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Topic:
Building Question #3: First Boot [Locked] |
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
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Hello everyone,
What is the "checklist" you do when you first boot the machine from a new build?
Do you just install the Processor, RAM and Video Card? I see some people only start with that. Others put everything in like the Hard drive and optical drives before first boot.
Q:
Which do you do: Put it all together or only certain parts for the first boot?
For the first boot, I would assume:
1) Goto BIOS
2) Check voltage readings on CPU, RAM and Vid Card
3) Check date/time
4) ??
What do you do?
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jarom_td  Posts: 122
Registered: 2000-8-8 12:45:59
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
I put everything in.
Along with "2) Check voltage readings on CPU, RAM and Vid Card". You might want to also check temperatures.
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Lonestar_1  Posts: 259
Registered: 2004-8-26 08:40:28
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
Throw it all in. Double check connections and turn it on. Verify fans etc are working and bios is settings are how I want it etc... Then install OS. If large drive I do full formats overnight after installing OS partition/SSD/whatever.
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
Is partitioning worth it?
Years ago I remember it being the craze (along with RAID), but don't remember why. When I last built in 2002, I didn't partition the HD.
I bought a 1TB hard drive this time. Should I partition the Hard Drive? If so, by how much (and how)?
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jarom_td Posts: 122
Registered: 2000-8-8 12:45:59
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
With one hard drive I would partition it. If you ever need/want to reformat and/or reinstall, because of a nasty virus, etc. It's nice having all your game and important data on a separate partition.
Just copy the few things out of the user folders that that you have no control where they go. Then you can reinstall. Don't have to copy or backup large amounts of data.
edit: how much, not sure with Win7. With XP I used to use a 15 GB partition. But too many games these days put data in the user folders even though I have the game installed on a different drive. I recently came close to running out of space. I just re-partitioned it so the XP drive now has 32 GB of space. But my OS drive it's 1 TB.
Since you have a 1 TB drive, I'd personally go with 60 to 80 GB for the OS drive. Should be plenty as long as you keep your data and game installs on other partition.
edit2: how to partition? The XP installer has an option to create a custom partition instead of using the whole drive. I'd assume Win7 has the same option. Then once windows is installed you can go into the control panel, under Administrative Tools -> Disk Management, and format the remaining portion of the hard drive.
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Ravynmagi  Title: Moderator
Posts: 1,098
Registered: 2001-12-23 17:10:17
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
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I put everything together first. 9 out of 10 times things work fine (my last build happen to be that 1 out of 10 it didn't, haha).
I'll go into the BIOS and...
1. Configure my SATA controller for AHCI or RAID depending on the need.
2. Disable integrated features I don't need (such as serial ports, 1394, etc).
3. Check my CPU temp and fan speed, just to be sure I mounted it properly.
I still partition my OS hard drives. As mentioned previously, it helps a lot if you ever need to reinstall the OS later.
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
I put everything in, and connect everything up. I have built around a couple dozen systems, and I've never had any hardware dead on power-up. [face-knock-on-wood] I check to make sure all the fans spin and such while I'm in the BIOS (enter the BIOS immediately upon power-up).
I agree with Ravy about the OS partition thing -- makes a lot of sense if you are going to have just one HDD.
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
One hard drive?
Partition that sucker. One thing I've learned from years of being a PC user is that Windows likes to get so bad you need a fresh install, or the computer will get nailed with a virus (especially true if you aren't the solo user of it, gramma or the kid that doesn't know what they are doing will SURELY click on any popup....) and you'll lose everything on that Windows partition.
If you got a TB drive, toss 100 GB at Windows. It's got to be more than enough. 7 is only taking up 60 or so GB on my SSD 120.
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-Mithan- Title: VNBoard Admin
Posts: 1,287
Registered: 2000-3-1 11:53:15
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
I put it all in, load it up and hit the bios first to configure the sata controller for AHCI and turn off onboard sound, 1394 and other crap and then let it load up.
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vn_jurojin Title: Insolent Insomniac
Posts: 205
Registered: 2001-12-20 03:26:39
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Date Posted:
1/5/12 1:34pm
Subject:
Building Question #3: First Boot |
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My first bit of advice would be to get a second hard drive, install it, then move the windows page file to the second hard drive. Partitioning a single hard drive doesn't really help with performace as the hd can still only read from one spot at a time. Putting the page file on a second hard drive is actually a noticable change in performance in most systems.
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