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Hi, I nearly have all the parts to get my first pc up and running. It's a Gigabyte GA-7S748-l and i'm going to have windows XP. I know your all experienced at building new Pc's so I though I'd just ask some questions before I boot it up. could anyone explain basically what i have to do when i first boot it up and when i put the xp cd in the drive and format the hardrive and install motherboard drivers and video card drivers etc... Thanks, a lot,John.
Before you do all of that, I'd recommend getting the Service Packs and Hotfixes onto CD, so that you can protect yourself against Blaster, Welchia, etc. Otherwise, you might get a nasty shock when you connect to the internet!
To begin, go into the BIOS and set the CD-ROM drive as the 1st boot device, and stick the XP CD in. It should boot from the CD, and the rest of the installation is self explanatory.
After that, install the Service Packs and Hotfixes before connecting to the internet, and then you can install the motherboard/graphics/sound/whatever drivers. And don't forget Firefox!
Alternatively once your up and running but before you connect to the net install a software firewall. Then update Windows and your drivers by visiting the manufacturers sites.
I think the win xp home disc im buying ahs windows has so that should have an internet firewall on it already. Oh, i thought that the computer would not load into windows without the graphics card driver and motherboard drivers already installed? Oops. Another question, I'mm gonna have 9800 pro, which are the best catalyst drivers, never used ati before now. One more questions,(sorry) Would i be better advised to download the drivers off the net by connecting to the LAN on my wireless router or would it be ok to just stick a wireless card in and let windows install it's own driver. Thanks guys.
You would probably be best off downloading the latest drivers for your graphics card from ATi.