Some Newbie Questions :)

[Cheese]

Hi guys,

im new to building PC's (will be putting my new comp together from scratch tomorrow). Although i have installed new hardware before i would hardly call myself proficient :)
Heres my new comp specs:
AMD Athlon-C 1.4 GHz, Asus A7M266, 256MB DDR, 40GB Seagate, GeForce 2. For the moment ill use the onboard sound. This is all going in a LianLi PC-60USB Case.

Couple of Questions:
1) When i install the hard drive, do i have to fdisk it, then format it before installing an OS (prolly win2k or XP). Sad, huh. A computer science student who has never used fdisk. Im a format champion though...slightest problem comes up, the HD gets erased :) If so, how the hell do i use fdisk?

2) Can I install the CD Drive on the ATA-100 cable or do i need to use an ATA-33 cable?

3) What sort of temperature should i expect the athlon to run at? Im using a Vantec 6800 rpm HSF combo, plus all the case fans.

4) Any general tips?

Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers

3)

[jim chase]

:) The fun is just beginning :)

If the hard drive is new it will need to have a partition or partitions created before it can be formatted. You can use fdisk or seagate has some utilities, Seatools I believe, that will partition and format in one operation. One thing nice about manufacturer utilities is that when fdisk doesn't like the fat table or something and won't work, the manufacturer utilities will straighten it out.

You can find good instructions for fdisk on the internet.

I haven't used ATA-100 but I believe the CD-rom will work on the same cable.

Jim

[brad]

Yes, CD drives normally work fine on an ATA-100 controller with either 40 or 80 conductor ribbons. Only need the 80 if a cd and ATA66/100 drive are on the same cable.

Brad