Problems with new build

[RazorRiot]

Hi all... troubles with new rig, game stutter and at times 10 maybe 20 second freeze up during playing then back to normal for a few and stutter again, mouse also moves painfully slow. Games are COD4 - Crysis ( haven't tried older games yet). Used Riva Tuner for monitoring GPU temp ~84-86c in game, CPU temp ~42 load. Problems are all related to 3D otherwise system is rather stable, no reboots or BSOD, event logs are clean.

Things tried:

Disable in BIOS C1E, TM2, EIST ( no difference )
Reset CPU and reapply Thermal Compound ( no difference )
Nvidia drivers 169.21, 169.25, 169.28 ( 8800 Ultra )
Nvidia drivers for 7800 GTX OC ( Quick swap out - no difference )
Fresh install WinXP sp2
removed audio adapter and tried on board audio ( no difference )
Win Vista 32/64
Same gear but different board DFI x38-lt ( no difference )
Set CPU fan to full throttle 2800rpm (this was loud) but ( no difference, however the games ran a bit longer before stutter )
Default board settings, no OCing

So I'm at a loss on what next to try, my older A8N-SLI X2 4600+ runs games smooth at lower game settings, is the x38 chipset flawed for gaming, should I have went with the P35 or 780i board instead?

Any help and or suggestions appreciated
__________________
GA-X38-dq6, F7
HDD - x2 74Gig WD Raptor in Raid 0
HDD - x2 Seagate 750Gig
8 GIG G.skill DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
Q6700, ZALMAN CNPS 9700 NT (Arctic Silver CMQ)
eVGA 8800 Ultra
Auzen X-Fi Prelude
CM Stacker T01
TT Toughpower 12k

[bobmitch]

Run memtest 1.70 and see if your ram is stable. Alot of x38 motherboard manufacturers are having problems with voltages and memory controller...in some instances...if you find memory errors...lower (not raise) the voltage of your memory and test again. I have the P5E from Asus (also x38) and found issues where lowering the voltage on the ram stabilized it...which tells me that my board was overvolting...

Bob

[RazorRiot]

Originally Posted by bobmitch

Run memtest 1.70 and see if your ram is stable. Alot of x38 motherboard manufacturers are having problems with voltages and memory controller...in some instances...if you find memory errors...lower (not raise) the voltage of your memory and test again. I have the P5E from Asus (also x38) and found issues where lowering the voltage on the ram stabilized it...which tells me that my board was overvolting...

Bob

OK, ran memtest v1.70 and all checked out fine. 7 passes and no errors, last thing for me to try I guess is setting memory timings to manual and see if this helps. Ive noticed several others in various forums having similar problems, at the moment not to happy about the new board. Will also try the voltage setings ans see if this works, again system is stable in 2d mode.

Any other sugestions welcomed.

Oh and for the reply

[ATINUT]

Unless your memory is standard performance memory, you will have to try running it at the rated timings, and voltage for it to be stable.

[RazorRiot]

@Atinut, thanks for the tip... Looks like setting memory timings to stock, (5-5-5-15) and voltage to 2.1 has help out in game play, still occasional stutter but nothing like before. I know this board is touchy with the type of memory used as my other sticks won't work at all but thouht since the board was stable on with everything less gaming I would not need to mess with memory settings.

Anyway thanks all!