Glitchy New System. Esp. Audio and Video

Hello Wise People,

I've just recently completed a new system and build with these specs:

Cpu: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Deneb 125W ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... )

MOBO: MSI 790FX-GD70 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... )

Hard Drives: Western Digital 150gb 10k Raptor SATA 3gps & WDC green 500gb SATA 3gps (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... )

Memory: Mushkin Redline 6Gb (3x2gb) DDR 3 1600 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... )

PSU: Silverstone 850W ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... )

GPU: ATI Firepro V5700 512mb ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... )

CASE: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...)

Here are my issues:

1) The thing glitches. It's jumpy. When typing text, the cursor lurches and the text appears all at once instead of smoothly. The music glitches out and repeats the same split second for anywhere from 2 to 10 seconds. It does the same thing with video. And the system has become progressively worse/slower.

2) The eSata ports don't work at all. I've got one on the back of the mobo (it's a combo USB/eSata slot) and one on the top of the case. Both are plugged in, but neither work. I've tried two separate eSata hard drives on each slot with no results.

I designed this machine to do 2 things. The first is to kick ass with 3D applications like 3DS max and Sketchup; and vector drawing/photo editing programs like AutoCad and Photoshop. (The machine is my girlfirend's and we're architecture students.) The second is to play videos and music well. She likes to watch movies and listen to music while working, and this computer is accomplishing that very well so far.

Any tips for making the machine smoother and getting those eSata ports to work would be most appreciated! I talked her into building this machine rather than buying one or a Mac, and I want to show her the good will of internet computer wizards and the value of doing this *** yourself as opposed to buying overpriced corporate machines.

Thanks!