My First Build (i7 920, 5850)

[cavsfan]

I'm attempting my first system build for christmas. I picked up a couple items from new egg on black friday and then today snagged a couple more items. Pics are fun so here we go

First I purchased a Cooler Master HAF 922

The deal was good and I liked the space it provided.


Same day I got an Antec True Power 750 watt power supply.

Also a good deal and from some reviews its a decent power supply.


I was then deciding on a graphics card, unfortunately I wasn't set on one during the big price break times, so if there was a deal on a 5850 I missed it. As you can tell, I've decided on a 5850 and pulled the trigger on it tonight since it was in stock at newegg.

A second is in the future possibly, but until I get the career rolling it will have to wait a bit.


Then I grabbed a Xigmatek Dark Night for the processor along with some arctic silver

So that leaves me with a few important items left to buy. I will be getting an i7 920 from MicroCenter hopefully this weekend, so that is set. Though that leaves my motherboard and ram undecided.

Personally I'm stuck between an ASRock X58 Extreme and Asus P6T, ram won't be too hard of a decision and mostly depend on the motherboard and how cheap I can get it.

I'm open to all opinions on this system and if you have any experience with either motherboard please do chime in.

I'd go with the ASRock because price is important, but I just see too many RMA's in the reviews with new egg it really makes me wonder if the extra cash will be well spent with the Asus.

 

[p55ibexpeak]

1st off, the noobs in newegg reviews aren't professionals with 10+ years of computer building experience. Most of 'em are noobs. Some don't even know what they're talking about.

Every board has pros & cons. As long as it's not defective or DOA and the parts are compatible, it will POST. However, whether you can achieve a crazy-s overclock done by some elite B's with a cascade phase change unit or custom pot + LN2 is another story.

If it were me, I'd get the ASRock. It's a unit of ASUS that makes budget boards. The Extreme is no budget.

 

[dndhatcher]

Newegg reviews, especially on motherboards and CPU coolers are nearly useless. Most of the reported motherboard DOA problems are self inflicted.

Professional reviews on the x58 extreme were all good and I havent seen any threads complaining about that motherboard on an enthusiast site. A few people who post here got one and said they like it.

 

[cavsfan]

Thanks for your in put and knowledge!

You do provide a good point and also help me to realize i didn't really specify my intentions with the system/processor.

This is for video editing and gaming, I do plan on overclocking the i7 920 to around 3.8 - 4.0, but I'm not looking for any OC records here.

Will the ASRock hold up well to an overclock in that range?

 

[dndhatcher]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cheap-x58-motherboard,2368.html
You can decide for yourself.

 

[cavsfan]

yeah, kind of a stupid question there on my part. I've read that review through a couple of times, I'm just nervous to pull the trigger on a board if you can't tell, lol.

 

[cavsfan]

Bought this today, right before an exam! lol

 

[cavsfan]

Well, I've installed everything. I went with 6gb of OCZ Gold DDR3 ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365

Also aquired a Seagate 7200.12 500Gb hard drive

Trying to install windows 7 64 bit for the last couple of hours and can't get the install to finish. It freezes once it has to "expand windows files", I never reach any completion rate and feel like I have something setup incorrectly in the bios with my hard drive.

I'm not running raid, can't afford it right now, lol.

Thanks for any help

Edit:

I need to add more info, sorry about that.

I am able to get a single beep from the motherboard, so that is good news.

I have moved the ram around and it appears to work in white slots, but when using 1 stick only in a blue slot, the computer wouldn't boot.

I can't get passed expanding windows files, copying windows files goes quickly, but then everything locks up and the computer starts to randomly reboot itself.

 

[aux]

have you check the dvd(installer)? i had the same problem, turned out the dvd is defective.

 

[cavsfan]

I burned two different iso images, but I guess I could try it again.

Going nuts trying to get this new build to work

 

[aux]

two? wow, hope youre doin a gud job assembling the parts.

 

[cavsfan]

I can't think of what I did wrong on assembly, I followed the guild on here and reset the cpu and cooler earlier today.

Could this be a problem with the i7? Should I remove it and then put it in again?

I'm getting a succesful boot and am able to go into the bios, along with get about 1/8 of the way done with windows 7 install, but can't get it to move any further.

Currently I have 1 stick of ram in (2gigs) and everything else I can disconnected, yet it still just reboots after trying to unpack windows files.

 

[cavsfan]

Currently running memTest to check all ram

 

[aux]

i found something here :
http://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-install-keeps-rebooting-t726.html
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7install/thread/e548bb88-838d-461b-a475-cd1bec38f505
http://www.notebooks.com/2009/10/23/how-to-fix-the-cant-unpack-windows-7-student-upgrade-error/
havent checked it yet, sorry dont have much time. but it looks like that you have to use another iso if you burn it yourself. try to borrow someone elses installer. i think its not your fault.

 

[cavsfan]

computer rebooted halfway through test with 1 stick of ram

edit: thanks for the link, I'll check it out, may have a different problem on my hands though, not sure.

 

[cavsfan]

I'm going to RMA the board and talk to newegg people tomorrow morning, hopefully they will let me return this board and put the money towards a different board. I feared this type of thing would happen and after running every test and trying for 8 hours yesterday, I'm done with this board.