Took the plunge, but can't swim...

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Early this year my 3+ year old Asus mobo died, so I went shopping at Newegg. With little money to spend and wanting to use existing parts (CPU and RAM) I found a Gigabyte mobo that sounded good. Installed OK, got Windows going again, but have had to do two additional reinstalls since, due to boot errors. Tuesday I went to Best Buy and got Win 7 Home 64, installed and it seemed OK. Wednesday I had boot problems first time starting, eventually worked things out and got FSX installed. Thursday I had problems when the computer got turned on and it all went down hill from there... Waiting for Gigabyte's support to answer my request, shouldn't take long...

Went shopping at Newegg, as I had been thinking about a new system, after my next release and only if it made any $$$. But a payware scenery designer doesn't make any money with a bad mobo. So despite not having the true desire, I whipped out the credit card and bought the following;

Intel i930 processor
EVGA E758-A1 mobo
Patriot DDR3-1333 RAM at 7-7-7-20
and some various assorted parts to build a system.

I'm planning to reuse my nVidia 9800 GTX+ for now, as I couldn't see plunking down more $$ for a video card. But maybe around Christmas I'll check out the newer models.

For now I'll leave things at stock settings, as I need to finish the project that's 95% ready to sell. Then I'll come around looking for advice to "safely" boost that 930 beyond 2.8. The RAM I know little about, other than it's timings were better than most of the others which were around 9-9-9-24. With my luck this year, it'll probably blow up!

[harleyman]

Hmmmmmm

did you flash the mobo on the new Gigabyte mobo?????

Was the ram compatiable

Did you reformat, partition the HDD before installing Windows

[NoNewMessages]

Bios was at FB, latest is FD. So no, I left it "as shipped"

RAM was a concern, as the old Asus would take 4x1gb but only at 533mhz, not the full 800mhz. The Corsair modules are on Gigabyte's approved list. And I've run Microsoft's memory test many times. So the RAM wasn't/isn't the problem.

Always start over on the OS installs. Wipe, wash and towel dry!

You can see the comments are very hit and miss, as appears to be the norm nowadays, regardless the manufacturer; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128358

I thought my comments were quite restrained, all things considered!

[NoNewMessages]

Patiently (?) waiting like an expectant father for UPS to show up. Kudos to Newegg for another job well done, as my order was placed at 1500 local time and all the parts were out the door Friday night. Being 35 miles from their SoCal site means UPS gets it to me the next working day.

Over the weekend I got the Gigabyte going again. Only one HD installed, wiped clean and installed XP 64. Worked OK up until last night when I went to transfer some files from one USB HD to another... It wouldn't boot before with the externals connected to the e-SATA ports. Still waiting for Gigabyte to read, not acknowledge, my support request. Tomorrow I'll start using my blog for a running tally of the time involved and the turmoil endured to get some type of response. Gigabyte's service location is a 30 minute drive from me, but I'll bet they won't take a hand-delivered RMA.

FREE SOFTWARE!! for anyone that can help me get a safe and sane overclock on the 930 and EVGA mobo. Looking for something in the mid 3.xx I bought a Cooler Master V8 and have my Arctic Silver 5 to lay down on the CPU.

C'mon UPS...

[kilo delta]

Try the EVGA forums for an overclock guide for your board eg. https://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?...mpage=1#234221

[NoNewMessages]

So close, yet so far away...

Everything wants to work, except when I install the three DDR3 modules. Then I get a generic BIOS error and it won't POST. Went in and resat the CPU, didn't over-torque the CPU retainer, cleared CMOS, flashed BIOS, blah, blah, blah. It will work just fine with one module installed, any of the three work perfectly. I have even gotten two modules to work, but fill the middle slot (#3) and it's curtains for me.

About to get my advanced Phd in Electrical Engineering by posting at the EVGA forums. Hope they take pity on me...


BTW, WIndows is installed, I'm just trying to get the DDR3 to work at 6gb.