What to do after you build your computer?

This is my first time building a computer from the ground up. My parts will be in tomorrow.

After I get all the parts into the computer, what do I do next? I guess turn it on would be first, but what I really mean is where do I go from there?

I am using a used SATA drive that has a copy of Windows XP home on it, but I will be installing Vista Ultimate 64 bit to give it a try. I have 4 gbs of Ram that I would actually like to see. Do I mess with that first, or do I worry about the motherboard drivers first? Do I go into the BIOS and make sure the voltages are where they're supposed to be?

I am sorry for the newbie type questions, but I want to make sure that I do this right and not mess anything up.

 

your motherboard should figure out everything for you, but theres always exceptions. i would go into the bios and make sure your hard drive is recognized, and all other things that you can check, all seem ok...double check your memory timings, voltages, etc. cause some boards don't set them right...but, if things turn on ok, then you can tinker later. I wouldn't try booting from the xp installation, but go right to booting from your vista disk. you will probably have to change your boot order in the bios to boot from the cd/dvd first, then hdd, etc. Just make sure you double and triple check all connections, wires, screws, fans, etc....have fun.

 

Do you want to set up a dual boot configuration, with both Win XP Home and Windows Vista? That's what I get from your post, but I don't think it's perfectly clear. So, perhaps you should clarify that point.

If that's your intent, doing a fresh installation of Win XP Home would be much better than trying to just run start up the new computer running Win XP with all the device drivers from the old computer still installed.

 

Nope, no dual boot. It's an old SATA drive out of my brother-in-law's computer. It just already has XP loaded on it.

 

it might not work? that is unless your bro in-law has the exact hardware combination that you have. - sos