HELP w/ building my computer, p4r800-v

[slam818]

PLEASE HELP!!! I know some of you guys may be overclockers and are good at what you do which is why i'm asking for your help. I don't want to overclock my computer but expect it's optimal performance for what it is and the money that i paid for it. This is my first time building my own computer. I have the following set up and have all the updated drivers loaded and even followed the install directions:

Intel P4 2.8 GHz-E
Asus P4R800-V Deluxe, 800 MHz FSB
512 MB PC3200 DDR, 400 MHz
GeForceFX 5600
Western Digital 200 GB HD
Pioneer DVD writer 8X

The problems I had/have are with the default BIOS settings loaded:

1) First of all, I tried running Battlefied:Vietnam on my computer. The graphics just don't run that smooth as they should with the hardware i got set up. The introduction animation logos load with a finishing twitch. The introduction animation loads with an intermittent twitch. It seems like the video is trying to catch up to the sound. And, when playing the game, the game twitches for about .5 seconds, runs smoothly for 4 seconds, twitches for .5 seconds, and so on. And there are times that the game will shut down and return me back to windows. There were even times when my entire system reset automatically on its own. May i remind you that I'm running default BIOS settings. People might say to do this but i have installed the latest Vietnam patch.

My system restarted on its own returning with the following error message:
Error signature
BCCode : 1000008e BCP1 : C0000005 BCP2 : BF8773C3 BCP3 : F3EE0864
BCP4 : 00000000 OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 1_0 Product : 256_1

The following files will be included in this error report:
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini091204-02.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Steve\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER1.tmp.dir00\sysdata.xml

2) How do i know what values to set my BIOS settings? For example there's CPU VCore, NB VCore, DDR Voltage, CAS Latency, TRCD, TRP, TRAS, etc. How am i supposed to know what values to set these parameters to get optimal performance from my computer. There are a lot of parameters to set and I don't know what the hell to set them to. How did you guys know what parameter values to enter? This is my first time building my own computer and am having a hard time figuring my BIOS settings out. It is really frustrating and am losing hair, precious time, and sleep over my new computer.

3) I have Windows XP Service Pack 1 installed now. Now how do I get windows to recognize my 200 GB hard drive rather than 137 GB?

I don't want to overclock my computer but expect it's optimal performance for what it is and the money that i paid for it. Thanks.

[Restek]

OK - a good article for an overview of settings that are likely to make a difference is here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20010725/index.html

When it comes to recognising your hard drive, check for bios updates - it may be that an update will enable larger sizes to be seen

[noby]

did you install all the mobo drivers? if not do so.