After hardware installation...

[Duffasaurus]

So I can get all my **** together, I'm not worried about that. But after i have all the hardware together, can i just press start, see that it runs, enter BIOS, set time, put in vista cd, and restart? The guide on this site is all like 'Format drives first" but why would I ever do that? Windows always formats drives. Also, I don't think I even have to change bios settings because my board has a jumper for automatic settings. So in theory, I could assemble everything, press start, put in cd, press restart, install windows, put in motherboard driver cd after booting into vista, and then install the drivers for whatever else decided not to work. There is no way the VFD is gonna work on initial boot-up, lol Thanks in advance. My boyfriend will kill me if I don't get this built soon, and I've just been putting it off because of software confusion. This site is a life-saver.

[LeftyAce]

We recommend you first do a bare minimum build out of the case to verify that all core components are working properly; procedures are here: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

Once that's all set, put everything in the case, and you're right, Windows will do all your formatting during installation.

[minsonngo]

Basically all you need to do is put it together... power it up and see if it will POST... if it does... restart and go into the BIOS and make the CD drive the first boot device and save the changes... and then pop in the OS cd and then boot to the CD to begin the OS setup.