I use my computer pretty hardcore compared to most computer users, and as a result I tend to destroy the hardware rather fast. On my previous laptop (which was admittedly poorly cooled) I had it repired 57 times over the course of it's 1.5 year lifespan. This time around, I didn't make the same mistake with the cooling, so I can rule that out. Additionally, I did extensive checking for viruses using, but not limited to HijackThis, BitDefender, Trend Micro, Spybot S&D, AdAware, and SuperAntiSpyware. So I can probably rule out it being malware, too. I've had this computer for about a year, so because of that and the aforementioned facts, I'm pretty sure a hardware component is failing. I don't know which one, but that's what I'm here to discuss.
My computer runs Windows 7, with a 60 gig OCZ Vertex and a 1 TB regular HDD. i7 processor, Gigabyte P55-U3DL mobo, 2x 2gig OCZ memory, nVidia 570 graphics card, and a Corsair Pro 750w PSU. I built it myself, and let me tell ya, it didn't run so terribly when I first built it. The first symptom was files taking a long time (~500ms) to read or write. As time has gone on, this delay has become longer to the point where it's around 4-5 seconds. I wasn't able to pinpoint which component it is, so I just dealt with it for a while. Now, however, video will tend to stutter; in varying ways, too. Video game rendering will run at a solid 50 FPS (it's capped because I have an LCD) no matter what game I play, but any time the visible area moves, the game will drop to a ridiculously bad 5-10 FPS. Without the FPS cap, most games will easily go to 150-200 FPS, so I find this to be very odd. Secondly, any video I play will randomly stop and sit there as if it's buffering, even though the bar could be completely full. After a few seconds it'll resume playing as normal. I tried reinstalling the video drivers, to no avail.
I checked the SMART info on both drives, the SSD shows read/write errors, and the HDD shows ridiculously high spin-up times. I'm thinking this could point to either a SATA Controller malfunction (the mobo) or both drives are failing simultaneously. The only reason I won't rule out both the HDD/SSD failing is because I had two Hard drives fail simultaneously a few years back. I don't want to replace the motherboard and still have a poorly performing system. Unfortunately, I don't have a HDD I can just swap out to test if it is indeed the motherboard. So, what other way could I go about figuring out which component is failing, if not through swapping parts?
