climberdude

It could be a BIOS issue but I'm not really interested in waiting for a fix. I had an almost identical experience with an MSI board a while back. Even after I updated the BIOS to the new "fixed" version I always had stability issues when gaming with that board, until I upgraded to a nicer one.

My new build is really dragging out. However, I think that I've finally identified the problem, that is that the motherboard I purchased (Asus M4A785TD-V EVO) has serious compatibility problems with ATIs 5XXX line of graphics cards. There is a post on the Asus forum for that board and it appears that lots of others are having similar issues. So, long story short, I'm returning the Asus and am now looking for a new motherboard. I don't want to go through this again so I was hoping you guys could help point me in right direction. I've been looking at this board, but I was wondering if the 790FX chipset is the way to go?

Well I recently upgraded my system, new everything, but i could not for the life of me get the gfx card to work. It booted fine on integrated graphics, so i just thought that my 5850 was DOA. However I gave it to someone to test and he says the card works fine in a different system. Also, he tried a lower power requirement card in my rig and it also worked just fine. So to me this points to my current Antec 500W unit just not having enough juice, as the system he tested the card in has a 750W supply. I just ordered the Corsair 750W linked above, we'll see how it all turns out.

Hmm thanks for the feedback guys. I've also been hearing good things about this Corsair 750W unit. Thoughts? I'm looking for something that's at least 750W and less than $150 if anyone has any recommendations.

I am in the market for a new PSU and I remember from a few years ago that PC Power and Cooling was a highly recommended brand. I was wondering if this is still the case, and if this supply is a good one?

I'm using DVI for both onboard and the 5850. I pulled everything out of my case and tried the other PCI-E slot, which gave exactly the same results. I'm fairly certain now that the 5850 is dead. I can't be 100% sure it isn't the PSU or maybe even the Motherboard though cause I don't have other parts to test with. I know 500W isn't that much but it should at least be able to boot with no HDD, disc drive, and only one stick of ram. I'm opening a ticket with XFX hopefully they can help me sort this out or get me a new one.

Thats what I was thinking too but perhaps the supply is faulty or the HDD spinning up is pushing it past the limit?. I should be home in a few hours and I'll give it a go. Unfortunately I'm the only PC gamer among my circle of friends so I can't try swapping parts. Everyone else I know has a laptop and an Xbox/PS3.

I'm thinking I will try that, maybe even without the HDD and RAM just the CPU and vid card just to see if I can even get a signal from the darn thing. Unfortunately I won't be back home until this evening. However I was wondering if an insufficient power supply would cause the symptoms I'm showing? More specifically, the video card is plugged in and the fan is spinning (at full tilt no less, quite loudly), however produces no signal. When using onboard graphics the video card doesn't show up in the Win 7 device manager at all.

I've got an Antec 500w supply. It has one native 6pin Pci e and the other is through the adapter that came with the card. I'm really loosing it here, just got off the phone with XFX and they were extremely un helpful.

The other PCI-E slot is sort of inaccessible because of the layout of my case, but I don't think that should be the problem as it was working for a bit... gah I dunno at this point.

So I have a new build up and running.... ish. I've got a AMD Phenom II 955, Asus M4A785TD-V EVO mobo, and an XFX HD5850. Four gigs of OCZ DDR3 1600 as well. First time i fired it up.... it clearly powered on but i could see nothing. So i switch to internal graphics and it works just fine. After messing with it for half an hour or so I finally got it to display through the 5850. SO i start Win 7 install, come back an hour later and.... nothing. Switch back to integrated graphics and there it is, just fine. Now I cannot get Windows 7 to even recognize the presence of the graphics card. Drivers will not install, nothing. Help?

I would highly recommend these: Grado SR-60i. The ones I own are acttually just the SR-60 but they sound amazing. They have an old school look to them as well which may not work for you but I love it. Anywho, you won't be disappointed, and they beat the hell out of any set of speakers I've ever heard, even running from my iPod.

After reading a few articles it looks like Intel is indeed the better option. I thought I remembered that AMD was usually the better performance/price option but it looks to me like that's changed. So, i5 or i7? Is i7 worth the extra $$?

Again thanks for all the responses. I guess what I'm distilling from this is that DDR3 is probably a good investment since it's the newer standard and not too much more expensive? So I guess I need to search for a cheaper mobo and a nice monitor. Oh and some place that actually has 5870's available.....

Thanks alot for all the feedback. As for the RAM situation, the price difference doesn't seem to be compelling in either direction. It seems that DDR2 is maybe $10 cheaper... maybe I'm just not finding a good deal. For the CPU, I don't see a convincing reason to switch to a AM2+ board. However, I probably will switch to a less expensive mobo in the end. And thank you for the monitor advice! It is much needed.