Is it really necessary to set-up BIOS for the first time after booting a computer for the first time?

Question

I haven't really assembled the parts yet; I just want to know what's my next step after assembling the system. I will install Windows Vista Ultimate after this 'BIOS' thing is over.

Answer 1

If you don't know what you're doing then why are you doing it?

Answer 2

run any software that came with the motherboard first,that will set up the defaults plus you can set day and time,then your operating system

Answer 3

You should not need to touch the BIOS unless your system will not boot from the CD/DVD. If that is the case, read the data sheet that came with your motherboard. It should tell you how to enter into the BIOS setup and how to make the CD/DVD the initial boot device.

After that, boot from your Vista install CD and install your operating system.

Answer 4

in most cases, you can ignore the bios, but by tweaking it over the course of a minute or two, why not make your system faster and quieter?

Answer 5

After assembling, go to the bios by pressing the appropriate key, usually the delete key, make sure your 1st boot device is the cd or dvd rom, so that windows boots from that. After that you are ready to go. Hope this helped you.

Answer 6

Once all the parts are togeher, boot the PC and enter the BIOS. The BIOS basically controlls all the hardware and makes sure it "meshes" properly. Once done, you should get a boot error saying no operating installed. Then you can install the OS.

GL

Answer 7

If all the hardware is recognized, the date and time is correct, not necessary.

Answer 8

It is not necessary to set BIOS defaults on modern mobo's like it used to be.  In the old days (10 years ago), you had to set a lot of jumpers on the mobo to begin with, but in that time, most of the jumpered settings have been eliminated and the BIOS does autodetection on the motherboard which means that default settings in BIOS are on the fly.  However, the BIOS probably will not be set to OPTIMAL settings, just default standard settings.  So you may not be taking advantage of the best settings possible by going in and manually changing some of the settings.

If you are setting up a RAID system, you should go into BIOS to turn on RAID.  If you are adding a sound card rather than wanting to use onboard sound, you will have to turn the onboard sound off in BIOS.  If you are using a PCI ethernet card, vrs the built in ethernet connector, you will have to turn the built in ethernet connector off.  Also, if you do not plan on using IE 1394, Firewire or other potential options, you will have to turn these services off in BIOS.  Otherwise they may be turned on by default in BIOS and will waste time or cause problems on bootup looking for devices that are not there.

Also, you should go into BIOS and make sure that the boot sequence defaults to your main hard disk instead of a CD drive or a floppy drive if you have one.

The FSB settings (if Intel processor), or the standard Mhz Frequency of the processor is set on the fly these days, along with autodetection of RAM speeds, but these default settings may not be optimal for your configuration and you might benefit by adjusting them.  You will also need to go into BIOS to make sure the date and time are set properly.

My recommendation is to just go into BIOS and check a few of the settings I have mentioned, turn things off that you aren't going to use, turn other things on that you are going to use, check to make sure the boot sequence and date/time are correct and that is about all you have tto change these days if you just want to run off of default settings.