PC is slow despite no obvious bottlenecks?

[JForce]

I recently changed out the core components of my "server", which is primarily used for Plex, to fix some issues and improve performance.  I went to the following components:

• i3 8100 @3.6Ghz
• 8GB DDR4 @1200Mhz
• MSI B360M Gaming
• 6 x HDDs
• Win10 64 Pro

OS and the few apps installed (Plex/Tautulli/Sonarr) are on the C drive.  Media files spread throughout the other drives.

 

The issue I have is that when I remote onto the server for maintenance, moving files around etc, everything runs very slow.  There's often a delay when clicking a button before the action is taken, whether it's opening a program (Chrome etc) or just navigating between tabs/functions.  

 

Having just put in a much newer CPU/MB/RAM combo than what I had before (old core duo) I was thinking that the HDD was the bottleneck, but all the monitoring I've done and tracking via task manager disproves this - unless I'm specifically copying a large file across drives, none of them max out.  Similarly, the CPU, RAM or onboard GFX never get above about 50% utilisation, even when transcoding (I don't have any other users except myself, so it's single streams).

 

So I am stumped. I don't get why it would be running so slowly. All drivers and sw is up to date, as is maintenance such as malware/av, defrags etc. The thing is rock solid, running for weeks at a time between reboots without any issues.

 

What's next? Can anyone suggest any monitoring sw/methods I could try to see if we can track down why it's running like a dog?

 

[Escapenz]

Network issue ? i have a 6100 u i3 server with 8gb and when i log in its like its right next to me, so honestly would think yours would be the same at lest as mine and the only thing i can think of is a network issue....

[JForce]

Yeah should have said network activity is never maxed out either, I have gigabit network, and whether RDP onto it from iPad over wifi or via desktop no difference - in fact if I plug in a monitor and KB and use it all directly, i.e. not remotely, it's the same thing.

[LIGISTX]

2 minutes ago, JForce said:

Yeah should have said network activity is never maxed out either, I have gigabit network, and whether RDP onto it from iPad over wifi or via desktop no difference - in fact if I plug in a monitor and KB and use it all directly, i.e. not remotely, it's the same thing.

If the boot drive was moved from old hardware, its not common, but it is possible that it just isn't happy... I would suggest buying a cheap SSD for boot and just fresh install Windows. Typically windows can move from hardware to hardware without issue, but sometimes weird things like that do happen.

 

You can likely find a 128 or 250 GB SSD for ~30 bucks.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/SanDisk-240GB-Solid-State-SDSSDA-240G-G26/dp/B01F9G43WU/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=kingston+ssd&qid=1587619740&sr=8-3

[Applefreak]

I agree with @LIGISTX, put the OS on a separate SSD to speed things up. Can you explain why your DDR4 is running at 1200 MHz, that is way below spec. It should be at least at 2133 or higher. Also I am guessing it is a single stick of RAM. It should be two for optimal performance. With only 1 you are giving away bandwidth.

Also if you are running some kind of RAID setup, you want more RAM, at least 16 GB to begin with.

Plex has a background task that is watching media folders and automatically updates them. By doing it manually and disabling that task, you save some resources. Usually 1 or 2 cores will be used while it is updating, which is quite often and with every startup and can take a while with spinning disks. 

[LIGISTX]

7 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

I agree with @LIGISTX, put the OS on a separate SSD to speed things up. Can you explain why your DDR4 is running at 1200 MHz, that is way below spec. It should be at least at 2133 or higher. Also I am guessing it is a single stick of RAM. It should be two for optimal performance. With only 1 you are giving away bandwidth.

Also if you are running some kind of RAID setup, you want more RAM, at least 16 GB to begin with.

Plex has a background task that is watching media folders and automatically updates them. By doing it manually and disabling that task, you save some resources. Usually 1 or 2 cores will be used while it is updating, which is quite often and with every startup and can take a while with spinning disks. 

It’s likely reporting 1200, which is 2400 because double data rate...

 

And honestly, for just a file server, 8 GB is fine. Even if the BIOS is doing raid, it’s hardware not software RAID, it won’t take much up in the way of resources.

 

My homelab runs on a i3 6100, and that’s plenty for Freenas running ZFS, a few Ubuntu server VMS, Plex, etc. And my Ubuntu VM with Plex installed I only give 2GB of ram, lol. And I run a Windows VM on the machine as well, also with 2 GB of ram given to it. 
 

Suffice it to say, for what he is using it for, his hardware is plenty capable. I just think the OS is a bit upset with driver conflicts, and a cheap boot SSD would fix that plus speed things up in a big way.

[Applefreak]

I am running a Debian based NAS with an FX-8350 (will be replaced with Zen 3 once available) and 16 GB RAM. 8x 2TB WD RE4 drives in ZFS. My RAM usage is usually about 12 to 14 GB (ZFS caching takes a decent amount of RAM). While it is not necessary to have more RAM for the OS and general usage. Accessing data will be slower.  What I've noticed is when resilvering a drive, RAM makes a huge difference in time to complete the process. 

 

As @JForce system, I would assume it's running in single channel, which would reduce performance significantly when moving files around.

 

[JForce]

Thanks @Applefreak and @LIGISTX, you've kinda confirmed my thoughts, which are to look at going to an NVME boot drive and a Windows reinstall, once I figure out the process for backing up my Plex config (doable, just need to look it up).

 

I made sure I was running dual channel and I double-checked the slots too when I did the build to make sure I was using both the right ones, so I don't think there's a RAM issue, and there's no RAID running anywhere.

 

As you've suggested, I figure an SSD and a fresh Windows is the best bet - thanks for your help

 

[LIGISTX]

To be fair @Applefreak and @JForce I am running single channel since I have 3x 8 GB sticks and 1x4 GB... really should have got another 8 GB stick, but this stupid ECC RAM wasn't cheap and the 4 GB stick came free with the barebone.

 

Anyways, I am running 2 Ubuntu VM's, a Windows VM, and Freenas for ZFS, and honesty its fine. I have never noticed any performance issues, I can pretty easily saturate my gigabit LAN, assuming the files are not very tiny and very plentiful. Just FYI.