Is it necessary to backup and reinstall Windows when I install a new mobo and CPU, or can I just leave my Windows install as it is without reformating and reinstalling after putting in the new hardware?
Hardware Upgrade Q
- Thread starter Capt.Marion
- Start date
First off, let me just say that it is always best to reinstall when you change your mobo / CPU around ... but ....
It depends.
If you're moving between motherboards with the same chipset manufacturer ... you should be good. AMD 770 <--> 790 <--> 785 <--> 890 <--> whatever.
I think nVidia works the same way, but my last board from them was an nForce 4.
Upvote
0
Okay, that's what I thought. Just wanted to see if I could play being lazy. Seeing as I'm going from nVidia to AMD, don't have much of a choice
Doin' a budget upgrade:
3.0 Ghz AMD Athlon X2 64-bit Dual Core
Biostar A770E Mobo (AMD Chipset- 16GB memory support)
4 gb DDR2 800 RAM
also scored a sweet case with two temp sensors, and 120mm and 92mm fan for $1 (one dollar) from Fry's...
Grand total- less that $200.
Doin' a budget upgrade:
3.0 Ghz AMD Athlon X2 64-bit Dual Core
Biostar A770E Mobo (AMD Chipset- 16GB memory support)
4 gb DDR2 800 RAM
also scored a sweet case with two temp sensors, and 120mm and 92mm fan for $1 (one dollar) from Fry's...
Grand total- less that $200.
Upvote
0
You can still do it without reinstalling the OS, it's just a serious pain in the *** to do, because you have to remove EVER last vestige of nVidia software before you switch the boards out.
As far as Biostar goes ...
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Don't do it, man. Just don't.
For just a few dollars more you can get a Gigabyte, MSi, ASRock, Asus ... something like that ... And actually, you can even stick with nVidia too, if you spend tenbux or twennybux more, and that'll save you a lot of heartache with drivers.
(Granted, I'd rather have an AMD 790FX or 890 series than anything I've seen from nVidia, but that might be just because I've got a pair of 4870's that would not do much for me with an nVidia chipset ...
)
As far as Biostar goes ...
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Don't do it, man. Just don't.
For just a few dollars more you can get a Gigabyte, MSi, ASRock, Asus ... something like that ... And actually, you can even stick with nVidia too, if you spend tenbux or twennybux more, and that'll save you a lot of heartache with drivers.
(Granted, I'd rather have an AMD 790FX or 890 series than anything I've seen from nVidia, but that might be just because I've got a pair of 4870's that would not do much for me with an nVidia chipset ...
)
Upvote
0
I've had two Asrocks die on me out of the initial 5. Although they are the little sister of ASUS the quality is just not there.
What they are good for is some cross platform tricks.
I've had one that excepted different types of ram.
Another had both an AGP slot and PCI-e (limited to 4X bus speed).
Good for half hearted upgrades, trying to keep five or more computers running tends to make light of pocket.
ASUS.
Upvote
0
I feel like upgrading aswell, but the prices for the ATI 5800 cards are still ridiculous. I'm not nerdy enough to pay 250 euros for a GPU. Goddamn Nvidia, why did you have to fudge up with Fermi?
4850 and e7200 are slowing me down.
4850 and e7200 are slowing me down.
Upvote
0
I had an Asus A8N-E fail a few years back ... chipset fan died, and the chip followed soon after.
Had an ASRock AOD790GX/128M fail just recently, although that had less to do with the motherboard than it did with the power supply ... BFG GS650 decided to surge, took out the board, CPU and a stick of RAM all at once.
I've got a Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H right now - poor choice for my needs, but great board in terms of quality. Not too expensive, either ... It was what was available RFN for not much money when I needed to replace the ASRock. I wish I'd just waited a bit and gotten another of the ASRocks, though, or maybe spent a little extra and gotten a nicer Gigabyte / Asus.
Never had an MSI board, to my recollection, but I hear good things about them. Same with ECS. I seem to think that I had a Foxconn at one point, many years back ... but I'm not positive. I've also had Epox (8KTA2+), Soyo (KT400 Dragon, Black Ed.), Gigabyte (current one, plus a K8NS-Ultra 939), aBit (Not sure what the model number was ... it was a Fatal1ty, but without SLI). Upgraded from that to a Biostar TA770A2+, which was a mistake. Went from that to the ASRock after a month or so of nothing but trouble.
The aBit was probably the best of them all in terms of trouble-free performance and just all-round baddassery.
Upvote
0
ECS is out of the question for me, I learned the hard way, (bad luck).
My 'main man' swears by Asus for MB's and MSI for GPU's.
Oh! & Intel btw.
My 'main man' swears by Asus for MB's and MSI for GPU's.
Oh! & Intel btw.
Upvote
0
Yup, that was a fatal flaw with them, the chipfan was rubbish, hence they re-released the board (as the A8N-E Deluxe) with passive chipset cooling, and that actually made it a good and reliable mobo, i bought mine when they where hot of the presses, and i'm still using it (yeah, i really need to upgrade, if it wasen't for the AMD 64x2 4800+ CPU i put in it, i woulden't be able to play anything new on this rig).
Upvote
0
Upvote
0
If you are on different chipsets then you will probably run into trouble, but there should be no harm in trying it and seeing what happens. A potential first hurdle issue for any swap like this will be if you are using SATA ACHI rather than IDE mode in your BIOS, but you'll soon know if that is the case, and you can toggle it in the BIOS. Otherwise just try it, I often do this for clients' computers if their motherboard has blown and most of the time it's fine. For those times where things don't work then you can try doing a repair install of Windows.
Upvote
0
FYI, I upgraded Saturday. I couldn't figure out the key to go into the bios settings so I would boot from my Windows 7 install DVD, so it kept booting into my old windows 7 install (from pre-upgrade). In the course of rebooting like this a couple of times, Windows 7 actually automatically downloaded and installed all of the necessary drivers, and we've been fit as a fiddle and no problems. Which is cool.
I like 7.
EDIT: Oh, and BTDubbs, even when changing CD drives or adding more memory, I always in the past would reinstall, so this was new for me. I'm not flagrantly disregarding you guys's advice. I appreciate the input.
I like 7.
EDIT: Oh, and BTDubbs, even when changing CD drives or adding more memory, I always in the past would reinstall, so this was new for me. I'm not flagrantly disregarding you guys's advice. I appreciate the input.
Last edited:
Upvote
0
I am impressed and - frankly - astonished. When I went from NF4 to the AMD 770, I couldn't get the damn thing to boot until I went back to the old board and killed everything nVidia related, and even then it ran so badly that I just went back and reformatted.
Upvote
0