Installing the OS, and what to do before install.

I have assembled my computer, tab A slot B and like magic the monitor turns on when I press a button!

But I'm brought to a screen where I can change the...settings on my computer. I'm using a specialized fan for my CPU so I don't need to set the settings for that, I have it in one of the system fans area because it was a three pin and my cpu fan pin config for the motherboard was like four pins, and I also have it set on the outside where the setting can be tampered with (I have a little dial to turn up or down the fan.)

I'm getting the OS in the mail tomorrow hopefully, however I read the manual a bit and looks like there are some presetting I can change, the time, and other settings of the like.

What all should I change before installing the OS and if there are any tricks to the OS (Microsoft vista premium 64 bit) install I need to know about please let me know.

Also if anyone knows what cross fire is and what it is for please explain that to me, it is a left over part from my graphics card that I didn't install because the directions didn't tell me how or why.

The crossfire syncs your graphics cards. If you only have one then you don't need it.

FYI, that screen is called the BIOS :)

I've never built a computer myself, but I helped a friend do it once. I ran a Linux Live CD to make sure that everything was properly hooked up before trying to install Vista. Vista takes FOREVER to set up and you don't want to get 90% of the way finished with it and having it encounter a hardware error.

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Originally Posted by ninja9578

The crossfire syncs your graphics cards. If you only have one then you don't need it.

FYI, that screen is called the BIOS :)

I've never built a computer myself, but I helped a friend do it once. I ran a Linux Live CD to make sure that everything was properly hooked up before trying to install Vista. Vista takes FOREVER to set up and you don't want to get 90% of the way finished with it and having it encounter a hardware error.

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Yeah, BIOS, thats what the book called it hehe.

Thanks for the tip about the crossfire I was like dang extra pieces are bad hehe.

After being brought to something called a logo screen, you press tab to go a POST screen, and then it gives you these options.

<del> BIOS, <F9> XpressRecovery2 <F12> Boot Menu <End> Qflash

Here is a list of things under the Main Menu in BIOS.

MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) | Load Fail-Safe Defaluts
Standard CMOS Features | Load Optimized Defaults
Advanced Bios Features | Set Supervisor Password
Integrated Peripherals | Set User Password
Power Management Setup | Save & Exit Setup
PnP/PCI Configurations | Exit Without Saving
PC Health Status

Atleast that is what the book is showing, the monitor showed the same thing earlier when I turned it on I think.

I have two Hard Drives so I need to know how to configure it so that one of them is the storage one and one of them is the main one. I think it is called C:\ and D:\ drives

EDIT: ~ Just realized how late it was, night all

lol i'm so forgetful i built mine only a few months back and don't completely remember. Pretty sure i mostly left the BIOS as it was apart from setting time and such and i just put in the Vista CD and it just...did it's thing.:boogie:

=( the computer stops at verifying dmi pool data

Or maybe it stops after verifying DMI pool data lo

Verifying DMI pool data ........... update success


Is that all I need to happen before I can install the OS?

Ok, this post was about how I couldn't figure out how to set stuff to slave/master, but now I have figured that out.

Should my optical drive me a slave or a master?

Right now I have the the 250 gig hard drive as channel 0 master, the 500 gig as channel 0 slave, and the channel 1 slave as my optical drive.