Hello,
This seemed the most appropriate subforum to post in. If not, please let me know.
I'm updating my computer, with a new motherboard, CPU, GPU and RAM. The HDD and PSU are only one year old. I have windows 7 installed on the HDD, alongside approximately 1.5TB of various files.
I'm relatively inexperienced with performing surgery on computers, so I have a few questions I'd like to posit regarding the upgrade process itself. If you are aware of any articles that expand on your answers, I would love a link. I will likely post more questions as they come to mind, if that's alright.
1) The new motherboard (ASROCK H87 Pro4) is much smaller in one dimension than my previous (Gigabyte X48-DS5). I am concerned it may not fit in the case. Is there anyway of finding out before I start pulling things apart? THE ASrock mobo says it is ATX form fitted. The case is made by ATCS, roughly 6 years ago, but I do not know the model number.
2) I understand I will need to freshly reinstall Win7. Um - What about the existing install of Win7 on my HDD? When I insert the disc at startup, will it simply 'reinstall' it intelligently, or do I need to backup/delete/format/repartition my HDD or existing OS? Generally - what's the deal in regards to replacing motherboard whilst keeping the same HDD?
3) Graphics cards are really simple I trust - i.e. my graphics card may not arrive for a couple of days, so if I want to go ahead an get everything else ready today, it's simply a case of swapping the graphics card over quickly in a few days time. Does the bios automatically update okay when graphics cards are swapped over, or does this require any manual editing in bios?
Thanks for the newb questions, and again, if this needs to be moved elsewhere, then by all means do.
This seemed the most appropriate subforum to post in. If not, please let me know.
I'm updating my computer, with a new motherboard, CPU, GPU and RAM. The HDD and PSU are only one year old. I have windows 7 installed on the HDD, alongside approximately 1.5TB of various files.
I'm relatively inexperienced with performing surgery on computers, so I have a few questions I'd like to posit regarding the upgrade process itself. If you are aware of any articles that expand on your answers, I would love a link. I will likely post more questions as they come to mind, if that's alright.
1) The new motherboard (ASROCK H87 Pro4) is much smaller in one dimension than my previous (Gigabyte X48-DS5). I am concerned it may not fit in the case. Is there anyway of finding out before I start pulling things apart? THE ASrock mobo says it is ATX form fitted. The case is made by ATCS, roughly 6 years ago, but I do not know the model number.
2) I understand I will need to freshly reinstall Win7. Um - What about the existing install of Win7 on my HDD? When I insert the disc at startup, will it simply 'reinstall' it intelligently, or do I need to backup/delete/format/repartition my HDD or existing OS? Generally - what's the deal in regards to replacing motherboard whilst keeping the same HDD?
3) Graphics cards are really simple I trust - i.e. my graphics card may not arrive for a couple of days, so if I want to go ahead an get everything else ready today, it's simply a case of swapping the graphics card over quickly in a few days time. Does the bios automatically update okay when graphics cards are swapped over, or does this require any manual editing in bios?
Thanks for the newb questions, and again, if this needs to be moved elsewhere, then by all means do.
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