How come my new hardware stills lags?

[Wolfmight]

When I play FarCry, Half-Life 2, or Doom 3 I normally get 60-100 fps, but I still get little lags from here and there when new things come on screen. My setup is:

Nvidia 7800GT 256MB 1.0Ghz Memory Clock, 450Mhz Core clock.

Amd Sempron 64 1.7ghz 64+64 L1 Cache, 128 L2 Cache (EasyTune5 Reports my CPU Clock to be at 1698.88Mhz, so I might as well say it's a 1.7ghz)

200GB IDE 7200rpm Hardrive that has 33% free space.

1gb DDR Ram 400Mhz

nforce4 chipset on my motherboard.


I've already installed the latest drivers for both my graphics card and motherboard using Nvidia.com's drivers.

Do you think it's the CPU or Hardrive?
If so, which should I get instead?
(I'll try to rack up some more money and sell the old part I suppose)

Could I just overclock the CPU to 2.0Ghz and get rid of the Lag?
Currently, my CPU temp is pretty much "always" 30 degrees celsius.

I thought that have a graphics card with a 1ghz memory clock, 445MHz Core Clock, and 400 MHz Ramdac would save my CPU all the trouble when it comes to processing graphics. Basicly I see it does, but I still get little lags everytime some music comes on (a split second lag/freeze), some new evironment is loaded (only 25% of the time really), or when a big event occurs. I've never had a lag over 1-2 seconds, but they can get annoying sometimes when I notice the FPS is 100 and I'm still getting a lag or two. Wtf?

Any ideas?
Does overclocking allow a system to stay on all day or can you only use it for about 3-5 hours to prevent overheating?

I really wish I had $150-$200 extra to get a socket 939 and AMD 64 Venice or something.

Details Specs:
My Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130247
My CPU: http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819104245
My Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813128308

I installed a second copy of Windows XP, but I stripped down the installation using nLite and I made the system as "barebone" as possible. I installed a copy of halflife 2 on it also and the game does run about 5-8% better, but I still get the lags. I figured windows xp without all it's crap would allow me to have a very small registry and thus running the system faster...and indeed it does, but mostly for the operating system environment. Without anything to bog it down, my barebone installation of XP starts up nearly 5x faster than my first one and it can explorer files in a snap! It can completely boot up as fast as a Ps2. (hell, actually faster)

Could it be the AMD "Quiet and Cool" driver for the CPU?
I've already defragged and checkdisk'd all my partitions. It stills seems like something isn't fast enough and it's probably the CPU or Hardrive. Would a 15000 rpm solve this?

[abu_has_the_power]

that has nothing to do with the graphx card. it could be the cpu or ram

[SaYiaN]

Bad sound drivers?

is the psu holding up? well-known and reliable?

[Seedler]

I think it's your cpu. Your vid card is great, but your cpu is the bottleneck of your system.

[S!X]

Pretty brutal cpu, id say thats the cause also. Get an AMD X2

[Wolfmight]

I've got an Antec 450W PSU with dual 12v rails.
I have the latest nvidia sound drivers for my mobo. Gigabyte's website says to use Realtek sound drivers, but I dunno. Would that solve the issue?

Hmm, it appears the 2.6ghz cpu for 754 is only $300. The 2.6ghz for 939 cost $800. Half the Cache and 200Mhz less FSB.

[Wolfmight]

Can this only be used on a laptop? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819104257
It says Mobile, but I don't know what would stop me from putting it on my board. The price is kinda high, so I'll have to rack up some cash for it.

Compared to my current cpu, it's:
1.0Ghz faster, 744kb more L2 Cache (1MB L2 Cache), and it uses .05 less voltage.

[zapjb]

I vote for the CPU as well.

[Wolfmight]

I vote for the CPU as well.

Is this one any good?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819104257

I don't have $1000 for a Socket 939 board and 2.6ghz AMD 64 Socket 939, so this'd be cheaper and it would give me a huge boost.

[tesco]

I doubt it's the CPU.
I've run Doom3 wihtout lag on an athlon XP 2200+