Rebuilding a PC. Skeered!

[Poolhouse]

So, not quite a rebuild, but I'm going to be taking my current PC and making it mini studio friendly. I'm adding a new hard drive, and replacing the soundblaster with an M-Audio 2496. I have Windows XP software.

Why am I skeered? I've never done this. I'm not sure I fully understand....

For example, once I have my new, blank hard drive in place, and I install windows, dont I need drivers for everything? Vid card, sound card, you name it...

Anything else involved I should know about? Im afraid of ending up with a PC that doesnt work! Dell has always built mine for me...

Any advice/thoughts appreciated....

 

[Codmate]

You will indeed need driver software for many things:
Mainboard chipset
Video card
Sound card
...are the main ones. There may be some additional things you need to install, but you'll find out as you go along.

Get drivers from the hardware manufacturers' web sites before you do your build. It's helpful to have them ready
Put any RAID (or SATA) drivers for your mainboard on a floppy if you're planning to install Windows XP.

Building is easy. it's just like expensive Lego. There are many guides around the internet, but take your time and don't panic if something goes a bit awry!