Issues with Gigabyte EP35-DS3R

[Panix]

Hello, I am hoping someone can help me diagnose a problem/issue with my new system.

Mobo: Gigabyte EP35-DS3R (P35 board)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix DDR2 (PC-8500)
CPU: Q6600 (Quad Core) @ 2.4GHz (set at 'Turbo' as default)
HDDs: 2 - Seagate 120GB, Samsung 500GB
DVD burner: 1 - Samsung

I am having problems with the speed currently as it's terribly slow. It's even slower than Socket A and Socket 939 systems which were nearby and I know the new computer is slower.

I had Windows XP and 2000 on the Seagate (I think) and data etc. on the Samsung. I don't recall exactly the configuration but the plan was to reinstall XP only (as far as Windows goes). On one of the drives, I had Mepis 32-bit installed.

I installed Mepis 64-bit on the new system to test and it's really slow after Mepis boots up. The bouncing globe takes forever and when I start Mozilla Firefox, it seems slow to start as well but not as bad.

Does anyone recognize the problem or can guess/suggest?

I have no clue as this is the first time I participated in putting a system together from scratch. I hope I don't have any defective or problematic components. I am hoping it's just a glitch that is common when initially setting up a new computer. I got this computer because I wanted something faster and I have a lot of disk space to try out distros and learn (well, continue learning) Linux.

I did go into the BIOS and I couldn't recognize anything as 'wrong' or causing the problem. Perhaps, there is but I haven't been able to detect or discover it yet. I hope I can find some ideas or I'll have to get the computer looked at.

[Kano]

Well maybe you have got cooling problems with your cpu. Did you put on extra termal paste on the preapplied stock cooler? You have to clean cpu+cooler then and only apply a little bit. For stability improvements set speed to Standard, do not use dynamic overclocking (you can still do that later manually) and set manually the ram voltage to the value which is printed on em.

[Redeeman]

i just put together a system with EP35-DS3, and it works quite good.

can you see if the cpu overheats?

[Kano]

Usually thermal throtteling happens internally in that case to protect the cpu it adds idle phases.

[Panix]

Well maybe you have got cooling problems with your cpu. Did you put on extra termal paste on the preapplied stock cooler? You have to clean cpu+cooler then and only apply a little bit. For stability improvements set speed to Standard, do not use dynamic overclocking (you can still do that later manually) and set manually the ram voltage to the value which is printed on em.

No, I didn't add or touch the already preapplied cooler? Will I need to redo the thermal paste?

I checked the BIOS and it showed the CPU at 49 degrees and the system at around 43 degrees. Is that acceptable or too high?

I don't know what settings to use in the BIOS. I might have to take it somewhere unless I can figure out what's wrong and make the necessary adjustments/modifications.