However, do I recommend flashing the motherboard BIOS to the latest
version before you go any further.
The one time I tried flashing my BIOS, I ended up with a dead motherboard. I’m not ever doing that again, unless it is absolutely required.
Remember those driver CDs that came with the motherboard? Throw them
right in the trash. They’re way out of date by the time the
motherboard gets from the factory, to the vendor, and then finally
to you.
Hehe. I’m tempted to agree entirely. However, a sad reality intrudes. Typically networking is non-functional until the motherboard drivers are installed. That leaves you with a bit of a chicken and egg problem here, no?
The smart solution is to download the latest drivers for your motherboard before you start, so that you have them on hand for this step. Not being that smart, what I typically end up doing is installing the shipped drivers from the CD to get my networking going, then downloading the latest drivers for all my hardware and installing them from the hard drive.
The rough sequence is:
Install OS
Install MB drivers from CD (probably reboot multiple times)
Get Networking operable.
Download MB drivers from manufacturer and install (probably reboot multiple times)
Download patches/updates from Microsoft Update site (reboot oodles of times)
Download Firefox (IE is only used for MS Update from here on in)
Download Video drivers from NVidia (or chipset manufacturer)
On occasion, some of the MS update has to be done earlier, due to dependencies on service packs or Direct X or whatnot.
The “burn in” phase, I never thought of doing. Frankly at this point I’m usually nearly a man-day into the project, and too anxious to use the rig to wait. Its a darn good idea though.
Otherwise, I agree with the post entirely. It was quite well-written and informative too.