Help me BEFORE I screw up

[aschueler]

I am considering updating my motherboard and CPU. Currently I have an ASUS P4PE (333 Mhz) with a 2.533 Ghz P4. I am thinking of updating to an ASUS P4P800, with a 2.8 Ghz 800 MHz FSB, and updating ram too.

Two questions: #1 Is this a bonehead move to begin with? I think it will be considerably faster with faster FSB and psuedo-PAT enabling, but if not let me know ahead of time, and I will wait for the next gen of processors

#2. If I do swap out mobo and CPU, what do I need to do ahead of time? I am running XP with SP1. Do I need to uninstall drivers (eg Intel chipset accelerator, etc etc), or do I just take the puter apart, slap the new stuff in, and load the drivers for the new MOBO on top?

Last one: if I need to do a full re-install of OS (which I heard may be needed to clean it up some), do I need to re-format, or can I keep the data that's on my HD now where it is, and reinstall OS around it?

As if to make it more complicated -- I am running two HD's with two OS's -- but don't worry about the second OS.

Thanks in advance!

 

[pIII_Man]

hmmm...it should be faster...will you notice it...i dunno...i doubt you will notice much but then again thats me...you could always just buy the mobo to take advantage of dual channel and pat...the mobo will be compatable with the first few prescott cpu's before they switch over to an lga (land grid array) socket...

2...if you do change mobos you will have to probably reinstall (NOT from a fresh hard disk NO need to format)...or possibly if you get lucky you will only need to re-register windows xp...I would just reinstall xp...it should take care of driver stuff on its own...no need to fiddle around with uninstalling drivers...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[aschueler]

I should add two more things. My RAM is currently PC2700, so I would naturally update the RAM to 3200 if I got a new motherboard.

Also, I mainly play games on my system, and really really like to crank up the graphics to maximum settings on everything. (vid card is 9700 pro). I think I may see some increased speed on the newer games coming out, like FS 2004, Doom III, etc.

I blame needing blazingly fast graphics on living through college with an IBM XT, monochrome monitor etc while everyone else had 386's (or 486 DX2's later on when I upgraded to CGA, same system)

 

[pIII_Man]

i really think you should wait to upgrade...wait for games that your system cannot run well and then upgrade...upgrading in anticipation for a game is stupid...are you really gonna notice the extra fps when your current system can run most games at over 100fs? By the time those games come out there will prolly be new gpu, mobo and cpu options....you will get more performance for a lot less...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[endyen]

I agree with P111 man. About XP, I just took an hdd with xp pro out of an nforce board and put it in a system with a sis chipset. I did no part of the usual driver removal from device manager. It just set everything up. Maybe a fluke, maybe not.

 

[ChipDeath]

Don't bother. Games-wise, you'll get such a small difference you'll not notice it. Modern 3D games are basically run almost entirely on your GFX card. the CPU is generally only used for stuff like AI for the zombies, and what you have is easily enough. If you upgrade now, you'll probably be a bit dissapointed really.

If you can't run Doom3 at 60FPS+ with Max detail with your current system, ID software are not gonna be able to shift any copies, as it'll be unplayable on all but the top 5% of systems out there (possibly less...)

---
$hit Happens. I just wish it would happen to someone else for a change.

 

[Rob423]

I don't think i can add anything different, you'd be wasting your money with that upgrade... you would barely see any difference.

Wait till you can make a greater performance increase.

like... P5

RIG
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
80gb Maxtor
Lian-Li PC-60
Lite-On 52X
AMD XP2800+
LeadTek GeForce 4 Ti4200 w/vivo 128mb 8x
Hitachi CML174
1 GB Corsair XMS PC3200 Cas2

 

[aschueler]

Fair enough...thanks for the advice guys...although it was gonna be kinda fun to rip everything up and reinstall -- if only once a year at most (like moving to a new place...you bitch about it, but there is still something nice about a NEW place)