Scared of the BIOS...Help!

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Okay, I'm a soon-to-be first time builder who has just ordered the first of my parts for an upcoming build. I've read and studied so much information on this site that I finally developed the confidence to build instead of buy. I haven't ordered my mobo yet, but I am leaning towards the EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard. I downloaded the user guide so I could get a jump on things and what I have just read has put a huge dent in my confidence!

I suddenly realized that while I now feel comfortable with the setting up the hardware, I have no clue on what to do once I actually get the system put together and have to tweak the BIOS and other settings. The mobo manual talked about BIOS features, CMOS features, detecting and setting channels, device priority, chipset features, system clocks, etc., etc. - all of which I know little to nothing about.

Can anyone offer any advice or direct me to a really good guide to teach me what I'll need to know once I have the rig built and have to move on to making sure everything runs smoothly? Or am I making something out of nothing and maybe it's not very difficult at all once the rig is set up? I guess I'm looking for someone to either ease my mind that I may be biting off more than I can chew or validate my concerns and give me something I can learn from.

P.S. Is the nTune software that comes with the mobo worth using?

-J.
 
If you're not overclocking (which you shouldnt really do right away.. make sure the build is stable normally first!), there's not all that much to deal with. Most of the options you won't need to even touch.. just browse through to make sure your harddrives show up, check temperatures (you wont have an OS installed yet, so the bios reading is your first check to make sure the CPU heatsink is working right). By default you shouldn't need to even touch the settings for the CPU. The motherboard manual is usually good enough for the basic options, it will walk you through plugging everything in, and has one-liner descriptions for the bios options. There should be tons of PC building guides on the net that will tell you more. Most of the bios features you dont need to worry about unless you have weird hardware or are overclocking.
 
Okay, I'm a soon-to-be first time builder who has just ordered the first of my parts for an upcoming build. I've read and studied so much information on this site that I finally developed the confidence to build instead of buy. I haven't ordered my mobo yet, but I am leaning towards the EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard. I downloaded the user guide so I could get a jump on things and what I have just read has put a huge dent in my confidence!

I suddenly realized that while I now feel comfortable with the setting up the hardware, I have no clue on what to do once I actually get the system put together and have to tweak the BIOS and other settings. The mobo manual talked about BIOS features, CMOS features, detecting and setting channels, device priority, chipset features, system clocks, etc., etc. - all of which I know little to nothing about.

Can anyone offer any advice or direct me to a really good guide to teach me what I'll need to know once I have the rig built and have to move on to making sure everything runs smoothly? Or am I making something out of nothing and maybe it's not very difficult at all once the rig is set up? I guess I'm looking for someone to either ease my mind that I may be biting off more than I can chew or validate my concerns and give me something I can learn from.

P.S. Is the nTune software that comes with the mobo worth using?

-J.
Click to expand...

Well, you are asking a lot of questions here.

Fortunately for you ,the Evga 680iSLI is one of the easiest boards to configure (bios wise). The manual clearly outlines your avialable settings and what they are for. There is nothing anyone except for maybe another Evga 680iSLI user can tell you about the bios that isn't shown in more detail in your manual. That Evga is a solid fast high performance board, as its price shows.

You will need a certain level of understanding regarding CPU, System and Memory FSB settings as well as memory timings and voltages if you wish to get the most out of this board and attached hardware. Otherwise you may save money looking at a more basic board.

You may be getting a bit ahead of yourself. This board is designed to work best with the following hardware: C2D's of course and Nvidia Cards in SLI and matched Corsair memory. These hardware items enable added features specific for overclocking in the bios if you are so inclined.

You have not indicated any other choices for your "build" other than the board. I don't know how much help anyone can be until you finalize your build components and ask for forum advice as MANY do here on your choices.

PS: I have only tried to configure my board with nTune twice..., it has crashed windows both times..., the bios works for me.

Good luck,
 
I am a first time builder myself. I too was overwhelmed by the BIOS configuration options. However I found the default settings that is set in the BIOS to be fine.

When I first powered up I went into the BIOS and just set the Time/Date, and then had a quick browse in the BIOS just to familiarise myself with where settings are and what they do.

While you are in the bios you may want to set your RAM to the correct timings. Read your mobo manual where you can set the timings. On first look in the BIOS screen it had it set to 5-5-5-18 for my 2GB GeIL PC6400 ULL ram, which is not correct. So I set it to the rated timings which is 4-4-4-12 and changed the ram voltage from auto to 1.9V.

For setting your ram to the correct timing/Voltage go to your RAM's manufactures site. It should state the rated timings/Voltages or read the little sticker on the front of the RAM sticks.

After that I pressed F10 (which means Save and Exit). Rebooted and made sure my PC passed POST. As my Case came with a PC speaker I was able to identify whether my PC passed POST. As from reading my mobo manual 1 short beeps means it passed POST.

After that I left the BIOS as it is and installed XP.
 
You may be getting a bit ahead of yourself. This board is designed to work best with the following hardware: C2D's of course and Nvidia Cards in SLI and matched Corsair memory. These hardware items enable added features specific for overclocking in the bios if you are so inclined.

You have not indicated any other choices for your "build" other than the board. I don't know how much help anyone can be until you finalize your build components and ask for forum advice as MANY do here on your choices.
Click to expand...

Thanks to those who have posted so far. I definately appreciate it! I will be checking out that link that Kbits provided as soon as I'm done posting this. Here are the components that I'm leaning towards going with:

Case: Antec P182 SE (Already Purchased)
Mobo: Leaning towards EVGA nForce 680i SLI
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67 GHz - may upgrade this after July price drop
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-U12F/Artic Silver 5 (Already Purchased)
RAM: Debating on using either 4GB of Corsair XMS DDR2-800 (4x1MB) or 4 GB of Patriot DDR2-800 (2x2GB)
Power Supply:SeaSonic M12 700 Watt
Hard Drive 1: WD Raptor - 150 GB
Hard Drive 2: WD Caviar SE16 - 320 GB
Video Card: EVGA 768-P2-N835-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SUPERCLOCKED
Sound Card: Creative 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty
DVD/RW and DVD Drives: Undecided
Floppy/7-in-1 Card Reader:Mitsumi
Operating System:Leaning towards 64-bit Vista

I will be overclocking eventually, but only after mastering the basics first! I will not be going SLI from the start but will reserve it as a possible option for the future.
 
Vista x64 is a challenge in itself. A friend of mine installed it last night and then formatted and installed 32-bit. The driver support is limited and it requires digitally signed drivers. But, if you can get it to work the advantages are there for you since you have 4GB of RAM.
 
Google something like "680i overclocking guide". There's a lot of information out there.

The following assumes an eVGA 680i motherboard. Other 680i motherboards should be similar.

Suggestion: First, build it and get it with the default BIOS settings. Then watch the LED display (POST codes) on the motherboard count up during the boot process so you have an idea what a successful boot indication looks like.

Suggestion: Enable the floppy drive in the BIOS, but do not install one. That will automatically create a halt (PRESS F1 TO CONTINUE) before the OS loads. It will give you more time to enter the BIOS if you need to.

One of the things I like about the eVGA 680i motherboard is that if you get overly aggressive with the BIOS settings, and it crashes during bootup, it seems to automatically drop back to more conservative settings. While I was experimenting with mine, I crashed a lot. I never had to clear the CMOS memory once.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, jsc. I was able to find an excellent source of information at www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/45121/nforce_680i_sli_overclocking.pdf

Of course reading it brought up yet another question! The power supply section at the SLI site does not list the Seasonic M12 700 Watt Power Supply as being compatible to run 2 8800 GTX video cards in SLI. (While I'm not starting out with two, I do want to reserve the opportunity to do so in the future...) It lists that PS as adequate to run 8800 GTS's in SLI.

Does anyone have experience using the Seasonic M12 700 in SLI with the 8800 GTX cards or should I go ahead and heed the sites advice on look for a different PS option? (I want to keep it modular and I really want to place an emphasis on quiet...)
 
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