I am in need of some basic information on the steps to be taken after I turn on the power for the first time on my newly assembled computer. The motherboard is an ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe. All components have been intstalled in the case. Cable connections still need to be made. The components I have that connect to the motherboard are: DVD/RW, CD/RW, one SATA2 boot drive, two SATA2 data drives (to be configured in RAID 0). Windows XP will be installed. I have read the motherboard manual cover to cover a number of times, but am unsure of the steps. For example, should I only have the boot drive connected at first, then install the two data drives and configure them? Do I then connect one or both optical drives? Or what? Thanks for any guidance. Not all those who wander are lost. j.r.r. tolkein

Well, you can go ahead and connect all the devices and start up from there. However, what I (and many other people do) is to boot the system with the minimum number of devices. If you do run into a problem that will narrow down the number of possible failure points. So, my suggestion would be to boot it up with only the following connected: PSU, CPU, memory, & video card. You should be able to POST and to access the BIOS. You may recieve some errors because there are no drives attached, but that's OK. If that all works OK, then you can either connect just the boot hard drive and the optical drive so that you can install Windows, or you can go ahead and connect all your drives. Again, the less you have installed, the less troubleshooting you will have to do if you run into a problem. Michael J

Excellent advice from Michael. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!

yup, I agree 100%

Hi, Michael has the right idea, but add a Key board to that. I usually start without the Keyboard and if it tries to boot add the Keyboard and go from there. Luck, Jim

"Hi, Michael has the right idea, but add a Key board to that." Well, yeah. I was only talking about internal components, but I guess I should have pointed that out as well. So, add a monitor to that as well or else everything else is pointless. Michael J

Mmmmm... add a keyboard and monitor? Sounds like a plan. But seriously, it seems like good advice provided above. I will follow it. One more question: let's say that I have booted with only the PSU, CPU and videocard (internals), and I now install the optical drive. When I reboot, I assume the computer will recognize that a new drive has been detected. Do I have to install the optical drive CD, or set things up while in the BIOS? Not all those who wander are lost. j.r.r. tolkein