Ok I got her all up and running yesterday. Since I got "sick" at my job I was able to work on it all day yesterday.
Anyway everything went together great with the exception of a few hang ups.
Case: First the case directions SUCKED. The MB tray had two little black screws holding the front which was not explained in the manual. I spent almost an hour trying to get the thing open without bending or busting something. Then I noticed the door on the panel wouldn't close. The latch was busted. SO I am going to buy another case today and switch the front.
Also I found out the hard way that polished aluminum scratches VERY easily. Another thing Ill change out with the new case. It may sound like I'm a brute but thats simply not the case (no pun intended). Its just this case had very tight tolerances and everything has to be exact or you'll end up with a scratch. The LED hook-ups were not that clear ether. For example one plug says PWR LED which you would assume means power LED. However when hooked up to the board it doesn't work. Attached to the same line is two other one prong plugs marked P+LED and P-LED. I have NO idea what these are for. There is nothing on the board that they would go to unless they are the positive and negative to the power LED light. If this is the case then where does the PWR LED plug go?! Anyway the HD LED didnt work but that was my fault. I hooked it up backwards
So in the end I only have one LED that works on the front of the case. Very annyoing.
The next issue I have is the 120mm fan plug isn't long enough to reach the board. I have to figure out how to connect it. I'm hoping they have an extension at Best Buy. If not Ill just buy a new fan with a long enough cord.
CPU: I had no problems with the installation but the Thermaltake V1 wouldn't fit. Not because of its size but because of the latch. First the latch wouldn't fit the cooler due to the lever. It would hit the cooling pipe when trying to close it. Now I'm not even going into the pressure it took to lock it down. For that thing to set I could have to applied 300 lbs. to get it to lock. To me it wasn't the risk to the mobo. Plus the fit just sucked.
RAM: The only thing I didn't have to take a shot of whiskey for.
GPU: What's there to say. Its one screw.
PSU: This wasnt to bad at all. Thanks to WileE I went with a Corsair 750. Amazing quality! The only had one real problem and it had to do with the case. Simply there was a bracket you had to mount to the PSU so it would attach to the case. No big deal but it would have been nice to know before hand. Also the ATX power connection was attached to another one making it a 8 plug instead of 4. Freaked me out at first.
I couldn't find the damn 4 ATX power hook up!
Power on: Well now the big test. Will she turn on. Sure did and it ran like a charm! Except no picture!!!! So I changed the DVI to the Mobo hook up and still nothing. I thought "Hell what did I do wrong?!" Well it was the GPU. As soon as I disconnected the GPU it booted up fine. Once I installed everything I put the 4850 back in and she ran great.
Aftermath: Ok now I have a few questions. First my ram is only reading at 800. It should be 1066 is there something I should be doing? My CPU temp is 43º to 44º in the bios and in AMD overdrive it says 33º to 39º. Is this safe for a stock cooler? I ask because I had some issues with the stock cooler. Nothing major. It was just hard to apply the thing. I was afraid it was taking to much pressure to lock. Now for you guys with MSI boards how would you suggest I flash the bios?
Ill be posting pictures and benches once I have everything up at 100%.
