I need some help, computer stuttering

Davenge

Hello, before I get started I'd just like to say that I couldn't figure out where to put this because I'm not sure if its a hardware or software issue but since I personally am leaning towards hardware, I put it in hardware. Forgive me my blindness if there was an obvious one that I completely missed but Im a little paniced and upset at the moment.

Build:
-AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor
-MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard
-Corsair Extreme Series CMFSSD-64D1 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) + 5 other harddrives for storage, mixed group that range in size from 200-660 gbs, I think all are atleast 7,200 RPM.
-G.SKILL Perfect Storm 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133
-Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready
-x2 nVidia 9800gtx OC2 from BFGtech.
-OS Windows XP Pro

Ok, so first of all, the nvidia + crossfire thing isn't really my problem. I see that's where I messed up and now have an extra 9800gtx+ that's useless because I can't use it with crossfire.(My old board was SLI, oh well.)
This is a new build I put together yesterday, everything except the powersupply, keyboard,mouse,monitor,old harddrives, and gfx cards are new. Everything was going well yesterday, I was installing, the computer was booting super fast with the new SSD harddrive and then I plugged in my other harddrives.(They had been disconnected to avoid confusion when installing/updating windows.) This slowed down my boot times by almost ten to fifteen seconds. This was my first problem, is this normal?
Second, like always, I decided to fiddle around when I know I shouldn't. I started with a 12-14% OC on the processor to get it from it's stock 3.4ghz to 3.8ghz. I rebooted and loaded, everything seemed to be going fine. Ten to twenty seconds into reboot the system crashed and I restarted, turned CPU back down, and loaded windows. Now, whenever my comp was trying to think my mouse began to skip and stutter all over the place. Eventually it simply just wouldn't work so I tried to use the keyboard thinking my mouse had just died.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. Using tab and the keyboard I still noticed a ton of system lag if the computer was doing any sort of thinking at all. I started investigating. Here is what I've found/done so far.
First, my ram was only showing 2.7gb of the 6 I have in there. I know XP is good for atleast 4. I shut down, removed the ram, changed the order, plugged it back in, booted up, still gettnig stuttering but I'm also getting 3.5gb showing now. Still not the six I should have. When in the BIOs I also noticed that the ram is only clocking up at 1333 when it should be close to 2133. Could it be the ram issues?

Next, my new case literally has 12+ fans of multiple different varieties and a "Sim" box that controlls them all. Thinking power might be the issue I unplugged that and the power going to my second gfx card(since it's useless) and the fan to the ram to free up as much power as possible. No change.

When I overclocked for that short time I don't know if I damaged my CPU but I could have? All my drivers are up to date and I've reformatted once already with no change. Do I need a better OS that XP? It was running fine after the original install, I don't know why it's started acting like this. I really need help, thanks in advance.
-Dan

Edit:
Further information: I just removed all but one stick and rebooted. Windows read the single stick @ 2gb no problem but was still clocking in at 1333mhz instead of the 2133 it should be at. Then I rinsed and repeated with every stick, same result on each so I don't think its bad ram. Bad Bios maybe?

sychial

Well first of all, if you're not experienced with OCing then you shouldn't do it on expensive equipment. Second, when you OC you should have your RAM and FSB at 1:1 ratio, sometimes 1:2, otherwise you will experience what you're experiencing now. If you don't know what this means then you shouldn't be OCing and begin doing more research. Third, remove 2 of those RAM sticks from your machine, it's pointless. Windows XP 32bit will only see 3.6GB outta 4GB, not sure why you only see 3.5 though. Maybe removing those 2 sticks will put it at 3.6 under Windows, I don't know. You need a 64bit OS to see past 4GB anyway.

As for your RAM speed, you might also have to increase the voltage for your RAM to run at 2133. I couldn't find a datasheet for your RAM, but I didn't look too hard for it either, so if you can find one it should tell you what voltage you need to make it run at 2133. Also you can try manually changing the "Command per Clock" from 1T to 2T if you think you're running the correct voltage, but if you really don't have a clue what you're doing then do it at your own risk. If all fails and your system doesn't start, then just pull the CMOS battery and start from scratch and hope it still works.