I'm not really a total beginner. I have put together several systems, but usually after purchasing items from a local dealer. This time I purchased everything through New Egg and their support is somewhat questionable.
My question deals with the MB and chip. They are separate and I will install the chip. However, does the MB already have a bios setup on board, or will I have to get the bios (and possibly CMOS?) from the manufacturer and flash it once installed.
Are there any setup aspects that I'm not aware of with the chip and MB. The Processor is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz socket AM2 125W Dual-Core; the MB is an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD.

A lot of high end peripherals will be going into this system... it's for my daughters fiancé and I don't want to mess it up.:confused:
Hope someone can help. And if it's a stupid question, please don't LOL when you answer. Thanks everyone.

The BIOS should auto detect the chip/memory/drives, etc... assuming you have it assembled properly.
Obviously be very careful when installing the CPU/memory, I would recommend you wear a grounding strap or at the very very least touch something metallic to discharge any static electricity before picking up the chips.

If you aren't a beginner why post in the beginner's forum? I moved your post to a more appropriate forum.

Yes, motherboards already have the BIOS chip installed. Generally you buy a mobo/CPU combination even if the CPU is not preseated, but they can be purchased separately. The rest of the mobo has a chip set to work with the CPU.

Thanks for the responses. As I said, I'm not totally a beginner, but I've never put together a system totally from scratch, so I was not sure where to post. This was my first post, other than my introduction, so be kind (rewind).
I kind of thought that the bios was onboard but wasn't sure. One other quick question. Does the chip have to match the MB. In otherwords are mb's setup to take only Intel or AMD chips, or is it the pinset that determines the fit?

Thanks again everyone.

Yes, the AMD and Intel processors use different socket designs. Even within the manufacturer, some CPUs use different sockets. Also the whole chipset is designed to work with a CPU line.