AtaliaA1

You have done everything. One thing left to test would be that 9800Gt, it is after all a bit long in the tooth. Can you use a freinds card to put in your machine?

LOL or Not....... Sounds like a short. or arching from a plug sitting close to your case. I had this issue with a molex pointing toward the metal and arching when the power was applied. after readjusting the extra cabling (hiding) it went away.

Most new builds that have this issue are Thermal Paste related, it sounds true of yours also as you mentioned in the first post that is happens when the CPU is stressed. Overheating and Thermal paste sounds more likely than the power supply unless, as you mentioned you were told not to use it, there is some manufacturing defect involved with it.

I think A-10 Warthog deserves at least a look see. It has a high learning curve but is well worth it as it is a "True" Flight Sim, or as some like to say "Study Sim" as it is very detailed in its weapons deployment. It is said to be as acurate to a real A-10 as the Government would allow. Requires a 64Bit Operating System but everything else is low. Some are playing it with the 9800GT. and the Dual Core Intel Chips.

The Wifes Pc. should be a "Boutique" build, she will get alot more and for less than we can build. $800 for her system from iBuyPower or CyberPC would keep her happy and allow you more for the gaming PC. SSD for sure, no less than 120Gigs and focus on the video card for sure. nothing lower than the 6950 AMD and all of the Ti Cards 460 and up in the Nvidea offerings are good. That $500 upgrade you mentioned would be good for updating the video card to what ever is the best offering at that time. Your Gaming PC budget allows for another Boutique build. take a look, that budget will get you a heck of a machine and less headaches unless building is just a matter of 'Passion" as it is to most of us.

Wow nice. I will take a look at these. That Cooler Master is the one I was talking about, what a monster of a case. But you are right a full tower is the way to go.

Everything arrived and I spent a good hour and half first cleaning the case, blowing it out just doesn't Quite do it. After putting everything together I closed the case and the temps. are 52c at idle and 68 on load. Although these are acceptable at the slight Overclock I have by way of the Bioss' AI Tweaker, I could not yet imagine putting any more tweaks to the CPU until I get better readings. My issue is the Mid Tower case I have it is an NZXT mid. tower. even with all the fans and cooling I have applied to this system the mid. tower is not allowing the breathing space needed to take advantage of my efforts. So I will get a full tower and use this case to build my 5yr. old his own PC. for his room. The little Tike is capable of copying and pasting, using a USB Key to transfer his sponge bob cartoons from my PC to his Laptop already. Nice having a Geek for a Dad. What I will need is help with the settings in the BIOS that will allow a stable overclock. and any suggestions of a full tower case would be nice. not that big monster one who's name escapes me at present. Something middle of the road with a side panel. Almost forgot. when the side panel is off the PC idles at 37c and at load it was 52c so I am headed in the right direction with the cooling I have applied so far.

OCZ Technology OCZTXTCC2 XTC Cooler V2 Vantec SP-FC70-BL Spectrum System Fan Card with Dual Adjustable 70mm UV LED Fans (Blue) Cooler Master Hyper N520 Mirror Finished Copper Base Aluminum Fins 5 Heatpipes CPU Cooler - (RR-920-N520-GP) Cooler Master Slim 80mm Standard Case for Fan (R4 SPS 20AK GP) Along with the case fans already installed I believe I can get 4.5Ghz I don't know if I would want to maintain it but will find my personal sweet spot somewhere in that area. Will keep ya posted as I may need assistance in doing the actual OCing.

I should have elaborated. I am just rebuilding my PC and thought I would increase the speed by way of the IA tweaker in the Bios. When I did I got temps. way to high for stock cooler and lower grade case fans. This is originaly a boutique build from iBuyPower. So I opened the cases side panel to see if upgrading the CPU Cooler and case fans was even feasable, and the temps. dropped low enough to allow the Overclock but to maintain the settings I will need to upgrade the cooling. This will reduce the temps. even lower than they are now. at load I am getting 80 but not sustained just peeks and then back to mid 70s at load. Loving this overclocking, can't imagine ever just running at stock speeds anymore.

Sounds like you did this in the summer and now you are doing it in the winter months to me. Just by way of your temperature readings. Possible? And I don't understand why you are so intent on lowering your good temp. readings anyway?

LOL Sure use the "Don't ask Don't tell" Policy.

I see you set your tJmax at 100. I had mine set at 80, was getting all kinds of alarms but only at load. So I will set mine to 90 and continue. Just wanted to thank you, I would have continued to think the alarm at 80 was a problem had I not read this.

The ATI OverDrive overclocking utility offers a simple process instead of the traditionally complex process of overclocking CPU, RAM and graphics cards so you do not need to restart the PC after each variation. This was taken from a review of your PC. it appears this is a windows based program and not in the BIOS. as you don't need to restart the PC after you use the utility. You do not see the program in the start menu? And after reviewing the specs. on this I would most definetly get DDR3 Ram for it, the price was reduced a bit by adding DDR2 but it is not optimul for Overclocking it generates more heat as it trys to keep up. Water Cooling is perfect although there are better systems on the market yours should handle it ok.