Windows 2008 on I7-860 (LGA1156) on a ASUS P7P55D motherboard

[idata]

I needed a new Windows 2008 server in order to develop and test things like Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. I went to my local MicroCenter and they suggested an Intel I7-860 (LGA1156) on a ASUS P7P55D motherboard. Initially I tried the 64 install which gave many errors during installation. I then did the I386 install which worked better but it isn't perfect. Currently I am having problems loading the network driver that comes on the ASUS board. Am I barking up the wrong tree with this combination? Should this be a 64 bit installation? Is there another processor that you could suggest that would work on this board? Putting the equipment together was pretty simple. Once I started to install the software I encountered issues. I would generally just buy a server from Dell but I was really trying to save some bucks here.

[idata]

Your going to have to manually install it but thats the driver right their.

Vista and WinServer 2008 Driver 6.227

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

[idata]

Thanks for pointing to the direction of the lan drivers. It appears that it is more than this and I'm looking for advise on whether the motherboard and CPU can even work in this environment. Whether I try the 32 or 64 bit installation some sort of error comes up to halt the installation. Maybe it is as simple as a bios setting I need to change. I'm a little out of my comfort zone. Does anyone know if this combo should be working under Windows 2008 Server? If it does work, what version should I be installing 32 or 64?

[idata]

There is no reason why you can't install Windows 2008 and I bet if you try to install Windows XP, Vista or 7 you will be having the same problems so this is likely a hardware problem.

What RAM, PSU and GPU do you have?

Done a BIOS update?

[idata]

The memory is 4GB DDR3-1600 (PC-12800) Gold Low Voltage CL8 Memory Kit (Two 2GB Memory Modules). Powersupply is Antec EarthWatts 650 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply The Graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce 7300GT PCI Express. The graphcis card was new but something I had bought a while back but never used. I did do a bios update. Any clues on where to go would be apprciated. I did think about trying to install Windows 7 just to see if it would work.

[idata]

Some things you can try.

Take the 4 pin cover off the 8 pin EATX12 V block and use the 8 pin from your PSU.

Don't use the IDE or black SATA ports.

Set DRAM Voltage to 1.65V

Run a RAM test

http://www.memtest.org/ http://www.memtest.org/

[idata]

I made the last changes you suggested on the 8 Pin from the PSU and the Dram Voltage. I still ended up with installation issues. I then got the idea of trying to install with only 2 gig (1 chip). Based on all the things that have been happening I am wondering if I have a bad chip. I ended up being able to install Windows Enterprise 2008 sp2. This is an I386 version. I swapped the chips around until I got an installation that would work.

Should I have been able to install the 64 bit version?

If I get different memory I want to make sure I get the correct configuration.

[idata]

I ended up finding a tech guy who advised me to Install 2008 R2 with one memory chip and then after the installation add the other chip. I should have been able to install the 64bit OS all along. I had never heard of this issue before but the guy told me that they have had this issue with Vista and Server items when trying to install with larger amounts of memory. So far things are now working. Thanks for the previous replies to my post. They only helped in the machine configuration.