Can anyone talk me through a post assembly boot?

[purplemonkey]

Hi guys and girls

I've settled on my components.

About to order the following:

Q6600

Asus P5K premium

2*500gb HD (intend to setup in Raid 1)

4gb PC2-8500 Ram

8800GTX

650W PSU

Vista 32Bit

I can either pay £130 and have someone build the pc or i can build it myself.

Now i'm not technically incompetent but I have never built a PC before therefore have a few doubts and questions... but I would like to build it myself!

I've read on how to connect the compenents together etc. this part seems easy!

What I don't know is the steps I have to perform on an initial boot to setup the bios and configure a boot drive to install the operating system.

How difficult is this to perform?

Does anyone know of any step by step articles?

Can anyone summarise whats involved for me?

How likely am I to mess it up!!!

Thanks guys ur help is much appreciated!

 

[w3bbo]

Building your first PC can be a little daunting but it is really easy aslong as you take your time and take the neccesary precautions (anti static). The slots are pretty much self explanitory and you cant fit something in the wrong slot as they only slot in one way, i.e you cant fit a graphics card in a memory slot. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the build is fitting the cpu and cooler but there are plenty of guides around to help you.

If you are lucky enough to have a working pc or laptop by your side while buildingthen this can be a great help, if not print of a guide before hand if you are sill unsure.

You really shouldn't need to go into the bios at all unless you are overclocking. By default most board set the boot order in the following : Floppy, CD, hard drive so once you pop the operating system cd in you should just follow the on screen instructions to install the OS and then install your drivers either by using the provided driver CD with the motherboard or better, updated versions from the net.

I cannot stress enough that you take your time, don't rush things, do it right first time and it can save alot of headaches later on. That said, you are unlikely to 'mess things up'.

There are a few problems with your PC spec though. If you are planning on using 4gb or ram then you are better buying the 64bit version of vista as 32bit will only recognise 3.2gig minus your GPU memory (768mb) so in actual fact you are getting little more than 2gig of useable memory.

Raid setups can be a little tricky for the novice builder but again if you follow the guide in the manual it will be pretty straightforward.

If you are struggling with any part of the build then we are here to help you along.

 

[Youngie1337]

Hi guys and girls

I've settled on my components.

About to order the following:

Q6600

Asus P5K premium

2*500gb HD (intend to setup in Raid 1)

4gb PC2-8500 Ram

8800GTX

650W PSU

Vista 32Bit

I can either pay £130 and have someone build the pc or i can build it myself.

Now i'm not technically incompetent but I have never built a PC before therefore have a few doubts and questions... but I would like to build it myself!

I've read on how to connect the compenents together etc. this part seems easy!

What I don't know is the steps I have to perform on an initial boot to setup the bios and configure a boot drive to install the operating system.

How difficult is this to perform?

Does anyone know of any step by step articles?

Can anyone summarise whats involved for me?

How likely am I to mess it up!!!

Thanks guys ur help is much appreciated!

Sorry it's too early for me to understand anything atm lol, but if your talking about setting up the bios, it will or should have default settings loaded. The only thing you will need to change is the First boot device to CDROM...

Don't know the key on that mobo but normaly DEL or F1??, don't change other options in the BIOS other than boot device.

I'm sure you have been in the bios before?, on most MOBO's I have it's the second option out of the list.

Once you find it press enter... Change to CDROM... press enter ... press F10 (or w/e it says down bottom to save to cmos), and press Y and enter... Put in Windows CD, it will say booting from CDROM... press any key to continue... press enter... Follow instructions.

Don't know if this is what you wanted but hope I helped.

 

[purplemonkey]

Thanks for the help guys!

Ok so once all the components are connected together then the bios should automatically detect and set the required settings for me is this correct?

In theory then the only settings I will have to change in the BIOS is for the RAID setup (I take it the Mobo user manual will have the required instructions?)

Whats the likelyhood of me setting up the PC only to find problems with the compatibility of my chosen components? I've spent a lot of time checking and double checking!

Full spec:

Intel Q6600

Asus p5k

2*Barracuda 500gb 32mb SataII HD's

Samsung 203P Sata DVDRW

Asus 8800GTX

Thermaltake toughpower 650W PSU

NZXT Lexa Case

OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 (Might well drop down to 2gb due Vista 32bit cap)

Samsung 2232 monitor

Total cost: £1067

 

[w3bbo]

Ok so once all the components are connected together then the bios should automatically detect and set the required settings for me is this correct?

Yes

In theory then the only settings I will have to change in the BIOS is for the RAID setup (I take it the Mobo user manual will have the required instructions?)

Yes but first you will need to create the raid Array which is also explained in the manual.

Whats the likelyhood of me setting up the PC only to find problems with the compatibility of my chosen components? I've spent a lot of time checking and double checking!

Zilch - its all compatible (assuming the psu has 2x 6pin pci-e connections

 

[purplemonkey]

Thanks very much for the reply!

I'm minutes away from ordering but the idea of an 8800GT SLi setup is causing me to rethink my 8800GTX choice and with it the motherboard???

I'll keep you all posted!

 

[purplemonkey]

Right last question and then I'm ordering...

Vote please:

q6600 and asus striker II formula running EVGA 2x8800GTS KO = £1229 plus a wireless card

q6600 and asus striker II formula running Asus 2x8800GT = £1205 plus a wireless card

q6600 and p5k premium running a single Asus 8800GTX = £1055

Both now include only 2gb PC2-8500 OCZ reaper memory

Is the gain in performance justified or just stick with the single 8800GTX

I'll be using the computer for webdeign, photoshoping and gaming...

 

[Phoenix]

If your budget allows 2x8800GTS (the 512MB G92-edition, I presume), I say go for it. Although SLI'ed 8800GT (also 512MB G92) should be a sure performer, and a bit cheaper. Or you could even get a 9800GX2 (basically two SLI'ed 8800GTS in one card) and go for quad SLI later on. I run two XFX 8800GTS 512, and I'm very satisfied with all the results I get, be it benching or gaming (I'm also running the Q6600 G0). This is simply a question of what you're willing to pay, but I'd drop plans of a 8800GTX, as the new 8800GTS outperforms it.

As for installing all the components, read up on how to flash the BIOS, just in case. Everytime I build a rig I run into a few problems, the latest being my mobo not supporting the Q6600, but this was fixed in a newer BIOS-release. The ASUS-mobos offers the EZ-flash-utility, making the flashing a walk in the park. All I'm saying is that you need to be prepared, but never give up, OC3D forums is just a few mouseclicks away, and we're happy to assist you in whatever you may want to know.

Btw, what CPU-cooler are you opting for?

 

[kendo]

Read up on and prepare the SATA drivers you'll need to use between first boot up and loading the optimised defaults and setting up your RAID and installing Vista. Your HDDs probably won't be recognised if you miss out this step, so best be ready for it.

The details will be in the mb manual online and the drivers should also be there so no need to wait until the board arrives to get prepared.

Given your photoshop req, I'd strongly suggest you look into using 64bit and 2 x 2gb sticks.

 

[purplemonkey]

so despite being a 32bit program photoshop and CS3 can use more than the 3.2gb of ram?

Is this the largeaddress thing written into the program that i've been reading about?

Do you know if other cs3 apps use these i have adobe design premium

cheers

 

[kendo]

It's the amout of ram Vista needs that will leave Photoshop running better if you had 4GB and 64 bit to see and use it all (and more). Adobe related article:

http://prodig.org/2007/04/20/ram-can-photoshop-cs3-cope/

 

[Pat123]

why not get yourself a 9800GTX.. Good pricing.. Decent card.. I wouldnt bother with SLI, unless you get a 9800GX2.. Tbh its more hassle than its worth..