Serious Opinions needed

T

Tunasam

n00b
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Messages
37
I just built this system:

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
AMD A64 X2 4200+
CORSAIR 2X1G Twinx2048-3200c2pt
BFG 7800 GTX OC
Maxtor Diamondmax 300GB HD (16MB Cache)
Antec P180 Case w/ Antec Truepower II 550W PSU
SB Audigy 2ZS
Etc, Etc

It runs cool, very cool, MB and CPU are at 36C full load, and the GPU is around 48 idle, nothing over 70 under load.

My problem is with system stabilty, in games, and random start-ups.

BF2 plays great, fully maxxed setting, but it locks up randomly, sometimes 5 minutes in, sometimes 25 minutes in, but it ALWAYS locks up at some point. CS:S runs better, lockups are very rare, but they do happen (also a weird glitch where my gun would dissapear (only happened once on de_train).

I believe it's the HD, as I wasn't able to do a Long format. It gets 20% done and then gives me an error, says it cant format the drive, but a quick format works, as Im using the computer right now.

I cant use the Maxtor HD checker, because its an Nforce4 board, and I dont have any other SATA HD's to check with this syste.

So what do I need for input?

I read that the ASUS boards have strange issues with the memory I bought, but I cant tell if this is the cause. Obviously the HD is messed, and I need to replace it.

So take a look at my system, and tell me how I could improve. Im thinking about returning the HD and Memory, and getting better stuff. Im looking for rock solid stabilty but top of the line performance, I dont like to OC.

Should I get a raptor and then a generic big HD? Would that boost performance much?

Also, whats some good Ram to get, I want two gigs, fast, but stable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated guys.

System is running great besides that stuff.

Also, think the Dell 2001FP 20.1" would be a good gaming monitor for this rig?

-Tuna
 
Agreed, that HD has some issue. I'm sure you can go to the manu's website and get a drive testing utility.

I just bought a gig of this and i'm running it 2-3-3-5 with no issues whatsoever. Was considering going to another gig as well.

The lockups worry me, it could be the HD but it could also be anything else. Maybe run a memtest as well to be sure.

 
It may not be the hard drive at all. Remember everything that is written to the drive or read from the drive goes through the memory. Even if the memory passes memtest86, that does not mean that it is completely compatible with that motherboard. I've run into situations where I thought the drive was bad by the way the system was acting and it turned out to be memory. Sometimes the drive wouldn't detect on one system and the machine would give file copy errors and when I tried unpacking .zip files after getting the OS loaded, the thing would give file corruption errors. The same was true if I was installing stuff from CD.

After, I changed the memory, no more problems.

The board is picky about memory timings with many modules and with some modules it doesn't work right. I should know, I used to own one of those and I've built many systems based on that board.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
The board is picky about memory timings with many modules and with some modules it doesn't work right. I should know, I used to own one of those and I've built many systems based on that board.
Click to expand...
Are you referring to the Asus A8N-SLI Premium?
or the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe?
 
I have an ASUS a8n-deluxe, I have 2 GB of Kingston Hyper-X--KHX3200A/512....excellent stability. No issues, but I dont OC. I read up some on this on the ASUS site and called their TECH line to make sure I wouldnt have any such issues. Also, I found that the nVIDIA firewall when enabled caused me some random lockups. I got rid of it and havent had a problem since. Good luck. When I loaded the new system, I also quick formatted. I use a plain old 160 GB WD caviar that connects via IDE. :D
 
Yes, the Dell 2001 FP would be great. I have one, really like it alot. Got it on EBay for a really excellent price.
 
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