First start

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

What should I do on the first startup?  Anything to check or set in the BIOS?  Will it prompt me to put my Windows disk in?  Do I need to format the drive before I install Windows?  I'm pretty lost in this area.

[Kitty*{MEOW}*]

well First when U boot hit delete and go into the BIOS and set the first boot device to CD ROM Then leave BIOS (For NOW)

   Next start with your Windows CD inCD Rom and when it says hit space bar  or hit anykey to boot from cd rom hit space bar and it will boot it from the windows cd. After that its just reading and following directions.  I will note though it will make U format your drive and U want it in the NTFS file system. DO NOT USE FAT 32 system.  Its not as good.    IT will format it all out which will take a while for big drives. then it will reboot and then start installing windows. It will ask for cd key just enter that and it will go till it finnishes, If it restarts don't worry. Once its all installed it will restart PC and boot from HDD. Then  U can restart the PC again and go back into your BIOS and tell it to boot first from Floppy, 2nd CD, ROM, third and forth if U have a 4th would be your HDD's. Although if U want it to skip the Floppy boot and cdrom boot and just boot from HDD U can do that. Just put first boot device to HDD1.  It will boot a few seconds faster that way.  after that restart and when u get to windows put in your drives for Mother board first then your Video card. Restart again and then install drivers to everything else. Then install games, updates and enjoy. Happy computing man.

[INSTINCT]

smooth also read up on the western digital website ....both gunner and myself needed to use a boot floppy to recognize the raptor drive!!!!.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Got the Seagate 7200.9 NCQ Sata 300gb/s 160gb instead of the raptor.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Rig is up and running, I'm posting from it now.  Posted 1st try, windows installed, updated, and activated no problem.  Couple minor problems to speak of:

Something called sam.jar tries to open every time I start the computer and it gets to the desktop.  This started happening right after I put in the drivers for the raid controller.

My CPU fan is running full on no matter what and it's pretty loud.  Turning on Qfan makes it go off completely.

The led's for power and hdd activity aren't working.


Aside from that, I'm still getting everything installed.  Haven't tried any games yet, but from what I've seen so fan it's a powerhouse.  Kitty, my N516 7800GT came clocked at 470/1100.  Temps sitting at the desktop here are:  CPU 87F MB 100F GPU 38C.

[INSTINCT]

GeeeReat!.....go get aquamark or futuremark and pu it through its paces.

smooth q fan enabled in bios?....."SMOOTH FOR Q FAN TO WORK AI TUNER MUST BE ENABLED IN THE BIOS"  AI OVERCLOCK ALSO!...REMEMBER YOU DONT NEED TO ACTUALLY DO AN OVER CLOCK OR USE THE AI TUNER ..BUT FOR THE Q FAN TO ACTUALLY WORK YOU NEED TO ENABLE ALL THESE AS I HAVE AND IT WORKS WELL.

sry for the pearlies 

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

OK I know where Qfan is in the BIOS, but where are the other two?  Anything else I should check in the BIOS?

[INSTINCT]

smooth

under "chipset or cpu"

you would want to set these:

1,agp arpeture..set to 256mb

2,memory acceleration.. or spi ...set to enable  <---defeat this if sys hangs

3,AI tuner set to enable

4,overclock set to "standard"


i dont remember where q fan is but poke around it cant be enabled unless AI tuner and overclock are set to on , remember just cus you enable these features doesnt mean you are or have to use them.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

AGP even though I'm on PCI-E ?

FEAR demo, maximum settings, 1024x768x32, 50+ fps.  Best graphics I've ever seen.

[INSTINCT]

holy crap smooth    <-------------------tech gap-----------------> sorry never mind the agp lmfbo, whoooops 

ok so load up battlefield 2 turn it up and then lets compare frames  <shooter>

uhhhmm  stupid question ..did u let windows update do your drivers? for devices?

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

OK I think I made some progress.  I enabled Qfan and set overclock to standard in the BIOS.  No option anywhere for tuner.  It cycled the fan down to 1200rpm from the 2700 it was running at before, but it doesn't appear to change it when temp changes.  The mobo went up to 120F and the cpu at about 93F and it didn't budge from 1200rpm.  I had to disable Qfan to bring the temps down.

[INSTINCT]

SMOOTH in the bios does it recognize your fan?..the thermaltake?  if it does it must be set to >>pwm<<  and you must assign the threshold for the fan rpm.

[Kat*{MEOW}*]

Smooth, .jar files have to do with Java code.  A goodle search found this with refrence to an ASUS Mobo.

http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=644141&messageID=3797436

Might be worth a look.  Don't think it's serious, just a file not loading right.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Here's a SS from the FEAR demo.  The AI in this game is the smartest I've seen in a FPS.  The game has the same bullet time mode (slow motion) that the Max Payne series had.  Check out this enemy ducking and covering as my bouncing betty style proximity mine detonates above him.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

I think that's what it is Kat.  After the raid driver got done installing, it prompted me to install java and I said no.  Would that fix it now if I installed java?