Upgrade Questions replace Mobo?

[VikingCrown]

Hello All,

Currently i am running an older P4 2.8 GHz rig with 2 GB of ddr2 and an old 128MB ati radeon pcie x16 card on a Gigabyte 8I915P Pro Duo board. I received a little $$$ for my birthday and since I feel like my system is getting a little long in the tooth, i'd like to upgrade the Mobo and cpu. I'm looking at this combo deal on newegg currently: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.173020

My question is this. If i just pop in the new mobo/cpu and use my old graphics card and ram (ram only for the time being until i can afford more/faster ram) and my existing Hard Drive, what kinds of problems if any might I run into?

I would really like to not re-install my OS i have no problems re-activating but re-installing is just not something i'm up for at the moment.

Any and all info is greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Brian

[S_M_E]

If the systems are similar enough it may or may not boot to the desktop. I have had it work on occasion but usually it doesn't.

[mikejaner]

I agree with S_M_E,
You are likely going to get a blue screen and or constant reboots due to the core hardware changes, unless the motherboard you are putting in is the same chipset, processor, etc....
Acronis Univeral Restore and other similar products let you get around this issue with better results, in my experience. You also might want to look into playing with Sysprep, which allows Windows to restart the hardware detection process as if the system was a new install, but keeps the programs and other data intact. I wouldn't bank on it working 100% for these situations.
Not sure what you are hanging on to, but it is often better to just rebuild.

[VikingCrown]

I would say the reluctance to rebuild is really the hassle of reinstalling all programs. I have Sage running solid, and a full reinstall would require me to catalog all the programs on my PC, get their licenses and download installers. It is really a more of a pain than i'm looking to go through right now.

I suppose i could always get the board and processer and try it and if it fails, then no harm no foul and i can just do a full install and re-do everything. I was just hoping since it was the same manufacturer for the new board and the existing board it would work. has anyone gotten it to work?

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by VikingCrown

I would say the reluctance to rebuild is really the hassle of reinstalling all programs. I have Sage running solid, and a full reinstall would require me to catalog all the programs on my PC, get their licenses and download installers. It is really a more of a pain than i'm looking to go through right now.

I suppose i could always get the board and processer and try it and if it fails, then no harm no foul and i can just do a full install and re-do everything. I was just hoping since it was the same manufacturer for the new board and the existing board it would work. has anyone gotten it to work?

Manufacturer doesn't really matter. It's more about the chipset being used on the motherboard. I am assuming you are using a more modern processor to replace this one, which means a different chipset for sure. In this case, you would be lucky if it worked after installing the new board. Also take note, Windows doesn't like when you swap out the motherboard, and may ask you to reactivate itself.
Good luck though, you may get lucky.

[paulbeers]

The biggest road block is the storage controller. Everything else windows seems to be okay with, but when Windows gets to the point where it needs to load the storage controller drivers and the drivers do not match what is currently on the PC, it will take a nose dive. I have been able to clone my windows XP installation across AMD 740G, 780V and 780G mother boards because they all use the same SB700 southbridge, but if you are going from a P4 board to even an Intel Core2Duo board, good luck to you sir.....