I am nearing power-up of my new system! :D

Pentium 4 3.0ghz
ASRock P4V88 mobo
Kingston PC2700 2 x 512mb
Geforce FX 5200 128mb video
PowerLab 450W PSU
Western Digital 40gb 7200 rpm hard drive

I would like to do an ititial boot-up with bare minimum components. It's my understanding that all I need to do that is motherboard, PSU, memory and video card. Is that correct?

Are there any settings in the BIOS that I need to pay special attention to? The mobo manual is a little vague. :confused:

Any suggestions, advice, precautions, and guidance will be appriciated!

Don't forget the KB and monitor.

The only thing you really need to look for, is that the bios is recognizing each component correctly, and you have video. After that, add second stick of ram, make sure it is recognized in the bios correctly, add a HDD, then CD/DVD-ROM etc........ Just add one component at a time, if successful, then shut down and go to the next one.

Hope that helps. And good luck. :)

What I like to do after a successful barebones POST is to add a floppy drive and run a RAM tester...they are self-booting

Then, add the harddrive and run the manufacturer's diagnostics...these can be downloaded from WD's web site...

It's my understanding that all I need to do that is motherboard, PSU, memory and video card. Is that correct?

Motherboard, CPU/heatsink, RAM, video card and keyboard. Keyboard is handy in case you want to check BIOS, set date etc, but not absolutely requred.

You only need to boot long enough to see video and make sure it sees the proper amount of RAM. The first test boot I like to get into BIOS and check CPU temps, I usually let it sit there and idle for about half an hour and monitor temps.

Then add components as suggested above, one item at a time.