Technology Lab / Information Technology




Instead of replying to a reader's question on Ask Ars, we've got Part II of new PC-building guide, complete with informative (and entertaining) video clips that both inform and entertain. Last week we were all about hardware assembly. Today, we're picking up where we left off, covering first boot and software tweaking. If you're in the process of building your own PC and are wondering what to do now that the hardware is in place, read on.

EFI (or BIOS) configuration

When we last left our PC-building saga, we had assembled all of our computer components together in the case, powered it on, and had just gotten to the BIOS, or Basic Input-Output System, of the motherboard. (Technically speaking, our Sandy Bridge motherboard doesn't have a BIOS; instead, it has a new BIOS replacement called the Extensible Firmware Interface, or EFI, but we will stick with the term BIOS because it is familiar and rolls off the tongue much nicer.) BIOSes are not at all basic anymore, and the one attached to the Asus P8P67 is downright pretty, but it does start off in easy mode and gives us access to relatively few settings.

We can set the boot order by dragging and dropping, and tell the computer whether to optimize for relative silence, performance, or some kind of middle ground. To make more tweaks, we can switch to the BIOS's advanced mode by a button in the top right corner of the screen. Before you do a lot of playing around in the BIOS, make sure you read through the user guide that comes with your motherboard.

Ask Ars Computer Building Series Episode Two, Part One: The BIOS

The guide will tell you what most things mean—though the occasional omission or error is a common feature of motherboard manuals—and will also fill in the gaps between the setup of our motherboard's BIOS and others. The P8P67's menu setup isn't representative of all motherboards, but the general ideas are the same.

You may remember from Part I of the computer-building saga that the first time we tried to boot the computer, it looked like the motherboard couldn't see the hard drives because they were plugged into the gray Intel chipset's SATA ports and not the navy blue Marvell ones. Going into the Advanced menu and selecting SATA Configuration shows that the motherboard can indeed see the hard drives.

The error message has nothing to do with functionality—the computer will boot an operating system from drives plugged into the Intel chipset—but the computer will keep showing the message and an extra splash screen, so this is an annoyance we want to fix.

If we go back in the Advanced menu to Onboard Devices Configuration and scroll down to the Marvell Storage Controller option, we can set it from "AHCI Mode" to "Disabled." Now, during the power-on self-test, we won't see that extra screen trying to scare us into thinking there are no hard drives.

If you're looking to overclock your processor, you'll find all the settings for that under AI Tweaker for this motherboard. Setting AI Overclocking Tuner from Auto to Manual will let you tune all of the CPU's operating stats to your heart's desire, but you should not mess around with this unless you have installed a really good CPU cooler and have a good grasp of the hardware.

Under the Monitor menu, you can set the lower limit on how fast your CPU and case's fans spin, and profile menus let you prioritize the fan's behavior for less noise or more performance. Choosing Standard or Silent can help your computer draw slightly less power, and more importantly make less noise, but if you're going to be making heavy demands on your hardware, be wary of setting them too low. You can also choose Manual and tweak your CPU and case's maximum operating temperature, but do not play with these numbers unless you are completely aware of all of the performance and lifespan tradeoffs that will come with changing those numbers. If you prevent the fans from spinning as fast as they need to, crashes are a very real possibility.

Last, we can check that the boot order is good to go. By default, the computer will check the hard drive and then the solid state drive, and if there's nothing there then it looks to the optical drive. This is a fine order for us, because now we are going to install our operating system of choice: Windows 7 Home Premium.

Operating system time

Video Ask Ars Computer Building Series Episode Two, Part Two: The Operating System

Retail copies of Windows include both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. We recently wrote about which one you should use, and why: the short answer is, go for 64-bit unless you absolutely must use software or hardware that only works in 32-bit. 64-bit lets you install a lot more RAM (as well as being potentially a little faster and a little more secure): it’s the natural choice for any new build.

You can also opt for the OEM version of Windows. If you do this, you’ll have to pick whether to buy 32- or 64-bit—unlike retail copies, OEM versions only include one bitness—and you will have to buy it along with a piece of hardware. OEM versions are cheaper—Home Premium is $100 for OEM to the retail version's $180—but will be tied to the hardware configuration you install it on. Changing out the RAM won't invalidate the OEM version of windows, but switching to a different motherboard might. A retail copy of Windows can be installed again on a different computer, but can only be activated on one machine at a time.

Windows installation nowadays is both straightforward and quick—a couple of menus will ask for your native language, the date and time, and your compliance with their terms of use.

If you have more than one hard drive or solid state drive installed, at one point Windows will ask you to specify which one you want the OS to live on. This question is easy enough to answer (your solid state drive, if you have one), but charging ahead and installing when there are two drives present could cause you some difficulties in the future.

Regardless of which drive you decide to put Windows on, the installer will place 100MB of "System Reserved" information on the drive in the first position when there is more than one drive. If that drive isn't the same drive Windows is installed on, removing that drive from your configuration will result in a computer that does not boot. Furthermore, if that hard drive fails, you also will not be able to boot.

Backing up properly will protect you against these issues for the most part, and if you decide to use the drives separately you will just have to spend a few minutes repairing Windows. But for simplicity's sake you may want to just unplug the drive you won't install the OS on from its SATA port while you're installing Windows, to protect yourself from its file-scattering habit.

Windows will ask at this point what should be done with the updates that have been released since the install DVD was printed. You can choose not to install any of the updates or install only the critical ones, but unless there is some update in particular you need to avoid, it's fine to go with the recommended settings, which will install all updates.

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