First time builder.

[kxm9976]

hello everyone,
finally all the components have arrived. Here they are:

AMD 64 3400+ (s754, L2-512, Retail)
DFI Lanparty UT 250GB
2x 512mb PDP Low Latency Dual Channel Kit (I know they can only be used at single channel)
2 x 200GIG Seagate SATA HD's
MSI 9800 PRO (360core) vid. card
NEC3500 A DVD/CD burner
Alps Floppy
Antec Plus1080AMG -Soho file server w/430 TruePower PSU

I was originally going to have my friend put it all together, but after doing a lot of reading on Anand forums, I think I would like to give it a shot. However, i am a complete newbie!!!!!!!!!!!

What I am looking for is some sort of step-by-step guide. I recall seeing some people linking to these websites. As you can see I have spent a lot of money on the hardware so I do not wanna blow it away.

Moroever, you see the hardware. Are there any drivers or software I need to download that did not come with the shipment?

Also, I guess I need some sort of power and some other connector for the SATA HD's as mine are the bare drives and did not come with anything. These should be easily available at a local store, should they not?

I think I am gonna stop now, I don't wanna overwhelm you.

Thank You in advance.

 

[Steven the Leech]

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.aspx?i=28

One oif the other members put together a real nice guide with pictures but i cant find it you may try herehttp://www.geocities.com/thorin.geo/search.html


BTW, looks like a real nice setup. Those power connectors should be readily available now at your local retailer if they are not already on your power supply, and are you sure there are no sata cables with your motherboard? And do the sata drive have 4 pin power connections?

 

[naddicott]

Last I looked, the description for the retail DFI Lanparty UT 250GB includes 2 SATA data cables and 2 SATA power cables.

Definitely take the effort to track down updated drivers. Not sure where that is yet, but I'll be finding out soon as I have a DFI Lanparty UT 250GB to install myself soon. Steven's 2nd link is excellent for that.

 

[bluewall21]

Have you taken a look at mechBgon's guide?

 

[cyberfuzz]

heh im in the process of ordering the remainder of my parts tomorrow (payday ) and will be building my first computer too, so now i dont have to make my own thread .

 

[kxm9976]

Thank guys for the reply
Actually it looks like the motherboard came with the data and power connector, i just thought there were something else(newbie!!!!!!!!!!!). Actually to answer one of your questions, the sata drives seem to have the 4pin connectors.

thanks for the links. bluewall21, that seems like a nice one. I remember finding it on Anand few weeks ago and I hoping I would come across it again. Seems to be nice written and it is clear.

One question I got for you guys is that I was told that with Sata drives you have to install some kinda drivers before you install the OS or something like that. I don't clearly remember. Do I have to do something like that?

Thanks

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: kxm9976
Thank guys for the reply
Actually it looks like the motherboard came with the data and power connector, i just thought there were something else(newbie!!!!!!!!!!!). Actually to answer one of your questions, the sata drives seem to have the 4pin connectors.

thanks for the links. bluewall21, that seems like a nice one. I remember finding it on Anand few weeks ago and I hoping I would come across it again. Seems to be nice written and it is clear.

One question I got for you guys is that I was told that with Sata drives you have to install some kinda drivers before you install the OS or something like that. I don't clearly remember. Do I have to do something like that?

Thanks

when you start installing windows boot with the windows CD, and then when the install first starts you will see a dialog at the bottom that says press f6 to install 3rd party raid/scsi drivers, hit f6, then drop your floppy drivers in there, install them, and it should work fine...

btw nice set up, I have almost the same exact set up

 

[kxm9976]

Thanks

 

[cronimi]

Originally posted by: Gothgar
when you start installing windows boot with the windows CD, and then when the install first starts you will see a dialog at the bottom that says press f6 to install 3rd party raid/scsi drivers, hit f6, then drop your floppy drivers in there, install them, and it should work fine...

I went through this, and Windows Setup still said I don't have a hard drive connected. I've got a Maxtor DiamondMax 9 160GB SATA hard drive, and I used the driver off my mobo CD (mobo is SATA-ready). I partitioned and formatted the drive with Maxtor's MaxBlast prior to attempting WinXP install. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? All the hardware appears to be working, I just can't get XP to install. :|


New system:
Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2 GHz 1MB L2
Asus K8V SE Deluxe mobo
1GB DDR400 DRAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/ 256MB
Maxtor DiamondMax 9 160GB SATA HDD
Asus DRW-1604P CD/DVD drive
Antec SLK3700-BQE case
Vantec 470A PSU

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: cronimi

Originally posted by: Gothgar
when you start installing windows boot with the windows CD, and then when the install first starts you will see a dialog at the bottom that says press f6 to install 3rd party raid/scsi drivers, hit f6, then drop your floppy drivers in there, install them, and it should work fine...

I went through this, and Windows Setup still said I don't have a hard drive connected. I've got a Maxtor DiamondMax 9 160GB SATA hard drive, and I used the driver off my mobo CD (mobo is SATA-ready). I partitioned and formatted the drive with Maxtor's MaxBlast prior to attempting WinXP install. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? All the hardware appears to be working, I just can't get XP to install. :|


New system:
Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2 GHz 1MB L2
Asus K8V SE Deluxe mobo
1GB DDR400 DRAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/ 256MB
Maxtor DiamondMax 9 160GB SATA HDD
Asus DRW-1604P CD/DVD drive
Antec SLK3700-BQE case
Vantec 470A PSU

Welcome to the Forums cronimi To start with, realize that the board has two separate SATA controllers, one being the "native" VIA one and the other being the Promise add-on one. Lots of people have had problems with SATA on the K8V Deluxe and SE Deluxe, and the path of least resistance (other than getting a K8N or a PATA drive) is to

1) Go into the motherboard's BIOS and set the Promise controller to its IDE mode, so it's in its non-RAID mode.

2) Use the correct makedisk.exe from the mobo's CD-ROM for the Promise in IDE mode (there's also a makedisk.exe for the RAID mode, you do not want that one). Now you have the IDE-mode drivers on a floppy.

3) In the motherboard's BIOS, set boot order to boot first from CD-ROM, second from your Maxtor, and start Windows Setup, pressing the F6 key yadda yadda and so forth.

It would be good to avoid getting worms in the process. Be careful

EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION that you will need to plug your Maxtor into one of the two SATA jacks that actually use the Promise controller. For your board, they're the ones marked PRI_SATA and SEC_SATA.

 

[cronimi]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION that you will need to plug your Maxtor into one of the two SATA jacks that actually use the Promise controller. For your board, they're the ones marked PRI_SATA and SEC_SATA.

Thanks, mechBgon. I will give your suggestions a shot. I do recall that I have the drive plugged in to the SATA1 jack on the mobo, not PRI_SATA (which I thought was for RAID setup). BTW, thanks also for your website -- I got some great tips from it! :thumbsup:

 

[mechBgon]

 

[kxm9976]

a quick question:
the specs on my DFI lanparty Ut 250gb say this
SATA/RAID: 2x SATA RAID with NVIDIA RAID 0,1,0+1,JBOD, 2x SATA by Marvell SATA PHY

now I am not going to be doing any stripping or mirroring stuff. Does that mean I have to put my 2 Sata Harddrives into the Marvell Sata PHY slots?
Also, my mobo came with only one floppy disk for the driver and it is the nVIDIA RAID Driver Rev. 1.0.
So how do I get the drivers for the Marvell Phy slots?

Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: kxm9976
a quick question:
the specs on my DFI lanparty Ut 250gb say this
SATA/RAID: 2x SATA RAID with NVIDIA RAID 0,1,0+1,JBOD, 2x SATA by Marvell SATA PHY

now I am not going to be doing any stripping or mirroring stuff. Does that mean I have to put my 2 Sata Harddrives into the Marvell Sata PHY slots?
Also, my mobo came with only one floppy disk for the driver and it is the nVIDIA RAID Driver Rev. 1.0.
So how do I get the drivers for the Marvell Phy slots?

Thanks

I'll see if I can get that info from the DFI's manual (got to download it and hope they've got a block diagram), but my guess is that you don't need a driver. Despite being given a physical outlet by a Marvell PHY, I think those two ports still use the nVidia southbridge's own controllers underneath. Try sticking a drive on there and see if it shows up in Windows Disk Management, if you have the chance.

 

[rbownes]

If you want instructions pick up the latest Maximum PC magazine. It has everything you need with step by step instructions.

 

[kxm9976]

MechBegon,
got a quick question for you.
I got the cpu, the ram and the video card installed on the mobo and I am doing the that test that you suggested to do before installing the mobo into the case. The weird thing is that my screen reads something different then what you said, here it is:

"Verifying DMI Pool Data"
"Disk Boot Failure , Instert system disk and press enter"

Do you think I am ok or I installed something incorrectly?

Thanks

I got the AMD64 3400+ with dFI lanparty ut 250GB

 

[mechBgon]

Different motherboards will say different messages at that stage of the game, so I'm not surprised if the wording is different. I think you're ok, keep going

 

[kxm9976]

Thanks a lot