clean install, now what?

? You installed Windows And updated it to Sp2??

the BIOS is preloaded on the mother board.

and the Chipset should already be on the motherboard as well.

As far as Software is concerned... load your OS, Graphics, then your mother board will come with a disc to load other software that you might need such as USB controllers or some other Firewire Software or whatnot.

Load OS, Graphics, motherboard CD...then Mouse and whatever else.

Does not really matter. I would do chipset, vga, and bios. Now the bios i would not mess with unless your having problems with your current one. Or unless your going to OC and need a more mature bios for stability or OC reasons.

Currect, Your motherboards bios is Preloaded.

If your system is working properly then there's no need to change it. UNLESS there's a feature added in the new bios firmware that you REALLY need.

other then that.. be safe and leave the bios alone.

Just take your mobo CD load your Chipset stuff, OS, graphics etc..

1)WinXP
2)SP2
3)Chipset drivers for the motherboard
4)Newest version of DirectX (today it is already in SP2)
5)Videocard driver (not from the CD, download the latest from NV or ATI)
6)All other drivers (such as printer, special mouse, etc.)
7)Defrag your drive. Now. Before step 8.
8)Application software.

There is no BIOS "driver". You can flash/update your BIOS at any time. Unless you need to, don't update your BIOS.

Newf Wrote:



1)WinXP
2)SP2
3)Chipset drivers for the motherboard
4)Newest version of DirectX (today it is already in SP2)
5)Videocard driver (not from the CD, download the latest from NV or ATI)
6)All other drivers (such as printer, special mouse, etc.)
7)Defrag your drive. Now. Before step 8.
8)Application software.

There is no BIOS "driver". You can flash/update your BIOS at any time. Unless you need to, don't update your BIOS.

Basically correct but following points would be wise to consider:

1) Install OS and any service packs that came on the disc. Partiton your hard dive(s) as necessary. See Below for details.
2) Install Motherboard drivers from CD in package. - see notes below:
Notes:
All settings are in BIOS setup: make sure that you work through the entire setup.
a) if you are not using a dedicated sound card, ensure that the on-board sound is enabled.

b) ensure that on-board networking is enabled - important if you are using high-speed internet - may require ethernet connection. Even if your cable or DSL modem can conect by USB, it is better to use ethernet to save a USB port/connection.

c) ensure that MB features you are not using now, Firewire connection for example, are disabled.

d) check the RAID and drive settings - make sure that they conform to the physical hardware you actually have.

e) use conservative settings to begin with. These will work for sure, and you can always go back and adjust to higher levels later. Get things going first before you try and accelerate.

f) ensure that all components are working.

3) Install hardware drivers for video, sound, mouse, printer, scanner, joystick, and any other components in your system. Use the CDs that came with the hardware. These won't be the most recent, but they are GUARANTEED to work. Without exposing your unprotected system to the nasties on the web. Get the latest and "greatest" versions later, as required and when you are sure that everything is working correctly. Note that new versions of drivers - especially from MS - may "break" things that are working. Direct-X is especially prone to this. Installation order may be critical to success.

4) Install your utilities - Anti-virus, firewall, spy-ware removal, etc.

5) Install your apps, games etc.
5a) Ensure that your security apps see and work with your main apps, esp web browser & e-mail.

6) Test system to ensure it is working "correctly" / "as expected".

7) Get any upgraded drivers, patches etc from the manufactureres. Excercise cautuion with BIOS upgrades. Verify correct system operation.

Don't upgrade anything you don't absolutely need to. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, comes to mind.

Hard Disk Partitioning Comments.

Some recommend putting everything into one or two very large drives/partitons. Others, including most security experts, recommend multiple dedicated partitions, for things like apps, games, data etc. My personal preferance is for more discrete partitions, both from a security and back-up perspective. At the very least, you "should" have a seperate partition for your data files, including your e-mails. Much easier to back up and archive. Partition Magic is a very fine application for this.

Hope this helps.

It's best to update the bios first then install the OS. Update OS then install component drivers. Some motherboard bios requires a repair or reinstall of the OS, but then again some don't.

This is what I did on my build.

Install latest/desired bios on the motherboard. Use with floppy boot.
Configure desired bios settings.
Install OS and third party driver raid 0.
Install motherboard driver in the included CD-Rom.
Update OS.
Install security software and update.
Update platform driver.
Install gpu, soundcard, and other peripheral drivers.
Install games and patches.
And play.