My new rig

[edog5150]

Hey everyone!!! Love the input everyone puts on these forums. Want to see what you guys think about the new system I ordered.

CPU INTEL C2D E8400 3G 775 45N - [/url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037&Tpk=CPU%2bINTEL%2bE8400 MEM 1Gx2 OCZ DIII1333 OCZ3G13332...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227246


VGA EVGA 512-P3-N808-AR 8800GT 512M - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130335


MB FOXCONN X38A 775 X38 ICH9R RTL - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186134

Now the motherboard I was very iffy on getting as I heard the drivers were a pain but I figured I still give it a try. Just curious what you guys think?

Thanks again for all the input ppl put in these forums really is very informative.

 

[jpdykes]

Hi edog, few comments:

- DDR3 is very expensive and not worth the extra over DDR2, there is only a limitted preformance upgrade.
- If you are running Vista 4Gb would give an advantage when gaming.
- I would wait on the graphics card new ATi and NVidia cards are just around the corner. Expect a price war over the summer.
- X38 chipset was designed for running 2 ATi cards in crossfire rather than 2 NVidia cards. You may find issues with this later.
- What power supply are you using? A decent 500W should be adequate.
- The E8400 is a good choice if you are really into fast running games, most applications are still dual threading.

Hope this is useful.

 

[Andrius]

My thoughts :
1. Mixed memory motherboards are generaly not a good investment. If you plan to overclock (upto 400MHz FSB it's trivial) get a DDR2 or DDR3 only board. This board also has a "dumb" layout. DDR3 is limited to 4GB while DDR2 is limited to 8GB.

2. DDR2 is cheap, DDR3 is still expensive, performance benefits are miniscule. I recommend getting a Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 or GA-X48-DS4 and 4GB (2x2GB sticks) DDR2 1066MHz kit (if overclocking is your goal) or DDR2 800MHz kit.

3. Also get a good CPU cooler if you plan to overclock.

EDIT: jpdykes beat me to it.

 

[Kari]

^^ yeah, what they said
the cpu is a good choice, the rest is a little odd combination...

 

[royalcrown]

I rather like the MB, it has a lot of features, seems like a good price.

 

[Rhino11]

Hi everyone... Hope I can explain this good enough so here goes.

My brother (Original Poster - edog5150) recently purchased this set up:

CPU INTEL C2D E8400 3G 775 45N - [/url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037&Tpk=CPU%2bINTEL%2bE8400 MEM 1Gx2 OCZ DIII1333 OCZ3G13332...oduct/Prod]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227246
VGA EVGA 512-P3-N808-AR 8800GT 512M - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130335
MB FOXCONN X38A 775 X38 ICH9R RTL - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813186134
Hard Drive 500GB Seagate Baracuda (bought from Best Buy)

Everything was installed and when he went to fire it up there was a problem regarding windows xp not being able to load up properly. He kept getting a STOP ERROR listed below:

-------> STOP: 0X0000007E (OXCOOOOOO5, 0XF748E08F, 0XF78DA208, 0XF78D9F08)

Now.. I did some research on this error and came across a great fix by a guy named Paul Thurrott and by utilizing something called Slipstreaming, was able to take my WindowsXP disk and slipstream SP2 into it and then did a new install of WindowsXP.

Everything seemed to work ok, it took 2 tries of installing because the first time it bugged out when he clicked NO after an error message in the windows install came up about "Battery". But lets move past this... He was finally able to get the entire Windows installed but he can not get any of the drivers from the Foxconn MOBO disk to load and is unable to use any USB slots.

Can anyone follow this, have the same issues.. or have any advice for me to help him with.



On a different note... he already had an old hard drive with windows on it, but when he tries to use that hard drive and not the new one he purchased, the computer actually turns itself off and wont run. Anybody know what is up with that. The old Harddrive is not SATA, it is IDE (?) i think, but I believe the board should support both.

If you guys also need more information then I posted, please ask... he has almost given up hope and I am trying to help him out the best way I can. BTW.. obviously I am typing this for him, because he cannot get onto the web anyways.. thanks in advance for any advice/help you guys can give

 

[Andrius]

Try running the bootable CD of MemTest86 first to see if the RAM is working properly : http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.4a.iso.zip
Let it complete 5-10 tests.

Download latest drivers and BIOS from the foxconn website and try with those. The reason why he can't use USB is they don't work without drivers. http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/downloads.aspx?product_type=Motherboard&product_series=Socket+775&product_model=X38A&product_id=en-us0000355

The IDE drive probably doesn't work because of some short/bad conntact. Reconnect everything and make sure it's jumpers are set up properly. Also enable the onboard IDE device in BIOS.