New Build BSOD's

the vid card is
MSI N9600GT-MD1G GeForce 9600 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

and the drivers are the vista version that came on the cd.

heres a newegg link to the vid card:

Newegg.com - MSI N9600GT-MD1G GeForce 9600 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

i tried to download a windows 7 version of the drivers, it was a 165mb file that msi only lets download at about 20k/s, so it took a WHILE, and was corrupted when it finished, and i wasn't particularly feeling like downloading it again. if anyone thinks the vid card could be causing this and i should try gettin that again, lemme know.

when i get free from school and work im gonna try and run memtest on one stick of ram at a time.

blarg.

My problem with running a barebones test would be that i dont get the bsod's reliably enough to have a good test. It takes somewhere between a half hour and an hour and a half of uptime before it throws a bsod, so the lack of one isnt a neccesarliy reliable indicator.

double blarg.

well, i have found at least one cause.

thanks to whomever posted the memtest non-86, the windows version, and a comprehensive set of tests, i have determined that its actually my mobo and not my ram that is faulty. When either or both sticks are in the two slots closest to the cpu, it can run a full test to 500% coverage with no probs. If i have just one stick and its either in the second orange or second black slot, or if i have two sticks and either or both is in one of those slots (i.e. if im using slot #3 or #4 at all) it finds lots of errors right away.

so, the faulty hardware is actually 2 of the ram slots.

there may be other issues, with the video card and or drivers etc, but this is defnitly one of the huge problems.

my next question is as follows:
a)i am correct in assuming that the performance hit from not being able to synch my ram, and having 2 chips in the first 2 slots, one orange and one black, would give a significant performance hit, correct?
b)if i was willing to overlook that hit, would there be a chance that whatever is wrong with slots 3 and 4 spread to slots 1 and 2 at some point, after all warranties have expired?

i am almost certainly going to rma the mobo, but itd be nice to know my options.

you all have been a GINORMOUS help btw.