J Nice

I have the Modstream520 and it's been stable and quiet. Highly recommend it. Comes with nice, colored velcro cable ties also.

--> AMD64 3200+ Newcastle CG, XP-120 HSF, 260x10 Mhz, Vcor=1.525vx104%, Chipset=1.7V <-- e268, just curious, how are your chipset temps with 1.7v?

Also, BullDawg, along with the other suggestions... I install OS's almost every day. If your installation media is in anyway corrupt (scratches, etc on the CD) that can, and will, cause a bluescreen during installation. XP and Server 2003 installers are pretty touchy. Does your XP CD install ok in another machine?

A nice first-run setup guide is Ed Jacobson's step-by-step outline: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6615 Post #49 of the thread has the last re-edited version. Very helpful.

This study is unreal. Totally opened my eyes. Before reading that, I could not boot to 250x10 at any divider. So, I set my divider to 9:10, set HTT to x3.0, set FSB to 250x10. Memtest over 20 passes with no errors. Next will see if Windows will a) boot and B) how long I can Prime with no errors.

Yeti, are you running XP SP2? Either way, check these two articles out: 8205 from eventid.net Microsoft's 8205 Although the one from EventID says to turn it on in the BIOS, if you're not using it, disable it if possible.

Nebben, Check it out: http://www.nu2.nu/bootablecd/ The section "Clean Bootable CD-Rom (for BIOS upgrade)" worked like a champ, I was able to create cd with every available NF4 BIOS and cooresponding awdflash.exe. Loads nice-n-quick cause there are no drivers, just a little DOS shell.

Since it's not consistent it's always tough to troubleshoot. The BSODs should be logged to the System Event Log, and there may be something logged to the Application Log also, depending on the service/driver XP is choking on. Look thru the logs for the last day/time it bluescreened and let us know the Event ID(s), Source, Category and Description. Or you can put the events in your clipboard and attach them to this thread. Then we can bounce the events off of Eventid.net, Technet, google, etc and see what is up. Keep us appraised...

Hey sinstone, beyond the stickys at the top of the forum, which are totally helpful, this thread is contains a step by step guide. Cruise to page 4 for the latest update to it: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6615 Really good posting explaining the basics of O/C, bonus alot of it's based on Ultra-D: http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?t=327 Beyond that just read through the threads. I have learned alot. Just remember to use your standoffs when you mount the board : ) I spaced on that the first time and ran into some trouble. No worries.

Fastcat/Boejvad here is the Step by Step guide: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6615 Page 4 has the updated guide with all the edits and suggestions in place. Big props to Ed Jacobson for putting the guide out there.

No doubt, neatness is next to geekiness. Also, AuX, thanks for the info, sounds like what I will try and do, Run the to the right. 40 mins is totally worth it! BTW, since you're up and running, are the 120mm fans ok? Quiet or loud?

This is the pod that holds the cabling for the topside USB/1394/Audio. Thermaltake's design on a lot of thier cases is to mount these on the top rather than the front. So, there is a little plastic pod that hangs from the top of the case. (see the attached pic). From there the cables hang down top to bottom. It would be a neater cable job to run them under the board rather than in front. -J

e_lion_1, it's the I/O sheild that came with the board.

No doubt, no doubt. Thanks everyone for the replies. Also, Aux and MrTraver, are you running the cables from the top-pod underneath or over the board?

Holy sugarbeets that may have been a totally close call. Just for the heck of it I took the ram out and stuck it in ddr2 instead of ddr4. No boot. Stuck the 2nd stick on ddr4. Booted ok. So now it's back to dropping in the case *with* the standoffs this time. : ) Although maybe, just maybe, I will take the whole rig into my local mom-n-pop shop and have them set it up. At least the basics anyway. I am a MSSQL/IIS/AD guy, not much into the hardware.