Hey guys, need some advice from you about upgrading.....plz

[Makar40]

A friend bought me an Emachines T5048 for christmas. It has a P4 3.06 GHz. I put in another 512 megs of ram, for a total of 1gig of ram. I also put in a Radeon X1300 512 megs video ram( I know but it was cheap, I will be upgrading card soon, its a PCI express card).
I believe that case is a mini-tower. I just bought a GIGABYTE 965P-S3 motherboard with an Intel® Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe Processor 1.86GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 2MB Cache and Kingston KVR533D2N4K2/2G 2GB Kit DDR2-533 PC2-4200 Memory.
What I want to know is if I put in that new stuff, will my hard drive, DVD rom and all that stuff that Im not taking out, still work fine? In other words if I ONLY replace the Mboard, cpu and ram, will the rest of the comp continue working with new stuff? And also is my current case ok to hold whats in there but with this new Motherboard?
Thanks for replying, I REALLY appreciate it!

 

[Makar40]

ok. What watt PSU would you suggest? I currently have a 300 watt PSU. Also I thought that my Windows XP Media Edition might not work because it came from Emachines, but outta curiosity, why wouldnt it? It's already on my hard drive, if I just plug the HDD into the new motherboard why wouldnt it keep working just the same as before?

 

[Makar40]

Ok, here is the thing. I have a copy of Windows Xp Media Center Edition. It came with the computer. The thing is, is that its on a disc which also has the drivers for the old integrated video card thats on the old motherboard and also the audio drivers and whatnot.

Across the top of the disc it says...
Emachines
Windows XP Media Center Version 2005
With Update Rollup 2
Operating System Disc
then in small letters on the bottom "use this disc to re-install your operating system. Warning this process erases all data and files from the hard drive.

Anyways the disc doesnt have the same label as the previous Win XP disc I owned but it does install Win XP....could I install this on comp after I put new parts in, or would this ONLY work on the comp is I keep the original emachines provided Motherboard and cpu? Thanks again!

 

[sillywabbit]

Regarding your Windows install, I just built a new machine 2 days ago. I had Win XP Pro from my Dell and was able to install it on my new machine but i was unable to update Windows software. I called up Microsoft and told them I was no longer using my Dell computer b/c the MB fried. I supplied them with my previous CD key and they gave me a new one which allowed me to update Windows on my new build. Give them a call and maybe they can help you out.

 

[440bx]

Just to give you a clear idea of what you're facing,

1. When you change the motherboard, your currently installed copy of Windows is almost guaranteed not to boot. In most cases, the reason for this is the different IDE/SATA controllers.

The way to get around this problem is to have a separate IDE/Sata controller on a PCI card, install that card on the old board, install the drivers, attach the drive to the PCI controller and reboot to make sure Windows can indeed boot successfully using the PCI controller.

After you've done that then you can install that same card on the new motherboard, boot from it and, then install all the drivers required by the new motherboard (since you will actually get into Windows that way).

I keep two IDE/SATA PCI controllers around just for that purpose.


2. As mpilchfamily said, the copy of Windows that came with your eMachines may not work once you replace the motherboard. Your odds are not bad though. Most OS disks included with eMachines and Dells DO work with motherboards other than the original. On the other hand, most disks included with HP machines will not work (with the exception of the disks included with some older laptops). I think the odds are in your favor that your Windows disk from your eMachines will work after you replace the board.

HTH.