Building and Booting Questions (IM LOST)

[ravagetheearth]

Ok so I am going to be putting together my first build pretty soon and I have some questions. First of all, I will be running windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. Here is the system specs:

AsRock Z77 Extreme4
Intel Core i5 3570k
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
MSI Twin Frozr III Radeon HD 7950
G. Skill Ripjaws X Series (2 x 4GB)
Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
Seasonic M12II 620 Bronze 620 Watt PS
ASUS SATA DVD Burner
USB Wired Keyboard
USB Wireless Mouse

1. So I hear the 212 EVO blocks the first RAM slot which is fine because I'm not inerested in having more than 8GB of RAM, but is there anything special I'm going to have to do to boot the computer using the DIMM2 and DIMM4 slots?
2. Is a USB wired keyboard and USB wireless mouse going to work right from the first boot without any drivers?
3. I want to install windows 7 on the SSD. Is the computer going to ask me which drive I want to put windows on? Is there a main SATA port on the MOBO that I should look for to plug my SSD into so that windows is put on the correct drive? Or should I just plug in the HDD after I complete the installation of Windows 7?
4. There are two pci-e 16x ports on my MOBO. Does it matter which one I use to plug in my Radeon 7950?
5. How do I boot the windows 7 disc when I first start up my computer for the first time?
6. I'm sure there are questions I'm forgetting, but as you see I'm pretty confused by all of this so if you could think of any advice to give me or some other things that I should know while I'm building or for when I boot the computer for the first time that would be great.

Thanks guys! This is all very exciting!!

 

[manofchalk]

1 Nope, just use either of the memory configs stated in the manual and you should be fine.

2. The mouse maybe not, but a mouse isnt necessary for the BIOS and Windows install.

3. Leave any drive other than the one your installing too unplugged.

4. Use the top one.

5. It should cycle though all the possible places to boot from, eventually getting to the Optical Drive. Though you could just set the boot order to go from the optical.

6. Have your drivers ready beforehand, saves a lot of time.

 

[tassietim]

1: not sure 100% but it shouldnt matter if they are matched slots
2; as long as the keyboard works its all good which it should anyways
3:it does give you the option to select which hard drive to install on, you can tell whicih is which by the capacity it shows
4: i always put graphics card into to top 16x slot closest to the cpu , the manual should say
5: go into the bios and set 1sd boot device to cd/dvd drive not hard drive

as for fresh installs i install os > then install mobo drivers ( but if have another system allready i go to the mobo website to get all the latest drivers 1st > anti virus software > then let it do all the windows updates

 

[ravagetheearth]

Thanks guys! So I should find all the drivers I will need and put the on a flash drive? I would only need the MOBO and GPU drivers correct? What other components need drivers?

 

[rdc85]

answer no 3. Plug HDD after windows/OS installation... (don't forget to set the port mode to AHCI in the BIOS before OS installation)


edit.. :
they are sure fast.........

answer no 4. try looking for PCIex_"0" or "1" x16 (lowest number with 16x)... the bigger numbered ones usually had bandwidth shared with other device

 

[ravagetheearth]

Ok thank you! So the only drivers I'm going to need are for the GPU and MOBO, correct? Also, aren't I supposed to wait until windows is done installing and all my drivers are up to date and I'm on my desktop before I shut my computer off and plug in my graphics card, right? What do I do after that? Do I plug my HDMI into the card and turn the computer on? Or should I install the driver for the graphics card before I install the card itself?

 

[rdc85]

It's okay if GPU is plunged and connected to the monitor when installing windows....

without the graphic driver windows will use generic driver (the gpu will work)

u can installed the new/updated driver after entering desktop....... (it will require couple of reboot)

for plugin HDD u could do that after the whole system stable (driver installed) ....

edit: not familiar with HDMI but if it dvi it will work with just generic windows driver...

 

[ravagetheearth]

Ok perfect! Thanks a lot guys. If anyone thinks of any other tips just let me know. I appreciate all the help!

 

[jtenorj]

I imagine this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway just in case. If that ssd is a really faster one (sata 6gbps/600MBps), make sure and plug it into one of those sata ports. For hdd and optical, you can easily plug those into slower sata ports(3gbps/300MBps). They won't come anywhere near using the available speed on those, but the ssd will come close to maxing one of the faster ports(if it's one of those more recent and faster models).