Hello All

Here I am, with a new Intel P4 PC on a D850MV mainboard and a
80GB virgin hard disk.

The BIOS is already out of date, but I have had the latest already
downloaded from the Intel web site.  It is supposed to be updated
under a Windows environment, which presumes that I should have
Windows already installed.

The driver for the integrated sound system is also out of date, but I
also have Soundmax 3.0 (the driver) already downloaded.

The documentation for the mainboard also calls for certain other
software (firmware?) to be run.

I hope to partition the hard disk, and plan to load XP, if there is no
advice against it.

Now the request for pointers from anyone who is familiar with the
mainboard.

1. What is the first thing to do when I finally switch on power to the
PC?  Is it to partition the hard disk?  If so, will XP automatically get
me there, the hard disk being a completely new one?  Is it
necessary (or better) to use Partition Magic?  I haven't use it but
that which a friend uses seems to show that there is an overhead
in the hard disk when using Partition Magic.

2. Previous postings here have frequently advised making the first
partition the swap partition.  Has this advice been referring to the C:
partition?  Is this correct perception, and isn't C: the root partition,
where the OS should be?  And does XP even need a swap
partition?  If so, is the common wisdom be to make the swap
partition three times the RAM size?  If the RAM is 512MB, should
the swap partition be then 1.536GB, assuming that there should
not be too much overhead?

3. Is there an optimum sequence of things to do on setting up a
new PC with the environment I have described above?  If so, what
should be the sequence, or alternatively, what is the preferred
sequence?

4. Are there any other points to note?

Thanks for any advice.
----------------------------
Chew Yoke Lim
P O Box 10806
50726 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
----------------------------

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