Switching on:
Like all first power ups on new builds it pays to re-check connections
before applying power. It's also a good idea to use a standard
PS2 mouse and keyboard connections as USB wireless keyboards
and mouse may not be recognised by the bios initially so you'll
be unable to setup the basic settings. As we have already tried
our setup before assembly we expected it to work on start up
which it did. We are not using a SATA drive so no drivers need
to be installed but if you are you may have to temporarily
fit a floppy to upload them. The great thing about this case
is that you can open the side panel to see it working
when it's powered up - please note we know exactly what
we
are
doing and we would never advise anyone working on a live
PC with the case open.
Graphics card:
For a new build like this we generally and in this case decided
to use the onboard graphics saving the installation of a graphics
card
until after
the operating system is installed. Picture shows graphics card
installed after first power up and O/S installed.
Setting the bios:
This is where you need your manual unless you know what to set
here, usually though the default settings are ok and you only
need to set the Clock and Number Lock etc.
Installing
the operating system:
I suppose this is the final insult installing windows although
I suppose you could be installing Linux but in our case we
decided to go for Windows XP Media Center edition on the basis
that this may well end up as a media center rather than a games
machine.
Too
good to be true ? :
It all works, we are still surprised that everything went as
well as it did especially after reading on the internet how
many problems others experienced in doing a similar conversion.
Part
6 will look at the modifications we have made since the original
build and what happens in the future. next
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