Hello All! being a total newbie doing my first build, i ordered everything from new egg and it will arrive in a couple of days. while i'm very excited i'm also very concerned as i have no idea how to "set" any of these motherboard settings. i've read quite a few of the posts here, incl those of Mr. Phile and butterbean...etc and my situation is similar to many.
The one BIG difference is: i'm not interested in overclocking, not interested in the ultimate performance in any games, this is more of a higher end home office machine. THE GOAL is for as stable and trouble free a machine as i can make this. Hence, i chose the parts with an eye towards solid performance, not their abilities to out perform or overclock. with that state goal said, may i please tell you what i ordered and please ask for the MOST STABLE/reliable settings for this motherboard / CPU/memory combination? Thank you so much in advance. This part really concerns me but it is great that there are so many good folks here who are exceptionally well informed, etc.
Asus P5W DH Deluxe / Intel 6600 core 2 duo 4mb cache / Crucial Ballistix 2gb (2x1gb) DDR 2 800/PC2 6400 dual channel kit / evga 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640mb 320-bit GDDR3 / Lite-On 20x dvd...IDE / 2 X Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500gb / Thermaltake Armor VA8003SWA Silver ATX Full Tower / Vista 32-bit Ultimate
I had the same concerns as Mr. Butterbeans re: Corsair xms2 twin 2x1gb's issues on BOTH newegg's reviews as well as Corsair's own forums so i am going for the Crucial Ballistix 2x1gb ddr 2 800 due to them owning/owned by Micron - thought this would be a safer bet and i hope to not have a half-built machine sitting here for 2 weeks waiting for RMA exchanges.
besides that, the reason for the 8800GTS 640mb is that among my "design goals/criteria" for this machine, besides the VERY STABLE/reliable top goal, is to use FULL AERO interface on a upcoming 30" dell, and my existing 2405 dell for dual monitor use. after i get this system stablized and running, say hopefully in a couple of weeks, i'm hoping that the 8600 selections will come out and i'll get a lower end one in order to use as my 2nd video card, that way, the 8600 can run my 3rd monitor, an exisitng 21.3" Samsung 4:3 model 213T for CNN-type cable tv news watching during the day at the computer (home office here). i'll also have to find a TV card (only interested in using the lower 125 channels which are non-premium: don't want yet another rental cable box just for my pc tv news watching!). i'm thinking that to get the 30" and 24" dells running in FULL AERO, over the time span of the next couple or more years, it might be wise to over spend a bit on the 8800 GTS and KNOW that it can handle the 4,000,000+ pixels of JUST the 30" alone, not yet even counting the 24". i think the AERO interface, as well as any occasional games that i may play (VERY rare and not at all important to me, though i DO want DX 10 support due to the upcoming Photoshop CS3's announced use of DX10 in their CS3 version), may demand a good amount of "power" from the video card.
So there, those are my newbie's effort in researching and trying to understand what i should buy, what i want to buy, vis-a-vis my goals and intentions. hope i made it somewhat clear and sorry for being so verbose.
with all that background, may i please ask for assistance in knowing what SETTINGS on this motherboard would be MOST stable/reliable, while taking proper advantage of my components? i'd like to be properly conservative, but certainly not to under use my equipment. i wanted to sort of build a pc that's like a great bmw workhorse that's also a great performer, NOT to build a temperamental Ferrari.
thank you all, gents and ladies, in advance for your assistance. i've read a number of how to assemble type of tutorials but i know NOTHING about how to set this motherboard baby up! zilch. i thought i've learned so much from all the good folks here in terms of component selection, that i need to move forward now to learn about how to set it all up! everything should arrive in roughly 2 days!
thx!