New NF7-S on the way. Any setup advice?

About an hour ago I went up to the Newegg site and ordered an Abit NF7-S and
one gig of Mushkin 3500 Level One (512x2). In this will go my present Athlon
Pal 2100+, Radeon 9500Pro and two WD 40gig HD's.

I would like the best advice from those who presently use the NF7-S. I am
new to NForce 2 and am not certain what drivers and such are needed.

I have so far:
New BIOS Version: 23 from Abit (March 29, 04)
Nvidia Platform Drivers Ver 3.13 for WinXP/2000 From NVida site.

I understand that the NVida driver is "complete" and has every driver needed
for the sound, the sata, the ide, and everything else. True?

Any help, hints, do's, don't, or "make sure"s would be VASTLY appreciated.

Joe wrote:

> About an hour ago I went up to the Newegg site and ordered an Abit NF7-S and
> one gig of Mushkin 3500 Level One (512x2). In this will go my present Athlon
> Pal 2100+, Radeon 9500Pro and two WD 40gig HD's.
>
> I would like the best advice from those who presently use the NF7-S. I am
> new to NForce 2 and am not certain what drivers and such are needed.
>
> I have so far:
> New BIOS Version: 23 from Abit (March 29, 04)
> Nvidia Platform Drivers Ver 3.13 for WinXP/2000 From NVida site.

Good

> I understand that the NVida driver is "complete" and has every driver needed
> for the sound, the sata, the ide, and everything else. True?

There's 2 new drivers from Nvidia - audio 4.31 for 98/Me and Xp, and
ide4.12 for xp.

> Any help, hints, do's, don't, or "make sure"s would be VASTLY appreciated.

check out the abit forums at forum.abit-usa.com


--
Mark H --- Frag on !
bios 23 sata 4.2.47
NF7-S v2.0 Win2k-sp4
WinXp-sp1a
radeon 9500np soft mod

Mark H wrote:
> There's 2 new drivers from Nvidia - audio 4.31 for 98/Me and Xp, and
> ide4.12 for xp.

Are they recommended, or should I just stay with unified driver 3.13?

They are recommended - they fix compatibility issues.

Per Nielsen wrote:
> Mark H wrote:
>
>>There's 2 new drivers from Nvidia - audio 4.31 for 98/Me and Xp, and
>>ide4.12 for xp.
>
>
> Are they recommended, or should I just stay with unified driver 3.13?
>
>


--
Mark H --- Frag on !
NF7-S v2.0 Win2k-sp4
WinXp-sp1a

Mark H wrote:
> They are recommended - they fix compatibility issues.

Thx, on the way to install ;-)

"Joe" <> wrote in message
news:wgobc.9215$pM1.4493@lakeread06...
> About an hour ago I went up to the Newegg site and ordered an Abit NF7-S
and
> one gig of Mushkin 3500 Level One (512x2). In this will go my present
Athlon
> Pal 2100+, Radeon 9500Pro and two WD 40gig HD's.
>
> I would like the best advice from those who presently use the NF7-S. I
am
> new to NForce 2 and am not certain what drivers and such are needed.
>
> I have so far:
> New BIOS Version: 23 from Abit (March 29, 04)
> Nvidia Platform Drivers Ver 3.13 for WinXP/2000 From NVida site.
>
> I understand that the NVida driver is "complete" and has every driver
needed
> for the sound, the sata, the ide, and everything else. True?
>
> Any help, hints, do's, don't, or "make sure"s would be VASTLY appreciated.
>
>

Btw, the nVidia UDP doesn't include SATA drivers but does include everything
else.
Install XP incl SP1, install chipset drivers, install Windows Updates &
finally install ATI drivers for your 9500 (as you will need DirectX 9 before
you can do that).
I recommend not to install the SW IDE drivers but just to stick with the MS
ones.

You may find that you need to up the Vcore slightly as the NF7 series seem
to undervolt it slightly.
BIOSd23 breaks the ABITEQ h/w monitoring app so use something like mbm5,
speedfan or 8rdavcore instead


---

Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.648 / Virus Database: 415 - Release Date: 31/03/2004

Thanks for the replies.

Buff said"

"I recommend not to install the SW IDE drivers but just to stick with the MS
ones."

But Mark H reports:

"There's 2 new drivers from Nvidia - audio 4.31 for 98/Me and Xp, and
ide4.12 for xp."

There drivers were released 31 March. Whatever was wrong with the IDE driver
in the Unified does anyone know if this new "ide4.12" fixes it?

Also,

I note that the Unified has a "display driver". I assume it is for the
on-board video some NForce 2 boards have. Since the NF7-S does NOT have the
on-board video is the Unified installer smart enough to know I dont need it
or will it try to install it anyway?

If for no other reason than to just play with it I plan to install one of
the HD's on the SATA via "Serillel". Any problem accessing that drive with
DOS for formatting and such or does it need a driver installed first before
I can get to it?

Note, some people have issues with the nvidia IDE drivers. Also make
*SURE* you flash the correct version for the revision of your mobo!
They have a rev 2 that is a different bios that the rev 1.x!

Also, as was pointed out, check out abit's forums (the nvidia nforce
section). Great place for tips!


On Fri, 2 Apr 2004 20:18:22 -0500, "Joe" <>
wrote:

>About an hour ago I went up to the Newegg site and ordered an Abit NF7-S and
>one gig of Mushkin 3500 Level One (512x2). In this will go my present Athlon
>Pal 2100+, Radeon 9500Pro and two WD 40gig HD's.
>
> I would like the best advice from those who presently use the NF7-S. I am
>new to NForce 2 and am not certain what drivers and such are needed.
>
>I have so far:
>New BIOS Version: 23 from Abit (March 29, 04)
>Nvidia Platform Drivers Ver 3.13 for WinXP/2000 From NVida site.
>
>I understand that the NVida driver is "complete" and has every driver needed
>for the sound, the sata, the ide, and everything else. True?
>
>Any help, hints, do's, don't, or "make sure"s would be VASTLY appreciated.
>

"Joe" <> wrote in message
news:SUNbc.9599$pM1.8362@lakeread06...
> Thanks for the replies.
>
> Buff said"
>
> "I recommend not to install the SW IDE drivers but just to stick with the
MS
> ones."
>
> But Mark H reports:
>
> "There's 2 new drivers from Nvidia - audio 4.31 for 98/Me and Xp, and
> ide4.12 for xp."
>
> There drivers were released 31 March. Whatever was wrong with the IDE
driver
> in the Unified does anyone know if this new "ide4.12" fixes it?
>
> Also,
>
> I note that the Unified has a "display driver". I assume it is for the
> on-board video some NForce 2 boards have. Since the NF7-S does NOT have
the
> on-board video is the Unified installer smart enough to know I dont need
it
> or will it try to install it anyway?

IIRC NF7-M has onboard GF4 video.

"F.N" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Note, some people have issues with the nvidia IDE drivers. Also make
> *SURE* you flash the correct version for the revision of your mobo!
> They have a rev 2 that is a different bios that the rev 1.x!
>

If you take a bit of care and read the site you shouldn't have this problem.


> On Fri, 2 Apr 2004 20:18:22 -0500, "Joe" <>
> wrote:
>
> >About an hour ago I went up to the Newegg site and ordered an Abit NF7-S
and
> >one gig of Mushkin 3500 Level One (512x2). In this will go my present
Athlon
> >Pal 2100+, Radeon 9500Pro and two WD 40gig HD's.
> >
> > I would like the best advice from those who presently use the NF7-S. I
am
> >new to NForce 2 and am not certain what drivers and such are needed.
> >
> >I have so far:
> >New BIOS Version: 23 from Abit (March 29, 04)
> >Nvidia Platform Drivers Ver 3.13 for WinXP/2000 From NVida site.
> >
> >I understand that the NVida driver is "complete" and has every driver
needed
> >for the sound, the sata, the ide, and everything else. True?

Nvidia do the Nforce, audio and alternate IDE controllers (can use MS ones)
I think there is some issue with IDE and some CD drives - I haven't had any,
but some have. Still it's easy enough to rollback drivers in WinXP anyway.
Silicon Image do the onboard SATA controllers
Follow the link at bottom of this page to get latest SATA drivers.
http://www.siimage.com/products/sataraid.asp

> >Any help, hints, do's, don't, or "make sure"s would be VASTLY
appreciated.
> >

Personally I wouldn't install any drivers from the Windows Update site.
These caused my Nvidia control panel to crash when I tried to start it
(others had this problem). Unless you are having a problem or the notes that
come with the driver fix an issue with your hardware, then there is probably
no need to update.

My $0.02 ;-)