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Upgrade MB/MEM/CPU

N

Nightmare

n00b
Joined
Apr 1, 2001
Messages
43
Its in the mail and on its way:

AMD M2600+ ($103.00)
Corsair TwinX 512 DDR PC3200LLPT (2-3-2-6 1T) ($155.00)
Albatron KD18 Pro II ($97.00)

How should I change out the old hardware for the new hardware? I am running XP (Home). Should I just take out the old HW and replace with the new HW or is there a certain proceedure that I should follow for changing out hardware?

Thanks...
 
take every thing out, dust it all off, nice and clean:D then put it back in, no but seriously i would take everything out and lay it out then put it all back in, cause when you leave stuff in ie, a hdd you tend to try to make stuff fit where they cant fit, then comes the anger, then the broken mobo, then the water works :( so just take every thing out and do step by step, mobo->cpu->ram->videocard->PCI/SCSI cards->Powersupply-> you get the idea


MAKE SURE YOU GROUND YOUR SELF!!!!!!
 
Should I put one card at a time back in or should I put them all in and go?

Sounds like a good idea to dust everything off and make sure everything is clean.

Will I have to reload Windows or will Windows just find the new hardware and load the drivers?

If it does, what happens to the old drivers? Should they be removed manually or just left alone?

Thanks
 
i would put each card in 1 by one etc, and do a full format, windows will set everything up automatically, but you will always have old drivers etc left behind could cause a problem later down the line, + when you format install new hardware etc you can fully opt your system for peak performance, another + it feels like a whole new PC :D :D :D
 
I have two disk drives. Can I disconnect the current windows disk, format the second then load windows then install the hardware and drivers. After that, reconnect the first disk with old windows to transfer my files and programs to the new disk?

or

will I just have to suffer, save as many files as possible for transfer on one disk, load windows then reload the 200 software packages that I currently have?

I estimate at least 3weeks to do the software reload and I am in the middle of a semester of college.

Is there a way to do this or something like this to minimize the time?

Thanks...
 
you can start it up with the windows cd in the drive and do a repair installation. I think that keeps all your proggies. I've never done that, always a fresh install.
 
If I use Norton Ghost to make an image of the disk won't it just replace the image on the new disk thus obliterating the new windows with the old windows from the image?

Can anyone comment on the repair XP disk thing?

I am assuming that if I do the repair, then I should first remove the old hardware, put the new hardware in and then do the windows repair. Would this be the correct avenue of events?

Thanks
 
Originally posted by Nightmare
If I use Norton Ghost to make an image of the disk won't it just replace the image on the new disk thus obliterating the new windows with the old windows from the image?
Click to expand...

Yes, but that's the point. You make an image of a lean system with all necessary drivers and software.
 
Originally posted by Nightmare
If I use Norton Ghost to make an image of the disk won't it just replace the image on the new disk thus obliterating the new windows with the old windows from the image?

Can anyone comment on the repair XP disk thing?

I am assuming that if I do the repair, then I should first remove the old hardware, put the new hardware in and then do the windows repair. Would this be the correct avenue of events?

Thanks
Click to expand...
repair installation works. Do it that way. Yes, remove old hardware, install new, then boot TO THE WINDOWS CD and do a Repair installation.

Using Ghost usually involves running Sysprep or something similar to strip out drivers while keeping applications, so Windows will just load the new drivers and be good to go.
 
When I suggested Ghost, I meant later, after the new system is built. You make a "snapshot" image to roll back to instead of doing the whole rebuilding processors.
 
best thing i would say, is before you even take appart your old computer.. stop, you have 2 hard drive's correct the one with windows we will call A and the other B .. ok

load all the things you wanna keep on to B
then take your computer appart, put your new parts in
and install A as well in there
format A load up windows etc...
once thats done, Put B into your computer thats what i would do
 
the windows repair, thing just repairs over the windows files, it will get rid of all the drivers , but it also does something really stupied in your program files etc, it leaves like a template set up, i guess would be the best word, so before if you had counter strike installed lets say and you want to start>programs>counterstrike etc... when you repair windows its no longer there.. counter strike is installed on your computer but you manually have to go to the exe, would not be so bad if you only have a couple of programs but if you have alot... you get the drift
 
I am not sure that I fully understand.

Lets say the I have two machines, one old and one new. I make a ghost copy of the old machine with all the old windows drivers and the programs.

I now load my new machine with a fresh copy of windows. After that I load the ghost copy from the old amchine over the new installation on the new machine.

If I do this, won't the ghost copy of windows from machine one overwrite the new copy of windows? And won't this defeat the purpose of loading windows on the new machine?

Thanks...
 
Originally posted by Nightmare
If I do this, won't the ghost copy of windows from machine one overwrite the new copy of windows? And won't this defeat the purpose of loading windows on the new machine?
Click to expand...

Yup.

I say go with a repair installation, chances are it will clear any driver problems up.
 
also, any reason youre getting the highest mobile when it will be the exact same thing as a 2400+, and a terrible mobo?
 
I have had both an Abit and 3 diff DFI boards before and have had problems with them all. I also have an ECS board and I don't particullarly care for them.

I have read the reviews on the NFII, KX18D Pro II, and the A7N and thought the Albatron best suited my needs. I also have an Albatron 4200 Vid Card that I can OC to 4600 specs and I am hoping that I will be able to do the same with the mobo. I know that the vdimm is limited to 3.0 and that may be a problem but overall, I liked what I read about the Albatron. Reviews are excellent and it is/was considered a good OC board, many reviews indicated that this one just got by them. I also think that the testing specs are better in the Albatron. Response time is excellent on questions and support.

As far as the M2600+, you are probably right and I shold have gotten the M2400+. I guess I could return it for a M2400+ and get a couple of bucks back.

And I guess it looks like the repair option for new system.

Thanks....
 
I would be extremely weary passing on an Abit board in favor of an Albatron. Your right about ECS though.
 
The three different ABIT boards that I had have all caused me problems. This KT7A I specifically bought for OC'ing and I could not get the FSB to go above 134 MHZ without a lock-up. I tried an Antholon 1000, 1200, and 1900+ and the only think that I can say about this board is that it sucks for OC'ing (its a Ver1.2) and the caps are getting ready to burst.

I had a DFI board that came to me DOA. RMA'ed. New board BIOS corrupted, RMA'ed. New board and when I went to update XP to SP1, system locked and had to reinstall. Updated to SP1 and the same thing happened.

It was a hard choice so given the reviews of Albatron and my proir experience with them as well as the reviews that I have seen forced me to the Albatron.

I hope I did not make a mistake. Maybe I missed something. Why do you think that the NFII Ultra Infinity, NF7-S, or the Asus A7N8X is a better board?

Thanks...
 
From reading these and other forums, I gather that the NFS-7 is by far the best AthlonXP platform board available.

Also, reading your previous post, you said you had problems upgrading to SP1. Not to be rude, but tell me how this is a problem of the motherboard? Many people had trouble with SP1 upgrades.

EDIT: Actually all three of the boards you listed would be higher on my list than anything by Albatron.
 
Originally posted by Nightmare
The three different ABIT boards that I had have all caused me problems. This KT7A I specifically bought for OC'ing and I could not get the FSB to go above 134 MHZ without a lock-up. I tried an Antholon 1000, 1200, and 1900+ and the only think that I can say about this board is that it sucks for OC'ing (its a Ver1.2) and the caps are getting ready to burst.

I had a DFI board that came to me DOA. RMA'ed. New board BIOS corrupted, RMA'ed. New board and when I went to update XP to SP1, system locked and had to reinstall. Updated to SP1 and the same thing happened.

It was a hard choice so given the reviews of Albatron and my proir experience with them as well as the reviews that I have seen forced me to the Albatron.

I hope I did not make a mistake. Maybe I missed something. Why do you think that the NFII Ultra Infinity, NF7-S, or the Asus A7N8X is a better board?

Thanks...
Click to expand...

DFI NFII Ultra, no question. DFI used to suck but has made an amazing board with that. old abis that used anything but KT333 sucked. I had an AT7 that had KT333 and it was the best. had to sell it though :(
 
It was an old K6-2 chip that I had from my previous DFI board that craped out due to a BIOS flash gone wrong due to a bad sector on a floppy. I bought another DFI MOBO and put the chip in. Everything was OK until the upgrade to SP1. I think that there was a driver conflict between the board and windows SP1.

I was never able to track down the problem exactly except that everytime SP1 came into the equation, the comp locked up solid. I don't don't the system anymore and I am pretty sure that I won't have a DFI board anytime soon.
 
Originally posted by Nightmare
It was an old K6-2 chip that I had from my previous DFI board that craped out due to a BIOS flash gone wrong due to a bad sector on a floppy. I bought another DFI MOBO and put the chip in. Everything was OK until the upgrade to SP1. I think that there was a driver conflict between the board and windows SP1.

I was never able to track down the problem exactly except that everytime SP1 came into the equation, the comp locked up solid. I don't don't the system anymore and I am pretty sure that I won't have a DFI board anytime soon.
Click to expand...


no one has had a single problem with the NFII (and quite a number of people here own one, id have bought one if it was out/known when I got my current board)
 
NFII ULTRA INFINITY Features

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_pr....jsp?PRODUCT_ID=2141&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&SITE=NA


Features---

ATA 133/100/66; 4 SATA
SATA RAID 0/1/0+1/JBOD
3 IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports
6 USB 2.0/1.1 Ports (4 Rear + 2 Additional)
ICS 1893Y PHY
6ch Audio + S/PDIF + NVIDIA SoundStorm
CMOS Reloaded
BIOS Live Update

Specification---

NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset
AMD AthlonXP/ Athlon/ Duron Processor
400/333/266/200 MHz FSB
Dual DDR400/333/266
ATA 133/100/66; 4 SATA
CPU
AMD Athlon XP 266/333/400MHz FSB
AMD Athlon 200/266MHz FSB
AMD Duron 200/266MHz FSB
Chipset
nVIDIA® nForce2 chipset
- nForce2 Ultra 400
- nForce2 MCP-T






Albatron (http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=69)

Feature

AMD Athlon™ / Athlon™XP / Athlon™XP Barton/ Duron™Processor
Socket 462 with FSB 200/266/333/400+(by overclocking)MHz
3 DDR400/DDR333/266/200 Memory Sockets
AGP 8X , 6 channel AC 97 Audio
2 ATA133 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE Devices
nForce2 MCP-T 10/100 Ethernet LAN
2 Serial ATA150 Channels, Serial ATA RAID 0,1 (Software)
2 IEEE1394a Ports
6 USB 2.0/1.1 Ports (4 ports by optional cable)
BIOS Mirror ™
Voice Genie™
Chipset with Hyper-Transport Technology
Bundle SPDIF Card ( optional )


Processor

AMD Athlon™/Athlon™XP/ Athlon™XP Barton/ Duron™Processor

FSB

200/266/333/400+(by overclocking)MHz

Chipset

North Bridge: NVIDIA nForce2 SPP (Ultra 400)
South Bridge: NVIDIA nForce2 MCP-T
LAN Chip : LAN PHY ICS1893AF
IEEE1394 Chip : TI IEEE1394A TSB41AB2PAP PAP-64
Audio Codec: Realtek ALC650
Serial ATA Chip :Silicon Image Sil3112A
I / O Chip : Winbond W83627HF


There both basically the same board by different companies.

Albaton has the BIOS mirror which I want because when I get around computers, something is bound to go wrong. It also has the 8X/4X AGP slot instead of just and 8X, don't know if this matters but I only have an 4X card right now. I like the seperate Silicon Image chip for the ATA. There are a few other things besides these and I like the color blue, although this did not fit into the equation.

There both great boards as far as the reviews go but the Albatron did spec better in the game arena after it was tweaked.

Given that they are both the same type of board, have I overlook something that I should know? Please let me know because I can always refuse the delivery or exchange the board.


Thanks....

Edit: I see that the DFI also has 8X/4X AGP and CMOS Reloaded (an extra for DFI)....But no BIOS Mirror.
 
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