First Build Frustration

[romeroal]

Setup:

-5511 Black ATX Mid-Tower Case and 400-Watt 20/24-pin Power Supply
-ASUS P5ND2 SLI Deluxe MOBO
-Pentium D 830 Processor
-Maxtor DiamonMax 10 / 250GB / 7200 / 16MB / SATA-150 HDD
-Corsair TWINX PC5400 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 Memory (2 x 512MB)
-Sony DRU810A DVD/RW
-Sony CRX320A/U DVD-ROM
-Creative Labs XtremeMusic Sound Card
-NVIDIA XFX GeForce 6800XT DDR3 PCI

At first I had a cooling problem with my CPU but thanks to reading your other threads I was able to fix it. At first it was between 75-80 degrees at startup and would freeze continously right after POST, now it runs between 40 and 60. After a couple of hours of the computer working perfectly well it started freezing again. Sometimes it freezes after an hour or so sometimes after a few minutes and other times it doesnt even make it past the windows login screen.

I have done a Norton antivirus and Webroot Anti-Spyware software on the system and there were no viruses found and 9 infections of spyware cookies. The spyware problems have been corrected but my computer still freezes.
I have tried running the system with just the mobo and graphics card. I can get into steup mode and all that without any problems... the computer POSTs everythime, then I connected my HDD and that's when the problems start. Again the computer POSTs and it goes all the way into booting up the system. I can see the Windows XP screen and the login screen but as you can read above... sometimes it works fine but other times it frezzes. But the thing is I tried replacing my Hard Drive with a new Western Digital one but the same symptoms occur. Did I do something wrong when I set it up?
I have also tried replacing my memory with a brand new out of the box stick and still same problems occur.
The PSU that came with the tower has also been replaced with a new Ultra V-series 500W PSU but still no change.
I also changed out my CPU with my budy's Pentium 4 630 CPU and still the same.
About the only thing I can think of is that when reading my mobo specs it reads that it is compatible with SATA 3.0 HDDs but the one I have installed is a SATA 1.5 could this be causing all of my problems or Do I have a bad Mobo?
You guys think I should try running an old IDE type HDD before going out and buying a SATA 3.0 HDD?
Please Help, I need a second opinion, this is starting to get very frustrating... I know my way around computers, I'm no GOD like you guys but I can get around and this one build is just kicking me in the rear. Thanks in advance for your inputs guys and keep up the good work.

[Kov-Ice]

Welcome to PCMech. Sorry you haven't gotten a reply sooner. I wouldn't think that you'd get loaded up if the HDD was the issue. The SATA stuff should be backwards compatible. Did you try the memory one stick at a time, or run MEMTEST just to be sure they're all ok? Ultimate Boot CD has lots of diagnostics that might give you some direction and could test your drives for you as well. Hope someone comes along with a better answer for your.

[Kareeser]

Also, try reinstalling the Heat Sink/Fan Combo once more. You will have to put some pressure into it, and the 775HSF combo makes a nice "CLANG" sound when it goes in... four times.

It is often install the HSF before the motherboard is installed into the computer.