[RESOLVED] Can someone tell me what an INF file is?

[buffett]

I am looking at buying a new setup. I was looking at the Intel 850 Motherboard and the P4 processor. The salesman was telling me that with that motherboard once the operating system is on you have to load the INF files to tell the Operating system what the motherboard is. Is this the case for all brands of motherboards? I have a P3 on an Abit board and have never used INF files. Also what do you think of the Intel board for a P4? Let me know what ya'll think.

[JungleMan1]

The INF files are files on your system that tell the computer where certain drivers are. If you do a clean install (if you don't have an OS installed when you power up the computer for the first time) you won't have to worry about any of that..

As for Intel boards, from what I hear they are really stable but definitely not for uber-overclockers. I personally don't like Intel, especially P4/Rambus, but the Intel boards are great.

But dont get me wrong-- the Abit boards are great too, and you're getting the tweakability/overclockability.

[Darren Wilson]

The INF files are just the standard motherboard drivers provided with the boards which enable the operating system to correctly (most of the time unless you have an Ali based board ) address the hardware that is the main components to the board (such as the North/Southbridges of the chipset, AGP timings, etc).

Fo rthe second query, if you are going to go for a i850 based board, most certainly take a look at the Abit TH7II-RAID (Socket 478 based not the old Socket 423) which is highly recommended by every site that has looked at it and I will personally guarentee that it is probably the fastest i850 based board available. Another option worth looking at (and almost certainly cheaper than the i850 & RAMBUS combination, but virtually identical in performance) are the boards using VIA's new P4X266 DDR chipset for the P4. Previews of these boards look to be able to give RAMBUS based systems a very good run for their money. One thing to be certain though, is do not be tempted to go for the cheaper i845 options, unless you aim to usethe system as a word processor or an expensive CD Player.

[Platypus]

[quote]Originally posted by buffett:
Is this the case for all brands of motherboards?

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It depends on the combination of m/b and operating system. As Darren said, the OS has to be able to interface correctly with the hardware chips on the board, and various drivers are used to achieve this. A Windows version will have drivers for major chipsets used prior to the release of that version, when a new or updated chipset comes out, the OS will need to be updated accordingly. The drivers may either have been written with the chipset parameters internally coded, in which case new drivers will have to be installed, or the driver(s) may be able to update from INFormation in a file, the .INF file.

If you are being given correct information, what is being said is that the OS you want on that system (say Win ME) has support chipset drivers that can use the 850 chipset correctly just by installing the appropriate .INF file on the system. It's not very important either way, when you go Update Driver/Have Disk or run the setup program, the system knows what changes to make.

[PitaBred]

Ok, here's the skivvie: The salesman is jsut barely above knowledgeable. IE, he knows enough to be dangerous . An inf in and of itself doesn't have anything past configuration information. Like for monitors (monitor "drivers" are just infs because they only need descriptions, not an actual driver, stuff like that). Drivers, which are a totally different beast, are often installed through the use of .inf files in a windows system. .inf = info? Anyway, it just tells Windows how/what to do in a driver install. Hope that helps a bit for anyone who might have questioned them...