Configuration Question??

[ShaneSelby]

Hello all!

I am getting ready to build a PC for audio. I have been doing some research and here is what I have decided on. Please take a look and tell me if you see any problems with this design or anything I am missing or should consider.

Asus P4PE/L Motherboard
P4 2.4B GHZ Northwood Processor
512MB Kingston HyperX PC2700 DDR333 Memory
WD 80GB JB Series Hard Drive (audio)
WD 40GB JB Series Hard Drive (OS)
Lite-On 52x24x52CDRW
Lite-On 52x CD-Rom
Matrox G450 Dual Head Video Card
Samsung Floppy Drive
Maxtop 350W Mid-Tower Case
Windows XP Pro

What is the best way to configure the CD Drives and the Hard Drives? I figured I would put the HD's on one IDE 1 and the CD's on IDE 2.

Another question. I have never installed 2 hard drives in a system at once. How to I go about selecting, upon set-up, which drive I am working with. I thought it might make sense to just install the OS drive first and get the system up and running and then install the audio drive. What is the standard for this?

Thanks in advance for you help!

Shane

[Darthtanion]

- Yes, you'll want to keep the optical drives separate from the hard drives. Use the 40GB as master on IDE1 and the burner as master on IDE2.

- Both drives can be mounted before you begin the installation of Windows. Since you're going to be using the 40GB model as your bootable (OS) drive, just make it the master drive and it will be assigned to C:\ by default. Your other drive will get drive letter D:\ when it boots up. You will access either drive just like normal. Once the OS is installed, you can go into the control panel and partition/format the 80GB drive with minimal effort.