Do you have latest drivers?

The bottle neck could be your video card: 8600GT 256 MB.

Which screen resolution do you play SINS ?

Try to close all other programs: antivirus etc.

I have almost the same computer as you and I don't have much problems, it might be your processer that's doing it or you could try increasing your page file.

Those "giant files on disk" wilebill mentions may either be the autosaves the game creates every 15 minutes or game recordings.

Yeah, top pretty much got it. I've got an Inspiron Laptop with 2 gigs of ram. I have to lower the quality to sustain playability in later stages of the game.

I agree that it's probably his RAM. However I used to have only 1 gig of RAM, and was fine. Now I have 2 gigs, and it's better. He should be fine if his RAM is operating normally...

http://www.memtest86.com/

Your RAM might be faulty, this was recently a problem for me that caused issues like you are receiving, in another game.

-Itharus

EDIT: You might also try uninstalling, running a defrag, and reinstalling the game - it's possible you have file corruption.

I am having the same problem, at time in late game particuily when im assinging fleets the game just freezes up.  Sins is the only game that this happens in. 

Yep, tha game's engine is broken, it's worse than Supreme Commander, they should refund people.

hortz... stop acting stupidly.

or this just might turn into a teachable moment.

Yes I do have all the latest patches.  But Im with goafan77 I probably just need more RAM.  I dont know if effects any thing but im running a sound mod.

i never have problems with slowdowns/freezes unless im playing mods, or this one map i have where someone re-created the entire universe from the game freelancer...

58 planets, 1155 gravity wells (its a massive map, lots of work went into it, but it was designed poorly... certain space stations in the game Freelancer are represented as GWs in their own right... nebulas in Freelancer are massive, so in this map they are represented with multiple UCGW's... but meh)

after i send out enough scouts, and i have explored about 60-70%, have most if not all AI slots filled, and have expanded into one or more other systems, then the game starts to lag for me

my comp is a Dell XPS 1730 Laptop with dual Intel Core 2 Duo T9300's at 2.50 GHz a piece, 4 GB DDR2 (i think), dual Ge-Force 8800M GTX Graphics Cards at with PhysX and SLi Tech 512 Mb a piece, 17" High Def Monitor with 1920x1200 resolution, running Vista 32-bit OS and DirectX 10.0

so yeah, unless i have the settings on high, and am playing a mod or that large Freelancer map, the only problem i ever have is that the first time i start it up after a long tme not playing it, it takes ages to load up, but i doubt thats to do with the program and more with the fact ill have other stuff going on (both my 200 Gb hard drives are pretty full atm, so im feeling sorry for my laptop...)

there could also be problems with your registry files, clogging up your computer... download CCleaner (google) and run it, it really boosts performance and will often clear GIGAbytes of scrap data off your hard drive. also running a virus check and ad-ware/spy-ware cleaner on your comp to clean away the cob-webs every once in a while is a great way to speed up your comp...

but yeah, the game isnt broken or buggy... 9 times out of 10, its your computer, not the game... make sure you are all up to date with all your drivers, and that you havent got a virus somewhere (or even your own virus checker/firewall) slowing your down. if you still have problems, contact support@stardock.com and get their help

Good Luck

Lol I usually push my computer and Sins to the limit

every thing high, bloom, 30k fleet per person, 200 galaxy maps rofl, 10 players rofl and only using windows xp sp2 with 2gb ram

no lag there no sir.

wow, thats impressive