Installing OS on new custom PC - help with drivers?

Hey everyone,

I'm purchasing my first custom-built PC (as opposed to a Dell, Gateway, etc). It'll be coming with no OS previously installed.

I've done re-installations of Windows and the like in the past, but I've never put a fresh OS onto a brand new computer. My question is how this will work in terms of loading drivers. I'm not sure if the OS disk I have for XP will contain any drivers for this sytem, or if I'll have to load them myself. I've tracked down the drivers for all of the system's components, but I guess I'm wondering how to load them onto the computer: will it accept the XP installation if it's missing motherboard drivers and such? Will I be able to get the OS to install, boot up XP, and then install the motherboard, audio, LAN, etc. drivers within XP? Or will I have to do it in a more technical way? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

The motherboard, graphics card and most other components will come with device drivers, usually auto-running CD's

Install Windows then install motherboard chipset and on-board graphics or graphics card drivers and update DirectX from the CD's. Then check Device Manager and install any other hardware (sound, network, etc.)

Once you've installed all necessary drivers and rebooted a few times, enable the firewall and connect to the Internet and download the latest drivers and security tools.