I've seen temperature mentioned several times in this thread, and that would
be my first guess. You might try aiming a desk fan directly at the
motherboard/cpu prior to powering up and see if the forced air makes any
difference. Easy to try, and would probably eliminate overheating as the
problem if it doesn't make any difference.
wrote in message
...
On Thu, 24 Mar 2011 02:17:51 -0700, D wrote:

I've put the computer together which I mentioned in my previous "outside
the case" post, and I'm am having a bit of difficulty, though I doubt
it's related to the no-case part. I know this isn't really a computer
forum, but if any of the very knowledgeable people here have any
insights into the following, I'd sure appreciate hearing them.

The components of the new build are as follows:

-GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel
Motherboard

-Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
BX80601950

-HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3020ALA632 (0F12117) 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

-CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1333C9

-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

-Thermaltake Black Widow PSU W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91
CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE

-Older Powercolor X800 GTO vid card

I have initially set up the bits on a table, outside of the case (so I
can still use the PC which is now occupying the case until all is well
with the new bits). Loading went fine, got online & began loading
software, when the PC locked up. In the ~6 hours I've been playing with
this, it has not run longer than about 20 minutes without locking up,
sometimes only 5 or 10 minutes. It seems fine, then just locks. No
mouse, no keyboard, no ctrl/alt/del function, I have to do a reset to
get it going again. I've pulled the HDD & re-installed the OS on a spare
160 gig IDE drive I have, same behavior, so it's not the HDD. What
components are the most likely culprits here? Any suggestions anyone
might have on this situation would be greatly appreciated!

I should add that I installed about 55 updates from MS to the Win 7
installation (all available), after which it still locked.

Haven't had an OS lock up since Windows ME. I'm already missing XP! ;-(

Dan
Odds are it is not related to 64 bit Win7. Thousands have been
running it without the level of problems you are seeing.

There are various flavors of 'Ultimate boot CD' that allow you to boot
from CD and run diagnostics independent of your OS. Try one of those.

Check bios settings, both for temperature and for performance. I'm
running Win7-64 on a Gigabyte motherboard and adopted the attitude
that it's better to run a little slower and avoid lockups. I haven't
had any problems that couldn't be traced to the unit between the
keyboard and the chair.

PlainBill