Glc, others.

[Charles]

I am ready to put this P3B-F with adapter and Celeron 600 together. I decided not to o/c for now since it's for girlfriend. This barebone came with Fujitsu 6.4 G(used before, don't know what's in it) at 5400 RPM and with an Xwave sound card I am planning on keeping. It also has a Toshiba 48x CD-ROM and a Floppy.
Please correct my steps if I am missing anything. I will install video card only, then proceed to set Bios to PC mechanic recommendations, then reboot with boot disk for Win 98 SE and fdisk and format hard drive(any recommendations on partition sizes? 2 or 3 partitions?. Then reboot with system disk and choose "with CDROM support", then create file to install Cabs, copy cabs and then reboot with Windows 98 cd and install Operating System. Then reboot and install video card driver.Then reboot and install monitor driver. Then reboot and install mobo driver. What do I install here?

P3B-F AGPset Motherboard?
Support CD Rev. 4.29?
Trend PC-Cillin Anti-Virus Setup Rev 4.06?
3D Audio Driver For Win98/95NT?
ATA 66 Card Driver?
Asus PC Probe Rev. 2.24?

Reboot, shutdown and install soundcard with driver. Then reboot and shutdown and install modem with driver. Then go to Bios and set anything that may need to be enable or disable. Then reboot and setup earthlink connection. At this point I have the option to upgrade to IE 5.5, Winzip, Inoculate and MBM, etc.

What am I missing? Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Omletteboy]

Sounds good, what I do is install from the CD instead of copying cab files. I copy the cab files after windows has loaded. Copying from dos takes a lot more time.

[reboot]

I've got the same chip on the same mobo.
Make sure you set voltage to 1.5 to start!!!!!!
Get BIOS update 1006 from ASUS if you haven't already, the 1005 version does not support voltage below 2v.
Disregard last statement if you have a slotket that sets voltage manually.
Boot to 66mhz bus at x9 multiplyer first time around.
Restart at 75mhz (it will do this with no problems at all).
Restart at 83mhz (should go, but peripherals don't always like the 42.6mhz bus), and if you can't get POST, you may have to increase the voltage a bit.
Check that cooling is premium, and try it at 1.55v or 1.6v to get POST. (Don't increase voltage if you don't have to!!!!)
Try it again at 100mhz. If you get POST, congratulations!
If you don't get POST, increase the voltage as mentioned above.
Mine POSTed at 750 (83mhz bus) at 1.5v (stock), but had to go all the way to 1.65 to POST at 100mhz (900mhz).

[glc]

I see nothing on that driver CD that you need. BX boards aren't like Via boards that need drivers - Windows has everything you need. With a 6.4 and if it's for your GF, just make it all one partition - less confusing. Just fdisk and format it (or use Fujitsu's software - your choice) and install Windows with just the video card in there. I recommend that you disable ACPI in the bios right off the bat, before you install Windows.

[Charles]

How do you install cabs from Windows?

If I leave adapter card jumper setting to DEFAULT would mobo detect 1.5v or do I need to manually set jumpers for 1.5v? I image o/c comes after everything is installed, right?

Do I need to enable ACPI after installation process? What other settings are usually re-enabled, disabled or changed in BIOS on Intel 440BX boards after installation is completed? Thanks again to all.

Corrrect me here if I am wrong. In this particular board since it is 100FSB design and I am using a 66Mz processor I will be 0/C the processor ONLY when I bring the FSB to 100.
Anything beyond 100FSB and I will be o/c all my other components including my mobo and this is when I need to start changing the ratios for AGP and or RAM depending on the board? I guess this is when it gets a little more complicated stabilitywise?

Is this the same scenario with the CUV4X, when I clock the FSB to 133 on the P3 700E FCPGA? Anything over 133 and I need a real good graphics card + may need to change AGP and or RAM ratios? For instance if you choose a 1/2 AGP ratio running at 140FSB, does it mean you are o/c the video card to 70 FSB? What happens to your other components here:Sound card,modem,monitor and peripherals? Sorry for making this so long and thanks again.

[glc]

No, LEAVE acpi disabled.

The BX board will run the PCI and AGP at spec at 66 and 100. Any other FSB and they will be out of spec. The Via board will run the PCI and AGP at spec at 66, 100, and 133, any other settings and they are out of spec. You only need be concerned about the video card and any devices that use PCI, including the hard drive controllers.

AGP spec is 66 and PCI spec is 33. When I say "off spec" it could be high OR low.

If you are bound and determined to overclock your machines, as long as the processors you have can hack it, your *best* bus speeds on those boards are as follows - the Via at 133 and the BX at 100. *Nothing* except the processors themselves will be off spec at those settings.

[Toaster]

For the overclocker, on the ASUS board(s), bus speeds of 100, 124, 133 offer a 31-33mhz PCI bus rate. (stable for all systems). Going outside these numbers and the PCI bus rate skyrockets. If the option is open to you, choose a PCI bus rate of between 30-35mhz and you shouldn`t have any problems. Win9x supports the BX chipset right out of the box but the Intel BX update is a good choice for better performance. Set your HDD to 1 partition, when drives exceed about 8.4GB is when win9x gets a little stupid with drive usage/utilization. DO NOT use the diamond drivers, get the Nvidia drivers.

[Charles]

Toaster,when you say Intel BX update, are you talking about Bios update? If so, how do I know if they have updated yet(system is used barebone)? Otherwise where do I go to update? Intel or Asus? Thanks.

[LawyerRon]

Charles,
Toaster's talking about the chipset. The BX is a chipset. The bios is something different. To see if you've got the latest bios update, check the POST info on the screen when it boots up. You should see the bios version here.

[Charles]

Is the Nvidia driver called "detonator 3"? Would it be better to download via HTTP or FTP?

[glc]

1. Yes.

2. It doesnt make any difference. Whatever works for you.

[Toaster]

There is a "bus master" update or the Intel I/O chip that boosts performance within Winxx. This has nothing to do with your BIOS. Most system board makers keep these files on thier web site. The performance gain is minor but the efficiency of data transfers is where it helps most.

[Charles]

Toaster are you saying to look for a bus master update in Asus site and download to hard drive?

[glc]

With what you are going to be doing, it's not worth the hassle. You have to get this particular driver from the Intel developer site.

[Charles]

Thanks Glc.

[Charles]

Another question about drivers. Is all hardware suppose to have a driver? Monitor,hard drive,video card, mobo,CD-ROM,CD-RW,soundcard or just if it needs it? What's the rule of thumb here?

[glc]

If it's hardware, it *usually* needs a driver, but often the drivers will install themselves transparently to the user with the Windows installation. If plug and play asks you for a driver, it needs one. If a device is flagged in device manager, it usually needs a new driver.

Generally the only items that *need* user intervention to install a driver are sound cards, video cards, and modems. Read the instruction sheets that come with each and every device - they will tell you if a driver is needed and if so, where to find it and how to install it.

[Charles]

Thanks Glc.