Hello All, I'm doing my first build and I need to know what to lookout for. I have read a lot about it, but I am very very very far from being a guru. I have all the parts I just need to put things together. I have: Phenom II 940 X4 3.00 ghz cpu, Asus M3A78-T mobo, ATI Radeon HD 3450 Video Card to run Hybrid Crossfire, 8g 800mgz DDR2,Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 HD, LG Blu Ray HD DVD DVD writer with Light Scrib, My monitor is a Sharp Aquos 46 inch LCD 1080p Thermaltake 600 watt psu, Thermaltake V9 case. My OS will be Vista Home Basic 64bit. I have read that some mother boards can't run the Dragon with out a bios flash. Mine should be ok as per the Asus web site. So look over the list am I missing anything? What should I look out for? Any pitfalls ahead? Any info? Thanks all.

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FX 8150 X 8 4.5MHz
Asus Crosshair V
ATI Radeon HD 6950 X2
8 gb Corsair Dominator GT 9-9-9-24@ 1866mhz DDR3
Seagate 7200.10 HDD LG BluRay HD DVD
w/LightScrib
Crucial M4 128 SSD
55"Vizio LCD
Corsair HX 1000 psu
NZXT Phantom Black
Corsair H80 push/pull
Razer Death Adder VooDoo edition mouse and Keyboard.

Edited: 02/14/2009 at 02:05 PM by Speedwayaudio

One step at a time is my recommendation. I recently build mine and it was smooth as butter. As for your question about the bios flash for your Asus board, just go to their website and download the newest one to a thumb drive, that way you have it available just in case.

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Phenom II 940
Asus M3A79-T Delux
2-4870x2 Crossfire
2-150 Vel-Raptor Raid-0
1000W Corsairs HX

Well, you didn't mention a cooler. I guess you're going to use the stock one? Getting a tube of thermal compound may be useful, in case you need to remove the heatsink for some reason.
How do you know your BIOS is the right version? Normally you can't know, before you've ran it first and seen the BIOS version at boot up. The CPU you have needs at least BIOS v.0502.
However, the 0802 seems to have lots of corrections, and reading what these are, maybe it won't be a bad idea to flash to that one. If you decide to do that and if you're inexperienced, I don't recommend you to try it yourself. It's a quite risky business. Better ask someone who's done it before.

Why 800MHz DDR2? That motherboard & processor support 1066MHz DDR2 (which can be ran at 800MHz, if you want it to). But well, that's not a big problem.

One thing to watch for, when you connect your HDD and Blu-Ray Drive, the HDD needs to be connected to SATA1. Also, disable RAID support, if you're not going to use it, it saves some time at boot.

Also, set the DVD drive as the primary boot device, if it's not the case by default. And maybe you'll need the SATA chipset drivers. So, copy them, preferably to a floppy or usb drive.

And, finally - good luck. If you ever have any other question(s), don't hesitate.

Asus said on the web site if the number printed under the part number is greater than 0502 than it will support the 940. Mine is 1205 I think. I'm at work right now so I do not have board in front of me. The 800mhz ram came with the board and cpu as a combo. $435.00 is that a good price? I thought is was. Anyway I'm running the stock cooler cause warrrinty is void if I run after market cooler. I have thermal compound. Thanks for your posts. Anything else??

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FX 8150 X 8 4.5MHz
Asus Crosshair V
ATI Radeon HD 6950 X2
8 gb Corsair Dominator GT 9-9-9-24@ 1866mhz DDR3
Seagate 7200.10 HDD LG BluRay HD DVD
w/LightScrib
Crucial M4 128 SSD
55"Vizio LCD
Corsair HX 1000 psu
NZXT Phantom Black
Corsair H80 push/pull
Razer Death Adder VooDoo edition mouse and Keyboard.

Oh, Ok, then - that clarifies quite a bit. It's a good deal, indeed.

One precision, though, concerning that warranty - using a conductive thermal compound such as Arctic Silver 5 voids it as well. At least what concerns AMD.

And that LG drive of yours, is it a GGW-H20L?

It is a GGC-H20L. I don't know the name brand of the thermal compound my buddy has it and said I could use it if needed. He said it like nail polish. It has a little brush so you can paint a thin layer on the heat sink.

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FX 8150 X 8 4.5MHz
Asus Crosshair V
ATI Radeon HD 6950 X2
8 gb Corsair Dominator GT 9-9-9-24@ 1866mhz DDR3
Seagate 7200.10 HDD LG BluRay HD DVD
w/LightScrib
Crucial M4 128 SSD
55"Vizio LCD
Corsair HX 1000 psu
NZXT Phantom Black
Corsair H80 push/pull
Razer Death Adder VooDoo edition mouse and Keyboard.

Uhuh. Was asking that about the LG drive because I bought that model the other day.

From how you describe the thermal compound I guess it's Zalman STG-1.

Well I got it all together and it would not post. Tried 10 times to get it to post. Then I took it to my buddies house. He is an IT guy from our work. He said I had everything right that the mother board must be bad?? Any thoughts?? I 'm calling the place I got it from in the morning to get a return or exchange.

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FX 8150 X 8 4.5MHz
Asus Crosshair V
ATI Radeon HD 6950 X2
8 gb Corsair Dominator GT 9-9-9-24@ 1866mhz DDR3
Seagate 7200.10 HDD LG BluRay HD DVD
w/LightScrib
Crucial M4 128 SSD
55"Vizio LCD
Corsair HX 1000 psu
NZXT Phantom Black
Corsair H80 push/pull
Razer Death Adder VooDoo edition mouse and Keyboard.

Do you mean it doesn't start up at all, or it just fails the boot tests?

it fails boot test fans work the green light on mother board works. I have been reading some other forums I think I need to flash the bios, but how can I do that if the darn thing won't run??

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FX 8150 X 8 4.5MHz
Asus Crosshair V
ATI Radeon HD 6950 X2
8 gb Corsair Dominator GT 9-9-9-24@ 1866mhz DDR3
Seagate 7200.10 HDD LG BluRay HD DVD
w/LightScrib
Crucial M4 128 SSD
55"Vizio LCD
Corsair HX 1000 psu
NZXT Phantom Black
Corsair H80 push/pull
Razer Death Adder VooDoo edition mouse and Keyboard.

Had something similar with a brand new Abit board once. Refused to start after being powered for some time, then after 10-15 minutes waiting it did start. In the end it died for good... fortunately it was in warranty.

Do you have another AM2(+) CPU, you can test it with? If you need to upgrade the BIOS, that's the only way, I guess. Have you tried resetting the CMOS?

Does it say anything? Does it beep (one, twice, thrice)?

no beeps no nothing. I was reading some of the forums on the Asus site and most of the people with the same trouble had to flash. I don't have any other cpus. I could buy one I guess. I am going to see if my IT buddy has a cpu. He is into AMD so he just might. The Asus site tells you where to read on the board what revision the board has, but does not tell what it means. mine has rev 1.01G what ever that means.

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FX 8150 X 8 4.5MHz
Asus Crosshair V
ATI Radeon HD 6950 X2
8 gb Corsair Dominator GT 9-9-9-24@ 1866mhz DDR3
Seagate 7200.10 HDD LG BluRay HD DVD
w/LightScrib
Crucial M4 128 SSD
55"Vizio LCD
Corsair HX 1000 psu
NZXT Phantom Black
Corsair H80 push/pull
Razer Death Adder VooDoo edition mouse and Keyboard.

Just to make sure: did you connect the square 4pin 12V connector next the CPU? My manual clearly states it won't POST unless it's connected.

It could be a defective memory stick as well, this has happened to me several times.
Check each stick individually, then try each (one at a time) in another Dimm slot.
Also, don't install all 8GB of RAM when doing your initial install/post.
Some motherboards don't like 4GB or more on an initial install (for whatever reason).
Just install 2GB when going through your initial post and windows installation.

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Phenom II X6 1100T B.E.@ 4.26GHz
Corsair H70 Core Hydro
ASUS Crosshair V Formula
2x4GB G.Skill RipjawsX@ 1894MHz, 9-10-9-28
SLI: 2x EVGA GTX 570's@ 902/1804/2032
Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Corsair HX850W Modular
Cooler Master HAF 922
2x Win 7 Home Premium (x64)

good news all. I took the board to a local computer shop MR.PC and they put a cpu in it and flashed the bios. I got it home put all back to gether and WHAMMO works like a champ! I rollin' Boys The Dragon is breathin' Fire. AWESOME!! I wish to thank all of you for your advice it really helped a ton. Once again thanks!!

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FX 8150 X 8 4.5MHz
Asus Crosshair V
ATI Radeon HD 6950 X2
8 gb Corsair Dominator GT 9-9-9-24@ 1866mhz DDR3
Seagate 7200.10 HDD LG BluRay HD DVD
w/LightScrib
Crucial M4 128 SSD
55"Vizio LCD
Corsair HX 1000 psu
NZXT Phantom Black
Corsair H80 push/pull
Razer Death Adder VooDoo edition mouse and Keyboard.

Nice. Glad to hear that. And cheers!