Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

[Adonlude]

Im running an old 3GHz socket 478 P4 and I think it is finally upgrade time. I dont want to dump my 2 gigs of DDR400 or my AGP X850XTPE yet becuase I feel that is a waste of money. I dont plan on upgrading gfx until DX10. I came across this great review of a board that would allow me to keep everything I have but still upgrade to Conroe:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810

For the low price of $60 I can get this ASRock 775Dual-VSTA and run my DDR400 and AGP card with a Core2 Duo E6600. My question is this. Can i swap a motherboard and plug my hard drive in and expect my computer to boot into Windows as normal???

I build my own computers and add and subtract parts all the time but I have always reinstalled everyting with a new computer. I have never just upgraded a mobo before. What can I expect?

Also, do you think ill get much better FPS in BF2 going this route? I could always swtich to a new PCI-e card with this mobo since it has both. I think I read somewhere that the PCI-e is only 4x on this board which is weird. Im not sure how much dropping to 4x would waste the power of a gfx card.

[absoluteczech]

Re: Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

you can try , but dont expect great support. usually those type of things also have a lot of bugs and problems. but you never know till you try and for 60 bucks i guess its worth a shot.

[imported_mbx5_spec]

Re: Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

you can try , but dont expect great support. usually those type of things also have a lot of bugs and problems. but you never know till you try and for 60 bucks i guess its worth a short.

shot*

[gerrynicol]

Re: Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

As the boards have different chipsets and require different drivers, format reinstall.

I have changed many mobos, some people say that you can do a repair on windows and that will update the reg but I like to do it clean. Backup everything you need and go for the fresh install.

Gerry.

[absoluteczech]

Re: Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

shot*

thanks didnt catch my typo

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

You shouldn't expect a great increase in bf2 performance. BF2 isn't very CPU intensive, relatively speaking.

My $.02?

You should stick with what you have now, unless your MOBO breaks down. I "upgraded" to an ECS P4M800PRO-478 (to conserve my x800xt AIW and P4 3.0E prescott) when my MOBO sh4t that will let me use either ddr or ddr2. At some point, I will buy some fast ddr2, and at a later point, I'll pick up a dual-core cpu/mobo/pci-e gpu combo.

I'd really, really give Conroe a chance to get "beta-tested" by the thousands of early adopters with big, fat wallets for a year before I dropped the credit card numbers on a new/semi-new rig. It's not that I don't have faith in intel...it's just my lack of faith in any "cutting edge" product until a million or so other folks have posted their problems and/or fixes in forums.

[BoloMarkXXX]

Re: Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

Microsoft considers a new MOBO a new computer and will not validate so it you will probly have to call them to revalidate when you do tell then you replaced the HARD DRIVE ONLY if you tell them you replaced mobo they will NOT revalidate.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Can I just replace a motherboard like this?

Microsoft considers a new MOBO a new computer and will not validate so it you will probly have to call them to revalidate when you do tell then you replaced the HARD DRIVE ONLY if you tell them you replaced mobo they will NOT revalidate.

I've reinstalled XP pro four or five times on my old MOBO, and just reinstalled the same copy to my new one last Sat. after I *oops* fried the old one. I've never had to dial up the mothership in Redmond for a validation key.

Your mileage may vary.