From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon Aug  6 12:46:05 2007
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1907016A419
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Mon,  6 Aug 2007 12:46:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cjk32@cam.ac.uk)
Received: from ppsw-9.csi.cam.ac.uk (ppsw-9.csi.cam.ac.uk [131.111.8.139])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF29713C46C
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Mon,  6 Aug 2007 12:46:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cjk32@cam.ac.uk)
X-Cam-SpamDetails: Not scanned
X-Cam-AntiVirus: No virus found
X-Cam-ScannerInfo: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/email/scanner/
Received: from gw.cjkey.org.uk ([88.97.163.222]:1636 helo=[192.168.2.186])
	by ppsw-9.csi.cam.ac.uk (smtp.hermes.cam.ac.uk [131.111.8.159]:465)
	with esmtpsa (PLAIN:cjk32) (TLSv1:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:256)
	id 1II1yD-000113-V8 (Exim 4.63) for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
	(return-path <cjk32@cam.ac.uk>); Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:46:01 +0100
Message-ID: <46B71809.4040704@cam.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:46:01 +0100
From: Christopher Key <cjk32@cam.ac.uk>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Windows/20070728)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: FreeBSD Installation Suggestion
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:46:05 -0000

Hello,

I'm about to install FreeBSD for the first time on a new machine and 
have a few questions:

1) The motherboard is an Intel DQ964GF, which uses the ICH8 chipset.  Is 
it better to use this in IDE or AHCI mode?  (The system will be booting 
from a S-ATA disk)

2) Are there any good documents discussing the relative merits of using 
i386 / amd64?

3) Does anyone have any good suggestions on how to perform the 
installation.  The machine has no floppy or CD-ROM drive, and it's not 
really convenient to temporarily add them as I may well end up going 
through the install procedure several times.  The options seem to be 
either a USB flash drive (any thoughts on how to get a UFS file system 
and FreeBSD MBR on there using only WinXP), or via the network.

Any advice much appreciated,

Chris