Newly built system, running into some problems

[ggmike]

hey everyone, i hate to be the kind of person to make my first post one asking for help but ive searched for a few days and maybe im just missing something but ive ran into a few problems with a system ive just built. also keep in mind this is the first system ive built, so human error being the problem would be no surprise.

this is the specs for the new build:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 960T
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
MEMORY: G.Skill Ripjaws 16gb 4x4gb ddr3-1333
HD: 2x seagate 350gig, 1TB seagate barracuda, crucial m4 64gig SSD
PSU: Apevia ATX-AQ700W-BK 700W
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6750 700M 1GB DDR3 DP HDMI DVI PCI-E

Win7 Ultimate 32-bit

also, not sure if this was the correct forum to post this on so my apologies if i have made a mistake. anywho, on with the headache..

first issue: im only able to install 2 of the 4 memory sticks, if more are installed, when i boot the computer, it just gives me the continuous long beeps. ive tried different combinations/order of the sticks but i just cant seem to figure that out. i know win7 32bit only allows up 3.5 gig of ram, that may be the problem, which brings me to the next problem.

Issue #2: i cant get the SSD drive to show up in the bios or in windows. i wasplanning on installing win7 64bit on this as this was my original plan. ive tried plugging it into different a few different sata ports on the mobo but i havent found any to pick it up, yet.

Issue #3: brand new graphics card, xfx radeon 6750, from bootup, once i get to the windows login screen, there are tons of artifacts all over the screen. sometimes its less, sometimes its more. i have all the latest drivers as well. i tried my old geforce 8500gt, which, with my monitor has worked fine in the past, the same thing happened with the artifacts on screen. and this is just for regular browsing and everyday computer use. video playback is littered with them as well.

i would really appreciate the help, again, sorry for the first post asking for you all to solve my problems. im usually pretty resourceful when it comes to troubleshooting, but this has got me stumped. thanks again in advance for any help

 

[majorgibly]

Start with the first problem because sometime these things are related. Sort out 64bit so then you are running 16GB Ram. Just double check that all your connects are into the SSD such as power and SATA. Make sure you are not using onboard graphics (ie make sure the screen is going into the GPU and not the Motherboard IO shield. Try this then update us on how you go.

 

[ggmike]

Will do, I should have some time tomorrow to get that done, but do you think that would be the reason why the system wouldn't even post with all 4 sticks installed? I mean.. It makes some sense with 32bit win not supporting that much ram...but idk.. Still new to this

 

[jsc]

You have a hardware problem with the RAM. It's true that the 32 bit OS cannot use more than about 3.5 GB+/- , but the motherboard should recognize all of it. If it doesn't, you have something wrong with your hardware.

What is your RAM voltage set to? As long as it is under 1.65 volts, try increasing it a little.

If the SSD does not show up in the BIOS, it may be defective. Try it in another computer.

If you are seeing artifacts with both video cards, it's probably not the video cards. To make sure, try them in another computer also.

 

[alphaproject]

Yep...maybe its bad ram? I'm surprised you went with an AMD and not i5 core as of right now...simply because it's an insane chip....send it all back...LOL. Although...you may have a borked mobo as well.... it can happen.

Joking aside... I have i5-2500k with G.skill 8 gigs PC1866 in Win XP and it boots fine. Win XP only sees 2.66 gigs of it though but still runs fine. I have not actually worked it all all....but it did get far past the bios/winxp loading screen...but it asked me to activate it and I am still using that serial on my main PC so I didn't activate it and it sort of locked me out...it was a clone. Anyhow....yea...you got a bad stick of ram I think.

I've looked up that mobo/CPU combo. It wasn't cheap so I figured you really could have gotten the I5/Intel board and they are much...much faster. I also don't understand why you got 4 sticks instead of 2 sticks. Ususlly ram is best started with 2x2 not 4x4. I'm rambling...but why not also get 1866 ram since it's just as cheap as 1333 ram right now.

 

[ggmike]

This build suits my needs though. I don't use it for gaming and AMD is just personal preference but I will look into the suggestions this far, thanks for your replies everyone, hopefully I can get this sorted out