I just built a new system with:

Gigabyte M59SLI-S5 MB
AMD X2 5200+ CPU
2GB Corsair XM2 DDR2 800 Ram
EVGA 7950GT 256mb pci-e Video
2 WD 160GB SATA2 HDD (RAID zero)
1 WD 250GB SATA2 HDD (Storage)
Samsung SH-S162L DVD-burner

I installed XP without any problems. But when I tried to install linux, it just stopped. I tried Mandriva 2007 Powerpack+, 2007 Free, 2006 Free, One, Ubuntu 6.1.0(both 32 & 64 bit), Kubuntu 6.1.0 (both 32 & 64), Knoppix(not sure what version), and they all just stopped.

The Knoppix and Ubuntu gave a vague error about the kernel not being able to load because of APIC or AIPC.

I went into the bios and tried to disable that, but I couldn't find it.

I mainly use Linux for the internet and listening to my music, I just don't trust XP enough to surf the net.

I was thinking that maybe the MB chipset wasn't supported(590SLI).

Any other ideas or help would be great.

Try starting the installation with noapic apic=off switches.

For instance, with (K)Ubuntu when you boot from the Live CD, you'll see screen with (K)Ubuntu logo and word boot: and the bottom of the screen.

This screen or similar:

Thanks for the info, I finally got it to install. It just took me a few tries to figure out which drive had the master boot record for the grub bootloader to install to.