A New Build...kinda

[dorfman]

I have a HP Pavilion A1590n

Now, instead of getting a new pc with VISTA..

I've just considered, getting a new mother board, and processor, and maybe some more ram. So it would be like a new computer.

I've already installed a Antec PSU, and a Nvidia 7950GT video card.

Basically I just want a better processor.


So my question is this, would it be possible to just take the mother board out of this rig, switch with a new one and a processor, hook everything back up and it run fine? What would I have to do?

I have XP on my hdd and I was just going to plug in the hard drive to the new Mother Board, would that work?

Any wisdom would be greatly welcomed. I'm a noob to building computers.

 

[T-Man]

Check to make sure a new motherboard will fit in, when I wanted to upgrade my old HP, I had to get a new box as the HP box was way too small. New boxes are cheap as anyway.
You would have to re-install XP again with a new motherboard.

 

[dorfman]

why would I have to reinstall XP, if I have it on my HDD?

 

[T-Man]

Because the motherboard would be totally different on specs and drivers, unless you get the same motherboard , just the way it is mate unfortunately.

 

[dorfman]

so how would I re-install a factory installed xp?

 

[T-Man]

Dont think you can with just the partition on the hard drive, you would have to get a XP cd and install from that, as far as I am aware, someone else here might have a way of doing it.

 

[worshipme]

So my question is this, would it be possible to just take the mother board out of this rig, switch with a new one and a processor, hook everything back up and it run fine? What would I have to do?

Like T-MAN said, pre-builts often use uATX cases, which are too small for a standard ATX motherboard. Just check the dimensions of your motherboard try before hand.

I have XP on my hdd and I was just going to plug in the hard drive to the new Mother Board, would that work?

Your old motherboard will leave a lot of leftover drivers which can cause conflicts with your new board's drivers. But if everything works fine, there's no reason why you should have to reinstall it. But attribute any software issues to driver conflicts.

so how would I re-install a factory installed xp?

As long as you have your license key (should be on the side of your case), you can use any old XP disc, including downloading and burning an .ISO image from Pirate Bay.

 

[dude_56013]

As long as you have your license key (should be on the side of your case), you can use any old XP disc, including downloading and burning an .ISO image from Pirate Bay.

Worship, this seems rookie for someone who deals with this all the time, but you don't have to deactivate or anything before reinstalling do you? I've contemplated this exact situation so many times working with clients' computer that have the recovery partition and no XP disc. Luckily, I've never had to reinstall XP and have always gotten problems fixed. Also, does it matter what SP the XP disc in question is? Like if the computer came with SP2 and the XP disc used to reinstall was SP3, would the license key still work? Bahh...I can't wait to hear the answer!

Thanks!
Zac

To dorfman:
Oh. P.S. (I totally forgot to say this since I was being selfish by jacking your thread): I plugged my old Dell HDD into my new system a while ago and it booted right up! No errors or anything! So like others said, it may work or it may not...depending on drivers/software issues.

 

[worshipme]

Worship, this seems rookie for someone who deals with this all the time, but you don't have to deactivate or anything before reinstalling do you? I've contemplated this exact situation so many times working with clients' computer that have the recovery partition and no XP disc. Luckily, I've never had to reinstall XP and have always gotten problems fixed. Also, does it matter what SP the XP disc in question is? Like if the computer came with SP2 and the XP disc used to reinstall was SP3, would the license key still work? Bahh...I can't wait to hear the answer!

Usually when you install it on a new system, it will activate fine, but sometimes you have to phone Microsoft to confirm that it's only running on one system and they'll give you a new activation code.

EDIT: Oh wait, did you mean reinstalling it on the same system? If so, you don't have to deactivate anything, just reinstall and reactivate.

 

[dorfman]

I think I just might switch out the processor right now it has a AMD 64 x2 @ 2.0 GHZ, I was thinking about just getting a new AMD 64 x2 @ 3.0 GHZ, but I haven't decided, I think it would be easier to switch out the processor than to mess with the mother board. But I haven't decided.