Requesting Upgrade help on Rampage 3 Extreme

[step1984]

I am trying to solve some speed and lag issues occasionally along with making startup time a lot faster(currently about 5-8 minutes before the PC quiets down from startup).

I built this machine back in 2010 and it's still going pretty strong, but needs a little help to get back up to speed. I'm not looking for a crazy amount of upgrades, but key components that will have a noticeable effect on the performance.

~Issues:
Mouse lags A LOT occasionally. Often, it is when the hard drive is busy doing things in the background. The performance graphs on the Task Manager show the CPU running at 100%, but I can't see any programs really taking up the amount of resources to account for the lag. Sometimes, restarting will help and sometimes it will go right back to working in the background and lagging. The lag can last up to 30 minutes before I can use it normally.

~Questions:
What key components should I swap out? Is this issue a product of the slow hard drive listed below? Will a solid state drive for the operating system help that much?

I can add RAM, but I don't think this will really help that much. I don't typically run in to RAM issues(that I am aware of).

I don't really want to change out the motherboard yet, but when I do will I have to get a new Processor and other components?

Is this a graphics card issue at all?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Stephen


Current PC specs:
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

(FYI- my knowledge of building a PC was enough to get the below working for my needs.) I know enough to get by, but not a lot about specifics of specs.) I don't use this machine for gaming, I use it for AutoCAD Architecture, modeling Revit Architecture, and rendering in 3ds Max.

BIOS 1102 installed (ver 1502 available) I tried to install version 1502, but it kept asking for a boot device and I couldn't get it to work, so I went back to 1102.

RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB Black/Silver 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case

ASUS Rampage III Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

SAPPHIRE Toxic 100282-2GTXSR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX ...

XCLIO STABLEPOWER 1000W 1000W ATX CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950

CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1600C9

Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[step1984]

Making sure someone saw this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

[xeromist]

That GPU is probably the biggest thing holding you back if you are using GPU rendering. Yes a new GPU will be bottlenecked by your CPU but you will be able to take it with you when you update to a new platform. A motherboard & CPU update would be a nice quality of life upgrade and would help with CPU rendering. Of course that would be more money to replace motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, and memory. One option is always to look at the used market near you. Sometimes there are folks updating from something that's only a generation or two old. If you are limited on funds that might be a way to get more stuff upgraded for the same dollars.

[Super_Gnome]

I have a three rigs I built myself. One has a Rampage III Black Edition motherboard, and as much as I complain about Asus, that motherboard is still great after all these years.

Here is what I did to upgrade it. First I got a new hard drive--an SSD--that made a huge difference. Then I got a new GPU, and then two in SLI (switched from a gtx 580 to a 1070 and then to two 1070s in sli). I have switched out one set of cards for another--both do well in it (switching from two 1070s to two 2080s). That doesn't mean you need to run out and get two gpus, but I did--and the difference was real.

As for building a new system, I built a system with a Rampage VI Extreme Omega (Intel) and just last week another with a Crosshair VIII Formula (AMD). The Rampage VI Extreme Omega was fine for nearly a year, but it crashes now when playing World of Warcraft--and since 8.3 was released under load. But the system is so beefy I still don't get what is going on--but the latest BIOS from Asus also causes the CPU to run overclocked at default settings. As for the Crosshair VIII Formula--building the system was a snap, and the installation of Windows went like a dream--that was not the case with the Rampage VI Extreme Omega. Installing Windows was a nightmare with that system and it had lots of problems with Windows--hence I had to play around with the registry because the system had one of the CPU cores running at 100 percent.

Another thing I did (with the Rampage III Black Edition) was ditch Windows 7. Windows 7 was a nightmare, and some of the updates simply would not jive with the system (the Rampage III Black Edition). Sometimes I had to rollback the updates, other times they simply would not install. Other times there would be errors, etc. And my system too would take forever to start up, and needed to literally be left alone for ten minutes or it would not work properly if you did anything. The upgrade to Windows 10 was easy and the system now works perfectly (but you cannot install any Asus software once you do that--which, ironically is a GREAT thing). Yes, a GREAT thing (seeing as hardware is Asus's strong point--the software, frankly speaking, is often buggy and just plain poor).

As for a CPU upgrade, my Rampage III Black Edition has a 990x--the best you could get a the time (a six core processor) and it, along with the motherboard, this CPU has stood the test of time. One thing though--I would not get an Asus AIO water cooler and would be sure to get one that responds to the CPU core temperatures vs the CPU socket temperatures. It would also be nice if Asus provided users with a way to monitor the coolant temperature like Kraken X62 does. I give the Kraken X62 software (Cam) five stars because it allows you to watch you coolant temperature (which HWMonitor does not). Asus software is often poor and is widely criticized (along with Asus after care) as reflected in the very poor ratings in the Microsoft store that Armory Crate gets. Never mind the regular complaints on this board about RGB management--which I have given up on and pulled hair out trying to get working well.

[step1984]

Thank you both! Looks like I have some research to do for my next step.