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Hello all. I have a couple questions about SATA Hard Drives and AMD Athlon64 3700+ CPU's.

I am building a computer for a friends parents and I spec'd it out for them and I gave them the AMD Athlon64 3700+ with the Zalman CNPS7700B-CU, all this onto a ASUS A8N-E Motherboard, I checked for compatibility and the HSF does work with this MOBO.

First question: I have never installed SATA drives before, I know how to install them physically, but I have never done the drivers part of it before. You need a 3.5 inch floppy drive to install the drivers?? Since the Hard Drive will be new, nothing will be on it, so once I finish the build and i boot it for the first time, then what do I do? Insert the disk to install drivers??

Second Question: The only CPU's I have installed myself have been Socket A's, I know how to put gel on the cores of thoughs and all that, but what are the 3700's like? Does that HSF I described come with a thermal pad on it, anyone know?? If not, how do I apply gel and safely install the HSF on the 3700+??

Third Question: Windows 64 installation, is it any different then Windows XP Pro installation in any manner? Is there anything I need to know to bring me up to speed to build this system? Thanks!

I can answer part of this...

For the sata HDD, yes you will need the raid drivers on a floppy and normally the motherboard comes with the disk. If it doesnt, you can easily download them. To install them, you boot from the XP disk just the same and watch the bottom of the screen closely. The first thing that flashes across it is "Press F6 to install 3rd party scsi or raid drivers", thats your queue to press F6 For a moment, it will seem like you never pressed anything but just wait and it will ask to insert the manufactor diskette in drive A. You have to use floppy, you dont get an option to choose a drive. Make sure the disk is in and press enter and everything else is the same from there. This all holds true for the 32 bit edition (which also runs on 64 bit cpu's) however i havent installed XP 64 on anything.

I dont know if that heatsink comes with a thermal pad or not but your usually better scraping it off if it does and using thermal paste or grease. Artic Silver has more reviews for actually working as well as advertised than any other compound i've seen. Here are the instructions for using it for 64 bit athlons and more..



Scroll down to step 9 on that page and it will have all the info you need.

I wish i could help with Windows 64 but i cant. I havent installed it or seen anyone else install it but i would imagine theres very little difference if any at all. Just take your time and read the screen like anything else.

Take a look at this Tank....



There was some extensive test done on the San Diego core with some outstanding results. The link i gave you goes straight to the temp results but look st the bottom of the page for the drop box and read through the different pages.

Thank you you guys have been a big help!!