switching mobos. dell 4600 to asus A8N32?help

[oinkypig]

hey i recently broke my cpu which was a pentium 4 2.66 ghz cpu on my dell 4600 mobo. now i wan to buy a new mobo, cpu, and graphics card. my dell cpu was an intel and mobo had 1 agp and 3 pci. i want the asus a8n32 sli a8n32 with an AMD 3800 x2 cpu. i am wondering sonce i am switching mobos will i need to purchase a new OS system or is it stored onto the hdd. can i just hook everything up and the OS system will still be accessible or do i hve to buy a new OS system? :?

 

[sleepdeprived82]

I decided to upgrade my dell 4550 aout a month ago, here are the problems you will face:

You will need a new case, this is becasue dells are designed for dell motherboards and nothing else. Prob need a more powerfull psu as well.
A dell case will also not take a standard atx psu with out cutting chunks out of the case.
Also the stock cooling is questionable on the standard case.

Now my 4550 came with windows on a disc, yours may be on the harddrive.
The problem will be that your windows will be dell bios locked, as soon as it sees you are not running a dell motherboard it will ask for windows activation.
This in essence means you need to buy a new copy of windows in affraid.

 

[Crashman]

d00d, I'm fairly sure the Dell I saw with a STANDARD Micro ATX case was a 4600. Of course he'd still need a STANDARD Micro-ATX board, rather than a Full-ATX board.

Also, it is possible to find a power supply with the plug in the correct location for the Dell case, you just have to go to Newegg and look at, like, 100 pictures to find one.

But the case upgrade is a good idea anyway, he wants a larger board. Had he insisted on picking a board to fit a Micro ATX case, I would have suggested the Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS.

 

[Crashman]

You have a legal license to use Windows. You probably don't have a standard OEM disk for it however. In that situation, I'd find a friend with a standard OEM CD for your version of Windows, get him to burn you a copy, and use the original license. You did pay for the license when you bought the machine!

Standard OEM Windows CD's are most often packages with custom-built machines. You know, the kind you buy in a computer store.

 

[sleepdeprived82]

Windows would not let me use my oem key on my new system, Microsoft only allow Oem to be installed on one computer and it cant be transferd. A new motherboard is condsiderd a new computer, by the sounds of it some people have called microsoft and were given new keys tough.

I could be wrong and if there is a work around I would be intrested to find out, it just never worked for me. No matter what I ried it would not activate.

I guess a new board may fit I kind off meant it wouldnt be ideal, prob have to loose the cpu ducting and the cooling is not the greatest, a few things may be in the wrong place and cause hassle etc etc plus my fan was the noisy.

 

[Crashman]

There is a workaround. I laid it out. You may question the legality, but I don't. Replacing a motherboard can be viewed as a "new system" or simply a repair. Microsoft often considers a new system to be a board PLUS a drive, he's not replacing the drive.

You have to use the exact version of windows the license is for. But it doesn't have to be the same CD. I just reloaded a Compaq where the system CD was on a partition when the drive failed, I used a generic "XP Home OEM" CD and the license from the sticker on the side of the Compaq case.

 

[sleepdeprived82]

So if you use a generic OEM disc, rather than a say dell or HP branded OEM disc, you should be able to use your oem key on the side of your computer.

Legality :lol: doesnt bother me just thought MS would not activate it if its been used on a diff system config already.

 

[oinkypig]

ok, wow my topic got a little long. great advice and help from all of you. yeah i already have a brand new case i forgot to mention that and my original dell system did come with a windows cd and a bunch of others. thanks a lot!
oh and i will be calling microsoft for a new key for my system. My brother-in-law will also be helpng me since he has a career working with computers.

 

[Crashman]

You have to make the phone call sometimes.