Computer assembly

[jch216]

later this week I'll recieve the parts for my computer. What should I do to ensure a successful build? here is the parts list:


Chieftec Dragon Series Case
WORKS PSU 430watt
KINGSTON 512MB 32x64 PC2700 DDR RAM OEM
ABIT GEFORCE 4 Ti4200-8X Ti 4200 128MB
4 led Fans/2 round cables/1 keyboard/1 optical mouse
Abit NF7-S mobo Retail
AMD Barton 2500+ PCU Retail
Western Digital HDD 80gig 8meg cache OEM
Lite-on cd/rw 52x24x52 OEM
Lite-on dvd/rom 16xdvd/48xcd OEM
Windows XP home edition OEM
______________________________________________

I kep seeing terms such as "partition" and "bios flash" and people with problems between fsb settings and ram. What do I need to make sure of when I put this together?

[meese]

Do you want more than one partition on your hard drive? If no than don't worry about partitions. In this case XP load on the Primary (and only partition) which will be c:. Everything you put on this pc will be stored here. Now if you think you might dual boot with another OS at some time in the future, or (more important in my view), want to keep your data seperate from you OS and program files, you may want to make two partions. A C: and a D:. The C: partition holds your OS and Program files, the d: partition will hold all of your data (Audio files, Picture files, Word Documents, etc.) Doing it this way makes it real easy to back up your data. You can always reinstall programs and the OS, but you cannot replace your data.

Don't flash your BIOS unless its absolutely necessary.

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[jch216]

cool, I'm sure I'll be asking away later this week about getting the right settings. I'll just cross that bridge when I get to it.

thanks

[Omardeth]

at 80 gig i would say partision the drive atleast in half if not more . maybe say 20 gigs in size each . this way like meese said if you crash the os you can just formate that partision and and just reload it but don't lose all your data .

and also like meese said don't flas the bios unless you have to . if it ain't broke don't fix it

[thronka]

I would make sure you have an antistatic mat when you asemble the parts to ensure you don't short anything out.

[jch216]

Don't know what a flash is anyway. I'll search more for partitioning.

[Brainchild]

Make sure the standoffs are in the right place when you mount the MOBO in the case to prevent shorting also.

The dual partition to store data is critical IMO. Data loss bites.
Something to think about.

[Omardeth]

with 80 gig like i said making 4 would be good . means when it goes to seach it doesn't have to search the whole drive . you have to rememeber when a hd stores info it doesn't start at the front and go to the back . it just puts it where it fits . so part of what your are asking it to retrieve might be at the front of the drive and some of it might be in the middle or end . so with smaller partitions it doesn't have to look over a big area to retrieve information if you understand what i mean . matter of fact i have a buddy that breaks his hd's into 10 gig partitions . you should see it when he goes into my computer hahah he has a 80 gig and 120 gig drive .

[Brainchild]

So what happens after 26 letters???

Dual letters, or numbers?

I think that is a little extreme personally