freezing problems

I just built a computer with dual 3.ghz xenons supermicro x6dal-b2 motherboard 2gigs of ddr2 400mhz ram 2 sata hard drives 500 gig and a crappy pci graphics card.
after installing windows Xp on it I am having problems with it freezing within miniets of boot. At first I thought it to be a graphics card problem but after installing Radmin and remoting into the computer I would have the same problems.
any suggestions?

 

Is the power supply adequate for the system? What brand/wattage is it?

 

umm 580 watts but the 4 pin is jury rigged/extenended cause it wasn't long enough, that might be it but wouldn't it just not boot.

 

I assume it's a branded power supply rather than a generic one, so it's unlikely that it is the problem. It's worth checking the continuity of your extended 4-pin using a multimeter to see if there's a break anywhere in it, though.

Try running memtest on the sticks of RAM to see if they throw any errors.

 

I don't have a multimeter any suggestions of other things to use?

 

Electricians screwdrivers (the ones with a little bulb in the handle). Put the screwdriver on the place you wanna test and put your finger on the opposite end of the screwdriver. If the light in the handle comes on, power is flowing I guess that's all very well, if you have one of these around ...