First ever major upgrade

Cliffa

Cliffa

Cliffa

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Joined
14 Aug 2006
Posts
9
Newbie here (first post!), so first of all, Hi.

Next up is my inpending project. I'm upgrading my purchased PC (bought 4ish years ago, when not confident on slef builds).

I'm not going to quote the makes of bits I've bought as I've probably not got gucci gear, but I've generally followed advice lurking on here.

I'm upgrading a AMD 2800+ to a AMD 64 x2 4200+, alongside the associated mobo change and PSU upgrade. I've gone for Enermax on the PSU, and am waiting that to turn up before I can start, probably at the weekend.

Basically I'm fairly confident at what I'm doing but just need some words of guidance and moral support! Am a right in thinking that I can basically match up the mobo connections from the old board to the new one and switch them and then plug everything into the mobo (CPU, RAM, etc) and then away I go, with BIOS* pretty much sorting itself out on boot up?

Any words of advice please shout, but the budget has run dry so unless anything I've got is horrendously wrong I can't get anything else! If this is in the wrong forum could it be moved? And apologies for the long post. :D



*BIOS is the bit I'm really unsure on! :eek:
 
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Make sure you earth yourself at least once, use a radiator, they are earthed. Make sure all the screw holes in the motherboard line up to a spacer underneath on the case. You will very likely need to format/reinstall windows when you do this, even if your windows installation still works after doing it, it will have varied problems, and still be very slow.

A complete fresh install is the best thing to do. I don't see what you mean with the bios, your replacing the motherboard, its all plug and play unless theres something special you want to do.
 
cyborg said:
Make sure you earth yourself at least once, use a radiator, they are earthed. Make sure all the screw holes in the motherboard line up to a spacer underneath on the case. You will very likely need to format/reinstall windows when you do this, even if your windows installation still works after doing it, it will have varied problems, and still be very slow.

A complete fresh install is the best thing to do. I don't see what you mean with the bios, your replacing the motherboard, its all plug and play unless theres something special you want to do.
Click to expand...

I thought I'd need to fiddle with BIOS. Good I won't!

With Windows, will it be a problem using the same copy what with the registration codes?
 
Not if you've only installed and registered windows the once, there is a limit on how many times you can do it, not sure what it is exactly. Your computer generates a hardware ID when you register, your hardware is changed, thus your hardware ID has too, but you shouldn't have a problem.
 
Make sure when you earth yourself on a radiator it's not been painted on more than once. Maybe a useless tip but it's worth mentioning.
 
Unless you have a retail license for windows you will have to purchase a new license. An OEM license is tied to the motherboard and stays with that motherboard and cannot be installed elsewhere. Doing so may work but it is illegal to do so ;)

If you plan on upgrading again then you may be wise to purchase a retail license as this can be installed on any number of machines as long as they are not simultaneous installations :)
 
Well, after a few BIOS problems (I had to flash it to get in...), I'm up and running.

Ended up phoning Microsoft to re-activate Windows, not a problem.

So a big thank you to all the guys who helped here. Including the troubleshooter and big guide at the start. Kudos to you guys.

Now to go and find something to test this dual core on!!!
 
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