Built first PC, having problems

[Hongfire]

I finished assembling my first PC last night, but I've had a myriad of problems so far.

Right after I had everything assembled, I plugged it in, turned it on, and installed Windows XP. Now I'm getting a "error in loading the operating system" message during boot-up.

Did I miss some important step? I'm really dissapointed, I was hoping my first shot at building a PC would be smoother than this.

Heres what I'm using.

AMD Athlon 64x2 3800+ Dual Core - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562
Asus A8N-SLI - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131524
evga GeForce 7600 GT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130283
Corsair ValueSelect 1GB Dual Channel Memoru(512 x 2) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145440
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152059
Western Digital 160GB Internal ATA Hard Drive - http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Weste...oductDetail.do

[ktkendall]

That memory thing is likely the root of all your woes there on that PC. Both sticks should work fine as they are a matched dual channel pair or modules. Do you have them in the proper slots?? Did you check the BIOS settings especially those related to memory timing?? I agree it should be plug and play with those components, but it doesn't hurt to get into the BIOS and set things up proper. Is your processor clocking at full speed, because that is also something that may need to be adjusted in the BIOS settings.

[Hongfire]

Well, i just found out one of the sticks is defective, so I'm sending it back. I'm using the non dual channel 1GB from my old system, which works fine.

Now I'm just concerned about getting windows to boot.

[glc]

Why are you using an IDE hard drive?