Holy Cow, 1st Build Works: now what?

[pater familias]

I just turned on my first build, an Intel i-5 2500k with Gigabyte mobo.

So, I turned it on to go through setting up the BIOS like everything tells me, but...

when I first turned it on, it says something about being in "SATA is running in Ide Mode" and "did I want to switch to ACI mode or something" and did I never wanna see this message again?

Well it had a little countdown clock and before I knew it the screen switched to a DOS prompt and instructed me to put my OS install disc in the CD-drive and press "Enter." So, I do and it goes ahead and installs Windows 7.

The OS all loaded great and all the basics seem to work (e.g., Media Player will play a CD). But whenever I restart it goes through that same first DOS-looking screens and the countdown.

Should I still hit delete and go through the BIOS thing or what?

Or should I load the driver discs that came with the mobo, monitor, DVD/CD-drive, etc.?

The hard drive and video card didn't come with drivers.

So, what should I do now before loading an anti-virus program and hooking it up to the WWW?

 

[bavman]

If your using an ssd then turn on ahci mode in bios. If not its not a big deal. Just go in bios and mess around and you should find an option to turn of warning and or suggestions.

First thing you need to do is download prime95 + speedfan. Run prime95 for a couple hours and make sure your cpu temps arent getting hot, and that the system is stable.

Next you can use furmark or another program to test gpu stability for a couple hours.

Make sure you install video drivers first, and any thing else that would require it to work fine.