HELP, noob, first build...!!!

[nokturnalchrist]

ok, so like it said i am a noob, i am gonna be building a computer real soon, i have most of the parts already,

what i need help with is basically what to do after everything is put together, for example, first boot, bios, sata driver install/bios recgonizing sata/optical drives, processor optimizers, etc.

and also like little things that a noob may not know (ex: setting up primary and slave drives, waiting to install sound card until system is stable, Etc...

and just some tips, things to look out for, problems i may incounter etc, im not a super noob, but i want to do things right my first build

if you have aim mine is the same as my username for better contact!

thanks!

 

[joelbeveridge]

Well to start, how many things are going to be connected to your mainboard? 1 SATA drive ? If you are just making a basic PC with 1 hdd and optical drive and ram. When you first turn your machine on, leave out the hard drive and just have everything else connected, just so we can see the memory is working, the CD drive is work, have a look in the bios (change the boot mode so it will boot into CD first (so you can install OS). After you have seen everything is working fine, Turn machine off and install SATA drive. OS should be easy

 

[nokturnalchrist]

well, 1 sata drive, 2 optical drives. my one question about this from what you said and what i have read is, after i set in the bios to boot from the cd drive, install windows etc. do i need to change the boot form? or will it do this automatically and if i do what would i change it to?

thanks
btw

Crucial ballistix PC6400 2 gig ddr2
ASUS M2R32-MVP AM2 mobo

if you or anyone else needs more info let me know!

 

[Celegorm]

you don't need to change the boot order back to boot off of your HDD first, but its definatly reccomended (saves boot time if you have anormal cd in the drive taht it will want to search for a boot sector)

 

[esa193]

ill be building a comp soon to and my question is
ill be installing 2 greforece 8800 cards how do i detremain witch card to pluge into
also ill be getting quad core extream ill be using a different fan and heat sink after market but should the past in the box be good or should i get after market

 

[Celegorm]

ill be building a comp soon to and my question is
ill be installing 2 greforece 8800 cards how do i detremain witch card to pluge into
also ill be getting quad core extream ill be using a different fan and heat sink after market but should the past in the box be good or should i get after market

what do u mean by "which card to plug into?"

and if your not over clocking stock fan should be good enough. but otherwise a zalman CPS9500 is a great CPU fan. will work on just about any motherobard out there.

 

[superman22x]

Well for the original poster, when you set up your computer, get some kind of partition software, and make two partitions, a small one for your OS, and the rest for files, this allows for easier formating later, and is safer for your computer. Also its easier to change OS if you needed too.

 

[nokturnalchrist]

what do u mean by "which card to plug into?"

he means which card to plug the monitor into, and my answer to that is it depends, im not fimiliar with nvidia but with ATI you plug it into the first card and when you set it to crossfire mode it automatically detects the second card..

and for SUPERMAN22X

i would but the only problem i have with that is from my understanding, all the windows files have to be under the "C" drive am i correct? and if thats the case, i play bf2, and when ever i download the patch to install, i used to have bf2 on my "D" drive and when ever i would patch it would'nt give me an option to browse it would automatically patch to the C drive, thus resulting in and error that i didnt have the game installed, or that it couldnt update...so i had to have it on the c drive, idk i just dont really like to fool around with the partitions, unless i could get some more pro's
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oh yeah and i also had one more question, i herd that i have to install the SATA drivers during windows boot or somthing, or it wouldnt recgonize that there were SATA drives in the comp. is this true...or will my mobo recgonize SATA drives once it its hooked up properly.?

thanks already for those who helped..

 

[Celegorm]

he means which card to plug the monitor into, and my answer to that is it depends, im not fimiliar with nvidia but with ATI you plug it into the first card and when you set it to crossfire mode it automatically detects the second card..

ah. i get it now. on NVidia, just like ati, you plug into the top card. (card 1)

 

[Raffaz]

Well for the original poster, when you set up your computer, get some kind of partition software, and make two partitions, a small one for your OS, and the rest for files, this allows for easier formating later, and is safer for your computer. Also its easier to change OS if you needed too.

This can all be done from the XP CD. He just needs to create his small partition for the OS. Then install the OS, and then setup his other partitions from computer management inside windows. Theres no need to buy 3rd party software for this