Insomniak's New System Setup Guide

[Insomniak]

Been wonderin' that myself

 

[shira]

Great Post, Insomniak!!!. However, there is one thing you might consider adding before Step 2. My understanding is that for a least some MBs that support NCQ it's necessary to make appropriate settings in the BIOS BEFORE installing Windows if you plan on using the NCQ feature for HDs that provide that functionality. Not sure if this is generally true for NCQ. See this Anandtech HD review:


Setting up NCQ


If you neglect to do this, you have to go back, make the BIOS settings, and re-install Windows (if you want NCQ).

 

[shira]

Another suggestion:

In Step Five, wouldn't it be a good idea to recommend getting the latest version of the BIOS before making any changes to the settings?

Edit: Corrected typo.

 

[hundesau]

bios updates are not for noobs, they may get the wrong bios, or dont have a floppy drive.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: shira


Great Post, Insomniak!!!. However, there is one thing you might consider adding before Step 2. My understanding is that for a least some MBs that support NCQ it's necessary to make appropriate settings in the BIOS BEFORE installing Windows if you plan on using the NCQ feature for HDs that provide that functionality. Not sure if this is generally true for NCQ. See this Anandtech HD review:


Setting up NCQ


If you neglect to do this, you have to go back, make the BIOS settings, and re-install Windows (if you want NCQ).

That's very interesting. NCQ is so obscure right now that I don't think it's needed to add a bona-fide step to the guide to cover this, but after a little research, I think I'm going to put this in as a note for people whom it might be applicable to. Thanks for pointing it out!

I agree with Hundesau about the BIOS update though - that's not something I'd recommend a beginning builder try.

 

[slash196]

Sticky this mother.

 

[walkure]

Bump since I'm almost to the point of having my new hardware assembled, and others can benefit from this as well. Sticky eh?