Ordered comp, questions about when I get the parts.

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MercenaryKnight

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#1 MercenaryKnight

Member since 2003 • 396 Posts

I ordered all the parts off newegg today. My main concern, is when I get them all and have to put it all together (first time).

I read stuff and watched videos on how to put it all together and information about plugging everything in. But my main concern is going to be dealing with the bios the first time it boots up.

I have never dealt with the bios before and am not exactly sure what I am going to do. I think I am supposed to partition the hd and also set up what gets booted up first and stuff?

Note, I have a floppy drive, DVD drive and a hd. Nothing else for boot up devices I don't think. So is there going to be a specific order I will have to set them as?

Incase this is of any help I will post the specs.

EVGA 680I mobo

Thermaltake Armor silver aluminum atx

EVGA 8800gtx video card

Corsair 620w power supply

Intel Core 2 extreme QX6700

Patriot 2GB ddr 2 800 (pc6400

Western digital 320mb hd

Creative x-fi Xtreme gamer sound card

Sony floppy drive

NEC DVD/CD rw drive

I mainly just want to know what I am going to have to set up before I can install the OS and get everything working (going straight to windows vista home premium unless I can find my xp cd somewhere around the house).

Also, I ordered an anti static wrist strap just to be careful but have never used it before. I heard you can just attach the clip to like any unpainted piece of metal, does that mean I should like attach it to a metal piece inside the case or just something else?

Sorry for my noob questions and thanks for all your help.

17 years ago

BLKR4330

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#2 BLKR4330

Member since 2006 • 1698 Posts

Your motherboard will come with a manual which will tell you all about the bios settings (usually also a quick setup guide to get you through the basics). No need to be concerned there, you can always go back to default settings if you were to mess something up and most of it easy enough to figure out. Partioning the HD is not done from the bios, you do that when you boot from the windows cd. Yes there is a boot order. This only sets priority, if there are no other boot devices except your windows cd it will find it. Why not familiarize yourself with the bios of the pc you're using now?

I never used one of those wrist straps but I'm pretty sure you attach it to something that's grounded alowing you to realease any static charges you might have, so don't attach it to the pc cause that would still pass that current to where you don't want it.

Be carefull with those parts, maybe get a more experienced friend or relative to help you out if you can.

Good luck, that's promising to be an awesome pc :)

17 years ago

MercenaryKnight

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#3 MercenaryKnight

Member since 2003 • 396 Posts

I have done enough research to figure out the basics. I would of never bothered ordering parts if I wasn't sure enough that I could do it. I also figure if for some reason I can't I can always try a local computer shop for putting it together. Also, I was reading about the HD and the master/ slave settings, I wasn't exactly sure how I am supposed to set up that. It is like a plastic cover that goes over 2 pins or something? And since I only have 1 HD I am assuming I just have to set it to the master settings? I am sure that it's probably not as hard as I make it out to be, I am just trying my best to learn as much as I can before the parts come and hopefully be more prepared.

17 years ago

BLKR4330

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#4 BLKR4330

Member since 2006 • 1698 Posts

[QUOTE="MercenaryKnight"]I have done enough research to figure out the basics. I would of never bothered ordering parts if I wasn't sure enough that I could do it. I also figure if for some reason I can't I can always try a local computer shop for putting it together. Also, I was reading about the HD and the master/ slave settings, I wasn't exactly sure how I am supposed to set up that. It is like a plastic cover that goes over 2 pins or something? And since I only have 1 HD I am assuming I just have to set it to the master settings? I am sure that it's probably not as hard as I make it out to be, I am just trying my best to learn as much as I can before the parts come and hopefully be more prepared.

Okay :) If that's a sata hd, there is no master-slave thing to worry about. If it's not then yes it's a jumper you set, or, like you said, like a cover you slide over two connectors. I think you only need to set it if you use two drives on the same ide connecor, otherwise it doesn't really matter how you set it.

17 years ago

MercenaryKnight

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#5 MercenaryKnight

Member since 2003 • 396 Posts

Thankfully it is a sata hd. So atleast that's good knowing even if it wasn't it wouldn't mess up my computer anyways. Thanks for all your help I greatly appreciate it all. :)

17 years ago

matthewjackman

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#6 matthewjackman

Member since 2006 • 407 Posts

Well I just put my PC together with the EVGA 680i motherboard so here's a few things I had to do. The first time you boot up and enter the BIOS you will want to check the "system monitor" tab on the right hand side of the screen then go into your "dynamic fan" settings. In here you will want to turn off the smartfan controls (they don't work too well) and put your CPU fan and chasis fan's to 100%. If you've installed the tiny MCP fan you get with the motherboard you may want to turn that down to around 60% because it is -NOISY-. The last thing to do in that menu is to turn the Vreg from default to "On". Those settings should make the fans work properly but may people are having issues with them. The other important thing is to check you RAM voltages and timings to what is specified by your RAM manual. You will find both of these in "Advanced chipset features". For the timings go to "FSB & Memory Config>Memory Timing Settings". For the voltages go to "System voltages>Memory". The only other things I changed was the time and date settings and the boot priority. Other than that you will want to update your BIOS. You do that after you have installed windows. When you boot up you will see a string of numbers at the top of the screen ending in P21 or P22, etc depending on your existing BIOS. Currently EVGA is up to P24 and you will find that file on their website along with a forum which helped me out tonnes.

17 years ago

MercenaryKnight

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#7 MercenaryKnight

Member since 2003 • 396 Posts

Also, one last question. I have read about people who have programs that will check their computer parts amount of heat and stuff that shows performance basically. I was wondering, what programs I should get so that I can check to make sure everything is working right. And also, I was wondering for gaming I heard that norton antivirus has caused a lot of problems for games (unsure if it's true) so is there some recommended free spyware/ antivirus programs that isn't going to be installing a lot of popup ads and stuff that I can put on my new computer.

17 years ago

matthewjackman

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#8 matthewjackman

Member since 2006 • 407 Posts

I used norton for years without problems. I'm now using Kaspersky which isn't free. Again no problems but if you are worried then you should stop the auto-protect while installing games and you should be okay.

17 years ago

MercenaryKnight

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#9 MercenaryKnight

Member since 2003 • 396 Posts

Just a bump to see if I could get some help on programs to check like computer heat/ performance and free antivirus/spyware programs that aren't going to give me a million pop up ads.

17 years ago

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