Athlon 64 Questions and Feedback

[Arthur Lipscomb]

Hi. I will be putting together a custom system and would like some advice
and feedback. I will be using an AMD 64 3000 on a the MSI K8T Neo2-F
motherboard with a 160 GB SATA hard drive 1 gig of memory (set for dual
channel) and an ATI All in wonder 9600 video card. I will be installing a
slipstreamed Windows XP Professional service pack 2. I've read some
confusing information about pressing F6 during Windows setup to install
third party raid drivers for drives over 160 GB. My hard drive came with a
disk format utility. Will I still need to press F6 during install or is
that only for versions of windows before service pack 2?



After I install Windows, what is generally the best order to install
software and drivers?



I'm trying to decide between using my old SoundBlaster live or the
motherboard's on board audio. I've read that using the onboard audio uses
the CPU. However, given my system specs, will this ever be noticeable?



I'm thinking about installing one of my old IDE hard drives to use as back
up. Will an IDE drive in any way slow down the SATA drive?



Any other suggestions?



Thanks in advance.

 

[Tweek]

You need to press F6 to install the SATA drivers so the XP installer can see
your hard drive. It doesn't have anything to do with whether or not the
drive is formatted. Since you already slipstreamed SP2 into your install
disc, why don't you add the SATA drivers to the disc too. I did it and it
works great. I used the instructions here:
http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html

Eventually, I will add the drivers for all of my hardware so there will be
less drivers to install at the end.

I also used it to automate much of the installation process like entering
the product key.

After install, install the chipset drivers first, then the processor driver.
I usually do the video drivers next. After that I don't really do the other
drivers in any particular order.

Onboard audio usually works fine, but a dedicated sound card will get you
back some cpu cycles for sure. If you have the card, you might as well use
it.

An IDE hard drive shouldn't interfere with the performance of the system at
all. If you want, you can get an IDE to SATA converter for the drive. I use
one on my 300GB storage drive and it works great.

 

[Arthur Lipscomb]

Thanks!