Building a computer for the first time.

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Gringuito

21 posts

Geek

#76518 3-Feb-2011 07:05

Hey guys

I've almost finished putting my new computer together but am confused about a few things...

The motherboard has onboard graphics, do I need to leave out my graphics card the first time I turn it on (to install windows and motherboard drivers)? And if so, when I put the graphics card in the PCI slot, is there anything I need to do to get it working other than install the drivers?

Do I need to fiddle with anything in the BIOS?

Anything else I should know about configuring a computer before I start?

Thanks heaps if you can help

ayan6600

11 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#434617 3-Feb-2011 07:20

No ur motherboard should detect the card and it should work normally after you install the drivers. However Windows will reserve some memory for the onboard graphics from your RAM. If you want that memory back, you will have to disable the onboard graphics from the BIOS.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13771 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#434638 3-Feb-2011 08:28

ayan6600: No ur motherboard should detect the card and it should work normally after you install the drivers. However Windows will reserve some memory for the onboard graphics from your RAM. If you want that memory back, you will have to disable the onboard graphics from the BIOS.

+1

Im not sure about newer mobo's but older ones sometimes had handy features turned off by default, so have a look through the BIOS and if theres anything that seems handy, research it, then enable it if its not going to cause any problems.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree

G4m3r

77 posts

Master Geek

#437440 9-Feb-2011 20:00

I haven't had that much experience with onboard graphics it should be fine just to put it in. It would probably be best to disable the onboard graphics in the bios other than that the bios should configure itself. Only ever change things in the Bios if you know what it does and you know what you are changing, otherwise it causes problems.
Shouldnt need to configure much else it should do it all itself, but you could always check device manager in the control panel to make sure all the drivers are installed and working fine.