Parts put together, what is the next step?

[kilcan]

I've seen a few good guides on putting the actual parts themselves together, plus my own previous experience, so I am confident about that part. My question now is what next? I have seen all sorts of posts about making sure you download all the proper drives (what drives do I need, where do I get them from?), then people saying you need to adjust your RAM settings in BIOS for them to work properly as intended. Of course a step further is overclocking, but I will jump that hurdle when I get to it.

I guess my questions is, once you put everything together, do you just install XP and you are GTG or should you be doing other things? Thanks in advance.

 

[wnied]

Yes, your next step is installing your operating system and updating it. In your case, you mentioned Windows XP. Install XP, and update it completely through Windows update. Once your OS is installed and updated, you then install the drivers to whatever cards your operating system doesnt recognize. You can tell this by simply looking at whatever hardware isnt recognized in your hardware device manager.

~wnied~

 

[mechBgon]

Here is some guidance on installing XP without getting worms: http://www.mechbgon.com/build/security1.html (scroll down past the Vista v. XP stuff). The next page has some ideas on security strategy for daily use too.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I always consider the first step is to bench test the mb, cpu, ram, vid. Make initial bios settings at the same time. Then assemble.

 

[Danadcorps]

Yeah initial step = setting up your BIOS to the correct configurations. Second is to install your OS. If you haven't slipstreamed your OS disk to include all the Updates/drivers and possible all the other programs you want to install then you would have to install everything else yourself (Hotfixes from Windows Update Center, Drivers from either a CD given by the manufacturer or from their respective websites, and any other software that you might want). If you are going to be reinstalling your OS soon, I would recommend looking up how to slipstream stuff (makes it so that your initial setup is fully automated). I didn't OC yet just because i want to know someone else will be responsible if it craps out on me all the way until the warranty period ends.