Wow... Vista is slow.

[Pectabyte]

So a month ago I built a new system:

AMDx2 5600
4GB PC2-8500 RAM
Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
160GB Sata driver
Win Vista Ultimate x64

Ever since then it significantly under performs my little old Alienware laptop running:

AMD Turrion
2GB pc-3200
Nvidia 7800 Go
Win XP (x86)

The Alienware laptop is a good 4 years old now and its outperforming my desktop in every aspect. What could be causing the slow down? I am up to date with my drivers. Even navigating Vista is slow compared to XP. Opening a folder lags. My Vista System raiting is 5.0

[Moloko]

Vista's sluggish performance is even worse in online gaming because Vista's Networking stack is bigger, overbloated with new features. XP seems like a nice mature problem free option by comparison.

[Trepænima]

Vista runs fine for me. Looks like you built a slow system to start with, should've gone with intel.

E6420 @ 3.4ghz
6gb DDR2
8800GT 512
150gb raptor
Ultimate x64

I basically built this thing 2 years ago, get 80-90 fps @ 1920x1200 res in Vista.

[Pectabyte]

Vista runs fine for me. Looks like you built a slow system to start with, should've gone with intel.

Slow system? The only thing iffy is the CPU but its on par with Intels "Equivalent"

[megaknight]

turn off features like widows aero, because these features slow down your computer significantly.

[Pectabyte]

Yeah that speeded up basic navigation...

[tqz]

Slow system? The only thing iffy is the CPU but its on par with Intels "Equivalent"

Also, don't expect any games to run well with that video card.

[Telzen]

I hope you didn't expect that 9500 to be playing any games.

[Masaai_Warrior]

Running Vista here. After all this time prefer it to XP and there is no sluggishness whatsoever with anything on my end. Aero is enabled etc. I would assume your GFX is a problem - what is your "Vista Experience Rating" with that card?

Also, what is your 3D Mark 06 score on the new rig compared to the Alienware?

[Mighty Rabbit]

my systel is a year old and running on vista X64 with 4GB ram and a 8600 GTS 512 and it was running ok.
Last week i bought a XFX 9800 GTX+ and is running smoothly. Just need to adept to the deeper colors.

[mtbrdude]

do some research. i spent a good 5 hours going through and tweaking vista when i got it. it now runs about the same as XP used to. It

[Dark_Slayer]

I have never expernienced bad performance with my Vista 32bit system.
If you have laggs because of vista's network behaviour, than get vista anti lag. This tool optimizes your network under Vista.

[3leggedFreak]

Don't even bother trying to get Vista running on that system. Save time, minimize the hazzle and gain performance by switching to XP instead.

[j0j081]

Slow system? The only thing iffy is the CPU but its on par with Intels "Equivalent"

no the others are right. that is really weak for a new system. two years ago it would have been okay. most of the computers you buy at walmart have stronger cpus and you want to use that thing for gaming. Vista and UT3 are both cpu hungry but you don't need to spend too much to get something good now. If you have the right hardware Vista flys just like XP, Windows 7 will be out in not too long and that supposedly will run better than both Vista and XP. For Nvidia you need to get at least an X6 series card for decent gaming performance, for example an 8600 or 9600. you should have looked into it more before ordering those parts because there is tons of helpful info all over the web on low budget builds.

[3leggedFreak]

no the others are right. that is really weak for a new system. two years ago it would have been okay. most of the computers you buy at walmart have stronger cpus and you want to use that thing for gaming. Vista and UT3 are both cpu hungry but you don't need to spend too much to get something good now. If you have the right hardware Vista flys just like XP, Windows 7 will be out in not too long and that supposedly will run better than both Vista and XP. For Nvidia you need to get at least an X6 series card for decent gaming performance, for example an 8600 or 9600. you should have looked into it more before ordering those parts because there is tons of helpful info all over the web on low budget builds.

Quoting the OP:

So a month ago I built a new system:

AMDx2 5600
4GB PC2-8500 RAM
Nvidia 9500GT 1GB
160GB Sata driver
Win Vista Ultimate x64

Ever since then it significantly under performs my little old Alienware laptop running:

AMD Turrion
2GB pc-3200
Nvidia 7800 Go
Win XP (x86)

The Alienware laptop is a good 4 years old now and its outperforming my desktop in every aspect. What could be causing the slow down? I am up to date with my drivers. Even navigating Vista is slow compared to XP. Opening a folder lags. My Vista System raiting is 5.0

What he is wondering is how his lappy outperforms his desktop. On the same system you will always get better performance with XP compared to Vista so running Vista on low spec is not recommended.