Building my first computer (second try)

[commissionertom]

About a month ago i decided that my computer was no longer able to do what i wanted. Im a 17 year old who likes playing games... alot... (Counterstrike Source, Battlefield 2, WOW etc.) So i was able to convince my parents that our 5 year old computer was in need of replacement. I started looking around on websites like "New egg" and began selecting what i wanted. I thought all was going well and I even had one of my buddies, who had built several computers help me out. My parents gave me a budget of about $1000, not including monitor, speakers and all that good stuff. So I finally placed my order with newegg. Here is what i bought.

LOGISYS computer Xblade Steel ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811105114&Tpk=n82e16811105114


MSI P35 Platinum LGA 775 motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130097&Tpk=n82e16813130097


Rosewill 550w Power supply (to replace the 450w included with case)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182010


Intel 3.0ghz Core 2 Duo E6850 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115028


(2) 1 gig sticks of G-skill ddr2 1066 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231127


EVGA GeForce 8600 GTS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130286

My harddrive was a seagate 250gb.

Sooo about a week later it all arrived and I, with the help of my buddie excitedly put it together.. With excitement in my eyes i pressed the power button. A few seconds later the computer shut off.. As the anger and frustration began rising within me, the computer suddenly sprang to life again. I watched in wonder as the computer began its boot sequence ( I had a windows XP disk in ). So it all booted up and windows began loading itself.(checking system hardware etc.) When it got to the part that said inititializing windows or something like that it froze. I tried about 10 more to no avail. The next few days were spent researching all of the parts that i had received and put together. On about the third day, I was convinced that it was a faulty motherboard, after reading reviews of similiar problems occuring. So i sent it back and two weeks later i got my second motherboard. (same kind) This time i went a bit slower with putting it together. Once together i turned it on, and the exact same thing happened. My dad finally decided that we should take it to a professional to see what the problem was. So he did and after a $200 bill, the computer tech thought he had fixed the problem. He said he reinstalled a new BIOS and some drivers. I happily took the computer and set it up and began messing around with it. Within the first hour, the computer had encountered 3 random blue screens of death resulting in full shutdown. I spent a few days trying to see what was wrong, but was unable to find anything. The end result of this whole process was that we sent it all back to new egg.....So this is where i stand.

I have an Antec 900 case and a 320gb Seagate harddrive. What I am asking is for any suggestions for my next attempt at building a computer, and feel free to tell me what i did wrong with the first setup. One thing that im not quite sure about it my processor. I was originally going to get the 3ghz core 2 duo, but ive read a bit about the quad core.. but i dont really know anything about it. Thanks in advance for any help!

[shadowpr]

Hard to really say what the problem was the first time since you already sent it back.

If you're going to try again, I'll suggest some basic parts, you can add up the total, and then we can customize it accordingly.

MB: P5K-SE
Ram: Corsair XMS 2x1gb DDR2 800 Cas 5
CPU: E6750
PSU: Corsair 520hx
Video: 8800gt
DVD: Lite-on Dvd burner Retail

You alredy have a case, and HD. Is the seagate a sata connection?

I assume you have a new copy of Windows, and not one that came with a Dell or anything.

[catacon]

Well, your first mistake was not buying quality parts. Rosewill power supplies are junk. It is very important to get a quality brand PSU like Antec, Corsair, or FSP. Just because the PSU has a lot of watts, it is not necessarily good. Also, the MSI motherboard is not a good choice. For a system like yours, I would have chosen the ASUS P5K, which almost everyone around here will suggest.

Your CPU, hard drive, and graphics card are all fine.

[bd1886]

A few other recommendations are going to be made by folks here. That PSU is borderline at best and you should have gotten a 2gig kit for the RAM to take advantage of dual channel. The other stuff looks to be ok choices but better quality stuff is the same price (or cheaper). You can actually build a real nice machine these days, for a grand, with higher quality components. Check out the "stickies" at the top of the headers of each forum. These are truly great places that give good advise on choices and decisions with building and servicing your computer. Welcome!

[commissionertom]

Ok.. so to shadows question, yes the hard drive is sata. So on my ram would it be best to go with DDR2 800 as opposed to something faster? Also a big question of mine is FSB. All of the items i previously bought had a 1333 fsb, or at least capability. So is that as important as i think it is. I'm just trying to get the "newest" things so it doesnt quickly get outdated. The ASUS pk5 motherboards seem to look nice. Is the PK5-E good? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131225

Then as far as memory goes would this be pretty nice?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145043

Thanks for all the help

[keith_mahoney]

Then as far as memory goes would this be pretty nice?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145043

Thanks for all the help

You ought to go the route that SHODOWPR showed you with RAM. Dominator is known to be a little more finnicky plus requires more power thus producing more heat and on and on. Since you do not have money of your own to be swapping parts out when they go bad just set up a nice stable system. use the money saved for a better vid card or something.

[shadowpr]

Newegg isn't working for me right now, but a P5K-E would work just fine.

And the E6750 has a fsb of 1333, which is also supported by the MB.