Got my R2 today! now what?

Well got my sweet R2 today and was wondering whats the first thing i should do? As far as what drivers/bios should do you recommend I install? Figured this would be the place to go for info.

 

A02 BIOS and 10.3 Drivers.

 

Cool thanks found the Bios update but where can I get the 10.3 drivers?

 

I will definitely refer back to this when I get mine

 

i would also be interested in a brief tutorial for noobs that explains how to get the 10.3 drivers and the best way to install them.

 

Make that +4 as I am getting my M17x2 on either thur. or Fri.

 

You can downlaod the 10.3 beta drivers here

Hopefully AMD will come out with the release soon.

 

I would throw in that you might have issues with the Catalyst Command Console not launching right after your driver change... this happened to me with my R2 and I finally loaded ATi Tray Tool and never looked back.

Another useful utility is D3DOverrider to get the benefit of prerendered frames (the flip queue is NOT the same thing) for use with Direct3d games that usually don't use this automatically.

On the subject of ATi, drivers, etc, the ATT (ATi Tray Tool) will let you check the state of your Crossfire setup. My R2 came with it not working, or possibly it was at the factory but then came "undone" due to some power profile glitch. Seems to happen with unplugging the R2 at certain points.

Another is to note the Universal card slot on the side; not a big thing, but the cover they put on made me think they never even installed it; just work it loose and enjoy

 

Once downloaded the drivers 10.3 install easily without modding.

 

well, i had to raid my disks manually, so that means reinstalling windows and installing all the programs/drivers from scratch.
The process was very straightforward. I used the drivers from support.dell.com page + 10.3 beta that was referred here.

After installing the A02 + 10.3 beta, i ran furmark dual cpu stress test for 15 minutes to make sure the flickering is history.

Now i just load all my stuff to the new installation.. and basically play around with it.

Enjoying every minute of it!

 

This forum has some of the awsomest (is that a word?) most helpful people around. Knew I came to the right place for info thanks all.!!

 

I would suggest everyone look at there bios before installing the Bios. Mine was already at A02

 

cool... you just got yours yes?

 

do i need to do anything particular for my ssd or can i just plug and play right out of the box?

 

did you buy one or is it coming from dell with ssd ?

 

So should I do this? Does it really benefit having the beta drivers?

 

Yes it does

 

How do I get the touch media player buttons on the keyboard or whatever to work with Winamp?

 

Yes! I have installed & everything is working perfectly.
I am get like + 6-7fps in BFBC2

 

I'm sold, thanks!

 

How do I see which Video Drivers I have installed? Device Manager?

 

yep, 10 char....

 

are there any other drivers we should install? like sound or chipset?

 

there you go first post has all the drivers

 

when i check my device manager, the graphics card's driver says 8.6 something, what am i doing wrong? i installed the catalyst

 

when i install the 10.3 thing, my screen blinks at like 2 sec intervals... is that normal? it does it like 3 times

 

that's what you should see :


Screen blinks during the installation of the driver are ok.

 

When you did this did you lose your respawn feature? Is it located on the HD or a CD that comes with it? Thanks.

 

The respawn DVD will only be there if you ordered it. Also, who cares about the recovery partitions? Those images are usually outdated and even buggy. It's always best to create your own, clean and fresh install and then make an image from it using some third party software like Acronis.