First time builder. P4P800 deluxe owners please help

[Lioness]

Rather than scatter these questions all over the forums I?m hoping I can get them answered here.

P4P800 deluxe I?m getting the deluxe not because I?ll be using it as a raid setup but simply for the firewire card. It?s only $20. more than the P4P800.

P4 2.8c ghz

1. Memory: What is the better choice in keeping cost down now and purchasing later when extra money is available? And which type of memory would you suggest to allow me my second choice if feasible?

First choice: I was thinking if I go with the 512 (256x2) now, I can at least play around with a dual channel setup. If I choose this approach can I later use the other two open dimm slots and add another 512 (256x2) = a functional 1gb dual channel setup?

Second choice: 1 stick 512mb

2. ATI Radeon 9600XT: bought it cheap for $100. According to manual this card uses AGP 4x (1.5v). Mobo manual, I downloaded from online, says it can only run 1.5v AGP. Possibly a conflict?

3. After all hardware is installed where do I begin? Should I first burn these drivers to a CD and then load each one accordingly after everything is up an running?

Intel Chipset Utility
Intel Application Accelerator
VIA RAID drivers (Deluxe model only)
NIC
DirectX 9.0b
Critical updates for Microsoft
Video Drivers: 9600XT latest driver.
Other drivers
Sound drivers last

4. When does one update the bios? And will the instructions on how to do this be located in the mobo manual?

5. Ok. So I need to burn it in?But when and how do I do this? In reading the site on Artic Silver it states "Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver's conductive matrix, it will take up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity....."

6. I?m not sure if this question is illegal on anandtech, if it is of course your not obliged to answer. LOL
I have windows XP pro disc. There must be a way I can use this disk on my sons new build. I sure hate to shell out $125. for another of the same OS.


Thanks for your help. Any further input would be welcomed

 

[scrotus]

1. Go with 2 sticks of 256MB now. You can double up later and you get the benefit of Dual Channel now. Make sure that you pick a mfg/model number of ram that is supported for all 4 slots. Read the fine print in the QVL on the web for the board.

2. Just installed the 9600XT on an P4P8X last night. Works great. The manual is wrong or unclear. I noticed this with several things in the manual.

3. Dont worry about burning drivers. The mobo comes with the disc you need. Just let XP install the default drivers. Then use the ASUS disc to install the 3rd party drivers for the intel chipset, USB 2.0, and NIC. (The NIC will not work until you install the drivers). After you do this, logon to the internet and get all teh XP updates. This takes about an hour ( i know I did it last night).

Install your video card drivers. If you can't get the ones for the card (i.e. Sapphire disc for their card) just download teh Catalyst Drivers from ATI.

4. This one is tricky. I used the ASUS utility to flash the bios last night on brand new board. You can do this while in XP. The utility said it worked, but on reboot, I got Bad Checksum errors. Probably safer to use a boot disk and do it in DOS mode. First, use the ASUS Mobo Info util to see what rev bios you have. If it's pretty recent, leave it unless you have problems that the bios flash will fix.

5. I dunno about the Arctic Silver burn in time. But, you can use Prime95 and Memtest86 as good burn in tools. Let them run for 24 hours. Should stress your system and also tell you if you got problems. Then run 3Dmark2003 and test your gaming potential!

6. No Comment

 

[tbrooks40]

hey Lioness, pm me when you get this. there is another wanting the system and i've pm'd you a few times to see if we're gonna move forward with this deal. email me exactly what you want and how you would like it set up

if you changed your mind this is fine just lmk

btw, enable your profile or send me your email and heatware references if you have heatware setup

ok, i'll listen for you later

rtb