Hi I'm new to the forums and have a few questions on building my first gaming PC.
1.) RAM Placement: Where is the optimal place to put them in (2x2Gb).
2.) Once the rig is manually put together (which I feel fairly confident doing) do I install windows 7 first. What if the driver doesn't work, what then?
3.) slave and master switches on components: how do I know which to put it on?
4.) Will I have problems having everything communicating properly?
5.) How do I know how to configure the HDD, video card, CPU, etc. for optimal performance?
6.) How do I get drivers without internet once I install windows 7?
Sorry but that was just my brain spewing out random questions. Any answers would be greatly appreciated. A link to a comprehensive PC build walk through would also be helpful (I have fail googleing skills).
First off welcome to the board! Always glad to have new faces!
now to your questions:
1) Every motherboard is different, dual/tri-channel positions are best if I remember and the motherboard manual should tell you which ones you want. (Sweffy would you confirm my belief on this?)
2) Win 7 should have basic drivers for all but the craziest of components, which you shouldn't be getting into unless you've done this a few times. So long as you've just got standard components it won't be an issue, after win 7 install go grab proper drivers for your motherboard, videocard, sound card.
3) These days this isn't much of a thing. If you are running SATA drives there is no master/slave. If you end up with IDE drives bug us and we can guide you on them but going SATA is the better option.
4) You shouldn't, it's pretty foolproof these days.
5) For your first system, plug them in, install drivers, don't mess with overclocking yet.
6) All the things that require drivers should come with them on CDs to install. It's best to get the latest ones from the internet but those CDs are better than nothing.
Hope this helps!