Ok here, goes
One let me start by saying I am very ENVIOUS of you, I have had a GA 8INXP on back order since 12-25-02.
1. What's the best way to remove the Heatsink/Fan retention frame? (Those white plastic grommet things)
This has already been answered above. I would not use a screw driver though, there is a chance you may slip and damage the motherboard. A different choice, the one I would recommend would be to get a pair of needle nose pliers. On the rear of the MB where the retention comes through, use the pliers to compress the "feet" and push them towards the front of the board.
2. After plugging in all the wires, do I change bios settings before installing WinXP?
You will more then likely have to at least enter the bios on your first POST, ( Power On Self Test ). Just enter and save changes. This is so the bios will recognize the CPU and memory for the first time. More then likely you will get an error message the first time you power up with a message such as, CPU setting have changed. This is nothing to be worried about. It is just that the CPU used during testing at the factory was different then the one you have installed.
3. On the GA-8INXP, what is a simple way to set up my raid 0? ie. step 1-5. (The motherboard hopefully will come with a raid instruction manual, but the board's manual I downloaded didn't talk about installing raid.)
I have another Gigabyte board, and the Raid information came in a different manual. I highly recommend setting up raid, good performance. There is a trick though if you are going to try to do a fresh install of XP on the Raid. It seems that that installer of XP will format in 64k block size. If you want to set up your raid with a smaller block size you need a 3rd hard drive. This is what you do, install just a single hard drive on an IDE channel. Install XP to that hard drive and get it up and going, dont worry about installing every driver etc. Do install the most current driver for your raid controller though. Once this is done, shut off the system, install your Raid hard drives, make sure you still have your single hard drive installed, and set as the boot disk. Now fire up the system, during the boot up, enter the raid bios, I believe it is ctr+h or f, can remember with the promice raid controllers. Enter the bios for the raid, and set up your raid array there, and set the block size that you are wanting to go with. I am sorry for my current ignorance, cant remember the exact settings with the promice controllers. Well once it has been set up in the raid bios, reboot and enter XP. Once in xp, you have to format your new raid array, this is where you can set the block size to something other then the default 64k block size. Once xp has finished formatting the raid, shut down your system. Remove the single hard drive from the system. Install XP, ( for the 2nd time ) on the raid array. You will need the floppy disk that has the raid drivers for the install. As soon as you get the first blue screen of the install after POST, start tapping on the f6 button. You will be prompted for a choice of installing other drivers for storage devices. Select that option, insert the floppy and hit enter. This will install the raid drivers needed for the installation. Then just do the install and you will be all set. IMHO, I prefer the promice raid controller over the high point controllers. It gives a little better performance. You will be happy with it, I am. I realize this is not the " simple " way, but will give you the best performance. If this is not that critical to you, then skip the process of going through the first install of XP on a single Hard drive. Set up the raid array in the raid bios, this is a seperate bios then the system bios. Reboot the system, and install XP on the raid array. Once again, make sure you have the floppy disk supplied with the mother board that is labeled Raid Controller Drivers.
3. On the GA-8INXP, what is a simple way to set up my raid 0? ie. step 1-5. (The motherboard hopefully will come with a raid instruction manual, but the board's manual I downloaded didn't talk about installing raid.)
Now on to your Audigy question, Yes it will work just fine with the Klipsche speakers. I am assuming that you an OEM card. I will tell you what jacks to use. The speaker system will have 3 midi jack wires, 1 is for Front L/R, 1 is for Sub/Center, 1 is for rear L/R. Ok, now if you look at the card. We will use the Fire Wire port as a point of reference. You have 5 total mini female connectors on the back of the card.
Going left to right, starting from the 1394 (fire wire) port we have
1- Rear out ( Connect the cable that will go to the Rear L/R output from the amplifier )
2- Front out ( Connect the cable that will go to the Front L/R output from the amplier )
3- Mic in ( Connect your microphone here...DUH
)
4- Line in ( Connect any source to this jack. I.E. external CD player, VCR, Tape )
5- Sub/Center in, also serves for Digital out. ( Connect the cable that will go to the Sub/Center output from the amplifier ). During the install of the drivers for your audigy, you will be prompted for what this out put will be used for. The option you want to choose is analog I belive.
ALSO, very important, XP does not have native drivers built in for Audigy. You will have to install the drivers before you get any sound. Depending on how old your card is, you may have to down load the most current drivers for the card, and update them after you have the drivers installed from the card. Once you have them all installed and set up. Go to the control panel, and go to sound options. Make sure you select 5.1 under speaker options. Next go to the Creative Mixer control panel. Once again, make sure you select 5.1 speakers. You can test the speakers from this panel to make sure you have all of your connections set up correctly.
The above information is for Audigy 1 only. I have no experience with the Audigy II.
I forgot to mention. This will go back to your question #2. You will need to go inside the system bios. Look for the Intergrated peripherals, or what ever it is called on your system. Make sure you disable the onboard sound. This may cause conclicts if it is still enabled.
OK, I am a little slow, just read that you do have an Audigy2. Look on the back of your box, if it is like the Audigy 1 card, you will see a picture of the card, and it will have the jacks labled there. Just plug in the different ones as labled. The main difference between the 1 and the 2 that I know of is 5.1 vs 7.1. You will probally have an extra jack. But yes, it should work just fine.
5. Are the round ATA-133 cable the same for optical drives as for HDDs?
Yes. You can use the round ATA-133 cables with your CD/DVD/Burners with out a problem.
6. How thin is thin for applying the Artic Silver on my HS...and what is lapping?
Think of making it look like a film covering the cpu. Follow the instructions for the AS3 on their website. Make sure you have some acetone ( Finger nail polish remover ). Some lint free clean cloth. So plastic baggies or rubber gloves. And a CLEAN razor blade. The directions on their web page is straight forward. Just follow them. If you are going to be using the stock Intel heat sync and fan, make sure you remove the black heat pad on it. It is kind of messy, but get it off of there before applying the AS3. This is where the acetone comes in. You can use a paper tow or a regular rage for this at first. Once you get all of the gunk off, then make sure you get a good finished cleaning with the lint free towel. Also, make sure that you clean the heat shield on the top of the CPU with acetone with a lint free towel before applying the AS3. Another tip, is to make sure once yo have cleaned these parts, do not touch them with your fingers with out wearing rubber gloves. If you leave a finger print on them, the oil from your fingers will interefere with the AS3. This will be mentioned in the instructions on their website.
Onto the subject of lapping. Do not bother lapping the heat shield on the top of your CPU. Lappying invloves wet sanding, water + CPU = BAD!!!. Now with the heat sink though, this can give good results. There is a good article describing and showing the process involved on lapping on the main site. Just dig around and try to find it. When you get your heat sink, if it appears to have a ruff finish ( check this by running your finger nail across it. If you feel little bumps and ridges, then lapping may help. ) A good lapping will leave a mirror finish on the heat sink. The idea behind this is to try to create as smooth of a surface as possible to increase the ammount of surface area that makes contact with the heat shield on the CPU. Swifttek will probally not have to be lapped. Just make sure that when you do mount it, that you are careful. Read the instructions 3 times.....hehehe. Seriously read it until you have a good grasp of what you are going to be doing. Dont want to over tighten it or strip the mounting screws.
Well good luck. Sorry for the long windedness here.
Btw, where did you finally get the MB from???? I am dying for one. I still have not installed my prometia yet waiting for the GA 8INXP.
Buzzdog
