BenchZowner

Price went down to 77.4gbp @ ebuyer in case some of you are looking for a cheap yet decent SSD ;)

Sorry about the delay mate, I had a lot of work to do this weekend. I'll try to give you a BIOS settings list to try later on, or tomorrow in the morning :)

I'm afraid that at this point you need to start troubleshooting using the part elimination technique ( meaning: try different hardware parts that are known to work fine, one by one on your PC to see which part causes your issues ). If you've got a buddy with similar/compatible hardware with yours, it's time to convince him to come over and help you troubleshoot the PC by swapping parts one by one until you find the culprit. If you have a camera and don't mind, you should also take shots of your BIOS menus ( all of them ) and upload them so we can see your settings and see if there's a badly set parameter or loosening/raising some setting might help in solving your issues.

Download HCI Design's memtest for windows, and open up as many instances as required to test all your available RAM ( each instance has a maximum memory to test limit, can't recall the exact number ) and have it test your RAM up to 500%. If any errors occur stop the testing process and report back here :)

Without opening the case CPU-z ( cpuid.com ) and/or AIDA64 ( aida64.com ) are the best software option IMHO. Especially for Laptops AIDA64 is the best solution as it can read extended info from the motherboard ( if the manufacturer has filled the info of course ) to be precise for the multi-configuration laptop models, etc.

Graphics card is 99% out of the equation. I'm starting to feel that your HDD is the source of your issues. Can you download the manufacturer's HDD test tool and run the full test suite ( long version ) on the HDD to see if it reports any problems ?

Could be a HDD problem ( HDD malfunctioning and providing the CPU with erroneous data ), could be a CPU or RAM problem, and could also be a VGA ( graphics card ) problem. Try running Furmark in Xtreme Burning Mode "Burn in test" to see if the graphics card is behind this issue, if it gets very hot ( to the point it can cause problems ) or if it operates normally.

Mirror Edge is fine ( not as stressful as the other games I mentioned, but good enough to put your hardware to the test ). So, now you're using the computer with all 4 memory modules installed and have no issues/BSODs/freezes whatsoever ?

That's absolutely normal. It is like that by design. There's nothing wrong with your computer in this matter.

Enter a game, quit it, let the system idle for 5 minutes, and give us a screenshot of the "Processes" tab of the "Task Manager" with all the running processes shown ( make sure you tick the "show processes from all users" option at the bottom left side of the window ).

Nope. The main memory ( RAM ) is a temporary storage solution. After you cut the electricity supply to it it loses its contents. The only thing you can do to the RAM is break it by feeding it with high voltages or by using it with a damaged equipment ( e.g. very badly malfunctioning motherboard, PSU that blew up or is pretty close to that ) and having it damaged by it.

If you really want to dig into modern games, if I were you, I'd rather save up money and once I have a decent amount ( not necessarily a lot, 500$ is good for a proper gaming PC [ without a monitor & peripherals purchase ] ) I'd sell my current parts ( this PC ) and build a custom rig with the money you have & get from selling it. You'll be much better off. Assuming that your motherboard could support a Q6600 ( don't know, it should, but didn't research on BIOS support for your motherboard ), you'd be able to buy a used one for about $80-100. You'd also need 4GB of DDR2 RAM, approx $60 for a new value kit. Then you'd also need a graphics card ( could be anything, even a $400 Radeon HD7950 ). And lastly, a new power supply unit ( toss in another $100 or so ) And with your current motherboard ( assuming that it supports the Q6600...if ) I don't think you'd be able to overclock it much ( if at all ) Compared to what you need to buy a new and much better PC, the above suggestion sounds ridiculous to me.

Looks like you're good to go CPU & RAM-wise. Can you install a relatively heavy ( demanding ) game, e.g. Crysis Warhead and try to play for a while ? ( like 30 minutes continuously ) and see if it works fine or you get a crash/freeze/skips/etc. Set the game to run at 1280x1024 medium details ( gamer I think ).

What's the native display resolution of your monitor ? ( assuming that you're using a TFT monitor ) Racing & shooter games as in... you're interested to play DiRT 3, DiRT Showdown ( upcoming ), Crysis, Crysis 2, BattleField 3, Metro2033 and the likes ? If yes, then the graphics card is #1 ( Unless your monitor's resolution is 1024x768 or 1366x768 ). But if you go for a decent graphics card, and want to play the games mentioned above you'll also have to upgrade your CPU and have 3GB or more RAM ( 4GB is more than fine, 8GB is the end of all :p )

Leave the power settings as is, and re-run it but for 20 loops ( times ). If it fails again we'll have to dig into the BIOS and try a few things, if it we'll have to look elsewhere for your troubles. No matter how it goes, successful completion of 20 loops or not, the next step is more troubleshooting, just less guesswork.