[Jerm]

Howdy all,

I recently purchased the components necessary to build a new machine and this is my first time starting from 'scratch' so to speak. Any other PC I've owned was an off-the-shelf or built by Dell type, so there was always a certain amount of 'safety net' available.

I have everything put together and it seems to run just fine (all fans, cooler, CD/DVD drives seem to function) BUT...I can't get it to boot successfully to Windows 7.

Here's my scenario:
New Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P mobo
6GB OCZ Reaper DDR2-9200 (3x2GB sticks) the 4th wont fit under the cooler.
Intel QX6700 Extreme processor
Ultra TEC (Peltier cooler)

The HDDs and CD/DVD drives are from my previous machine.
I have (2) 750GB HDD's that were RAID-1 (mirrored) on my Dell.
The new mobo supports RAID, but in the RAID config, they show up as Non-RAID on the new system. I didn't want to create a new array for fear of wiping the data on both and having to reinstall Windows, apps, etc.

So...I get 1 solid 'beep' at POST and everything seems fine, but when it gets to the 'Starting Windows' screen I see a quick blue screen flash and it crashes.

I did have to mess with the multiplier and FSB settings to get the BIOS to show the chip running at 2.66GHZ, but didn't mess with timings or CAS latency or anything since I don't thoroughly understand all of this yet.

I'm just hoping someone can point me in the right direction as far as where I should be focusing my adjustments in order to get a stable boot to Windows.

I realize this is TTD, but I've not frequented the forums pertaining to PC builds and thought I might get a better response from my peers.

Thx in advance for taking a minute to read this and for any info!