Help me build my rig

galadial · 20 Nov 2006 at 14:16

Going to build this on Wednesday so was hoping for a few words of wisdom so I don't do anything daft. Here's my rig and how I plan to build it. Anything I've missed out?

Cheers G

Hardware:

Antec P160 case with 2 x 120mm fans, Gigabyte DS3 motherboard, Core Duo 6300, freezer pro 7 HSF, Seagate 320GB SATA HDD, Sony Floppy drive, NEC lightscribe drive, Ati x1900XT 256MB graphics card, firewire expansion card, on-board sound, GXS 600W PSU, Geil PC6400 2Gb.

Case
Fit PSU, floppy drive, optical drives and HDD to cages.
Connect power cables

Motherboard
CPU
RAM

Case
Fit Motherboard to case
Fit HSF – apply a pea-sized amount of thermal compound and spread to a thin layer with a credit card, seat HSF and connect (Freezer Pro 7)

Motherboard Connectors
Connect power connector to PSU
Connect 20-pin power connector to PSU
Connect Front Panel reset swotch, Power switch, power LED, front panel LEDs.
Connect Front Panel USB ports
Connect 5-pin Audio port
Connect temp sensor to HDD and motherboard
Connect data cables to floppy, HDD, optical drives
Connect Graphics card, firewire card (?? can I fit the front panel firewire port to this expansion card internally? will it have the correct connector/header?)

Case
Connect case fans and power

BIOS Setup
Setup date and time
HDD autodetect
Load Optimised Defaults

Install motherboard drivers
Install SATA drivers from floppy

Install drivers from motherboard CD

Install motherboard software

Load operating system

Update OS and software.

Setup network
No idea how to do this! (tips anyone)?

Ecl · 20 Nov 2006 at 14:27

Network

Is the network you have wired or wireless?

hp7909 · 20 Nov 2006 at 14:41

(IMO) its always easier/better to install CPU & fit HSF on mobo before putting it into case (or case motherboard tray). Then put the mobo in first before PSU, HDD/s, etc.

This might be helpful

Don't think you need SATA or motherboard drivers anymore. The later, A.K.A. chipset drivers might be needed & this you install after Windows install & before any other drivers especially graphics card drivers.

Munromax · 20 Nov 2006 at 15:58

Just need drivers if 'raiding'

galadial · 20 Nov 2006 at 16:18

Ecl said:
Is the network you have wired or wireless?

Yes it's a wireless system. Basically I'm using a cat5e cable from modem/router to main PC and a wireless card to my second PC upstairs.

I'm not going to use RAID at this stage. MIght do that some time in the future.

G

galadial · 20 Nov 2006 at 16:24

hp7909 said:
(IMO) its always easier/better to install CPU & fit HSF on mobo before putting it into case (or case motherboard tray). Then put the mobo in first before PSU, HDD/s, etc.

This might be helpful

Don't think you need SATA or motherboard drivers anymore. The later, A.K.A. chipset drivers might be needed & this you install after Windows install & before any other drivers especially graphics card drivers.

This link is excellent. Thank-you.

barf0r · 21 Nov 2006 at 15:25

The DS3 only has two fan connectors. One for the CPU fan and another for a case fan. So make sure you have somewhere you can plug your other fan into.