ganders75

Sounds alot like a heatsink problem to me. I'm thinking one of two things: 1) The zalman is not making proper contact with the IHS of your processor. Make sure that both are flat and smooth, lap them if necessary to get a good, smooth surface. Re-seat it and see if the temps have improved. If it isn't making good contact, think about getting one that will fit correctly... 2) The IHS isn't making contact with the CPU itself. This one is harder to fix - and can really only be done by an RMA or popping off the lid of your CPU (THIS WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!!) You can then run it naked, or attempt to reapply the gunk and put the IHS back on.

You need to clear the CMOS properly - follow the linkage in my sig. There is much more to it than just taking out the battery...

Are you running on an O/C? If so bring it back to stock and see if you still get the same problem. Are you memtest stable - enable it in the BIOS and allow it to run overnight. If you aren't then post back and we'll try to get it sorted. Do you have anything on AUTO in your Genie Settings? If so, this may be the cause of your issues. These boards can be quite picky with some of the secondary timings. What about Prime/Orthos? Are you 12hr stable in this also - once you can boot or course?

Only 1 place in the UK that i know of that even sells the VC-RE. They are crazy expensive compared to the price if you can source one from the US - but ti does say they have a few in stock at the moment...

Have you switched the cables for known good ones? Are the drives still in RAID config? You could try breaking the array and recreating it (exactly the same obivously, without deleting data from the drives) If you are able you might want to try with another drive which isn't part of the array (or if you are happy to zero a drive, break the array, zero the drive and test that). Do you still get the issue?

Have you tried a longer CMOS clear yet? Tried it back at stock?

Whoa whoa whoa - dont be using a vice or any such thing.. have a look at this linkage for a bit of a step-by-step. It's really a pretty simple concept. You get something flat - like a glass table or whatever - and get some fine-as sandpaper. Wet the paper - then you run the CPU HSF or Heatsink over it very carefully to remove the imperfections. Repeat with finer and finer paper, until bored or tired. Be real-real-real careful with the pins on your CPU though. If you bend them out of shape then you can easily break them off trying to get them back to true. Remember all you're trying to achieve is a mirror-like finish which is as flat as possible - which will help to spread the heat dispersion over a larger surface area.

What I'm thinking is 2 fold: 1) That CPU doesn't look like you've lapped it - so I'm going to assume that you haven't lapped the BT either. Maybe the BT and the HSF on the CPU aren't in very good contact due to irregularities on the surface of one or the other (lapping them both will fix this) or 2) Maybe inside between the HSF and the chip itself on the CPU aren't in good contact. Only option would be to pop it off (thus voiding any sort of warranty) and run it naked. This is a pretty risky business - especially with something the size of that Big Typhoon sitting on top of it.

A good choice. Think the PSU of choice these days would have to be the Corsair 520 or 620 if you can get your hands on one of those instead? They are great value for money...

You say 450W PSU - but you dont specify which type/make/model... This could quite likely be your problem... The full CMOS clear from a no-boot is in my sig - give that a shot and see if you continue to have troubles. Don't skip any steps (eg. if you don't have a ps/2 keyboard)

Just a quick followup on your troubles with that other mobo. What kind of CMOS clear did you try? Just a short one? Follow the routine shown in the sig - it can often help bring these boards back from the seeming dead... When you try booting, you should be using just one stick in the furthest orange whenever you have problems. This will help to eliminate other issues such as RAM not playing nicely in dual channel mode, etc.

Definately want to see the finished article, subscribed.

What make/model was the other one that you tried? it is really important that it was a quality PSU - not a piece of junk from another old machine. It's pretty unlikely that both your Mobos would experience the same problem like this - so more than likely it is another component which has been fried... Are you doing a minimal build - what do you have connected, and where?

You have another PSU that you can try? Maybe that one has died, possibly got sparked when you were installing the new card?

Without sitting in front of your rig, you can really only be given some blind advice. Things like: * test your max memory and max CPU separately, then find a position where they play nice together. * run a higher max async latency for high FSB on a divider. * drive strength and data drive strength make a big difference to stability. * don't run with scissors. What you really need is some linkage: have a good read of the Definitive AMD Overclocking Guide. It has bundles of info on all the settings. Get yourself some stock settings from the stock speed database, memTest to be sure you are stable...