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Originally posted by: whirlwind
First off let me say a BIG THANK YOU to you guys.
I am getting ready to do my 1st build and i have printed alot of helpful info from this thread.
I should be getting my video card this week, then my son and I will start our build.
We are very much noobs to building a pc, so I hope our questions are not too stupid, lol.
Our question is, once we get everything hooked up and we get the pc to post, do we install windows next, or do we put in the driver cd from the motherboard, and install that stuff first. We are alittle confused about this?
Our other question is how do we install windows if our hard drives are not partioned yet? Will it ask us to partion the hard drives, and is it hard?
If someone could explain when and how we partion our hard drives it would be of great help.
Do we need anything special to partion our hard drives?
We have one 320 GB seagate sata and one IDE 80 GB Western Digital.
We were going to install windows on the 80GB, but Phile said he would install it on the 320 GB sata drive, so we would like to do that.
Thanks again....you guys are great.
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Once the machine is built and ready to go, power it up and hit DELETE at POST, to enter the BIOS. Head over to the BOOT area and set the boot order to make sure your CD/DVD ROM drive has priority in the sequence. Note: the only HD in this list will be the drive connected to SATA1, so make sure that the SATA drive intended for your OS is connected to this port. A few more things you should do in the BIOS, before installing Windows:
- set the proper speed, voltage and timings for your memory
On the Advanced / Jumperfree page, set AI Overclock to manual. This will unlock several settings, including memory speed and voltage. If you have PC2-6400 mem, set the DRAM Frequency to DDR2-800. For the voltage, check the specs for your mem. It will likely be 2.0v or 2.1v.
On the Advanced / Chipset page, set SPD Timings to disabled. This will unlock the memory timings area. The first four values are the timings you will manually set. Again, see the specs for your mem.
With this done, pop in your Windows CD and reboot. You will be asked to press any key to boot from CD.
Now, there will be a point in the installation process where you will be able to select the partition where Windows will should be installed. Assuming you have an unformatted HD, there will be no available partitions, so you will need to create them. At this point, you can create all the partitions you like, not just the primary partition for Windows. I don't have a photographic memory, but you will have to hit a key to create a partition, choose the type (primary for Windows, Logical for all the others), and then allocate a block of space. If you plan to install Windows and all applications to C: (the primary partition) make sure to allocate at least 20GB to this partition. Since you probably don't have any application for modifying partitions, like Partition Magic, you should probably make thisd partition even larger, say 50GB. Go ahead and create all your desired partitions using this interface. When done creating your partitions, make sure you choose C: (primary partition) when asked where to install Windows. You will then be asked how to prepare this partition. Choose the long format NTFS option. Third option, if memory serves. This will only format your C: partition, so you'll have to format all the other partitions from within Windows.
Once you have windows installed, you should install the following items from the P5WDH CD:
Drivers tab:
1) Intel chipset drivers (Intel Chipset Inf Update Program)
2) Ethernet drivers (Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Driver)
Utilities tab:
1) ASUS PC Probe II (monitoring application)
2) ASUS DH Remote (only if you plan to use the remote, which causes many people trememdous headaches - install only if you really, really want to try the remote)
The Audio drivers d onot appear on my CD menu, so browse the CD and look for \Drivers\Audio. (If you have a dedicated soundcard, do not install these drivers, and disable the onboard audio in the BIOS.)
Don't install the USB 2.0 drivers if you're installing XP with SP2.
You won't need anything else from the mobo CD.
Once you have all your devices working, head over the Windows update and install pretty-much everything. You will need to revisit a few times, to get everything.
Note: If you bought an ATI Radeon videocard, the Catalyst Control Center requires the .NET software package in order to work. .NET 1 and .NET 2 will be available via Windows Update. So, do not install your videocard drivers until you have completed the Windows Update.
I think that just about covers it.
-phil
I just wanted to let you know Phil how much my son and I appeciated your help.
We have now completed our 1st ever build with your help. Thanks a million.
The build went without a hitch because of this thread.
Our build is the one in my sig, and let me tell you this thing kicks butt in all of our games!
The only question I have as of now is about our temps.
The CPU is 29 Degrees idle and just a few more under load, which i assume is ok.
I am really wondering about the Mobo....it is 46 degrees at idle and around 51 under some gaming load....is this ok, or do I need to do something else for some better cooling?
Right now we have a 120mm intake in front of case and a 120mm exhaust at the rear with the power supply also having a 120mm fan on it. CPU has a Zalmon 9500.
Thanks again for all of your help....This thread is the bomb!