cause maybe I can convince my dad then. Though 60 wouldn't be bad. I'd offer to go half with him. Hell that gives me a good idea. And agreed on the two fans. I'm not a cpu idiot, just not that savvy. =P

And what are your specs Frost?

EDIT: I'm stealing your computer Frost. It miles ahead of both of mine put together.

Ah, ok then. I'll be sticking with sales on NCIX, then; having a personal distaste of pre-built computers, I have absolutely no connections with local hardware stores. NCIX just loves me, though :P

For comparison:
My rig, about 2.5 years old at this stage, has the following:

• - e6600 @ 2.40 GHz (Thinking about ocing it a bit, but temps are discouraging)
  - 4x1GB of DDR2 at 5-5-5-15 (Again, temp and voltage issues are troubling)
  - EVGA 512 MB 7900 GTO (Very nearly a GTX; this one had a limited run)
  - 600W power supply
  - 2x300 GB Seagate, and a 1x500 GB Western Digital, totalling just over 1TB of hard drive space.

When combined with an aftermarket cooler, this thing has cost me about 1700CAD. However, a bunch of these parts were very fresh off the line when I bought it, and I was desperate for an upgrade, so I didn't wait for sales.

EDITUS:

Ok, on the RAM front you'll want to go with another 2x512 then, to maintain dual channel (Yes, it's worth it). This looks like 80CAD; check on Newegg. I'd recommend OCZ, Corsair, or Kingston.

With the graphics card, yeouch. It's going to cost you, there's no question. RAM is your best upgrade vector at this stage.

Also: don't forget to figure out *exactly* what is causing your sound issue before you do anything to fix it!