Yep, that's always the question ain't it? First off - if you already have it up and running and seems a bit more snappy why don't you use it? (or did I read that wrong?) But part of the reason might be because it is a fresh install without all the junk clogging it up (yet). Before you do any swapping out you need to make sure you have some thermal paste around. You're going to need it to re-seat the cooler on the exchanged cpu. As far as "if it ain't broke" Doesn't mean you can't change the spark plugs. There is the chance of it crashing but it should be slim. (Yeah, easy for me to say right?) As far as the recovery disk goes the first question is did you back up all your needed information on a disk(s)? You know, your personnel information and stuff? You should. And you should create a boot/startup disk/floppy as this might help in getting it to restart if it does have problems. You might need the actual Win XP Operating System disk (whatever SP is on that is sufficient to start with and if another service pack is required it will show up as an update later). You shouldn't need the product key if your using it as a repair disk, BUT, if it won't recover you will have to do a fresh install and then you will need that key. It should be either on the disk or on a sticker on the actual computer case. If you don't have that key you should just leave everything alone cause then you could end up with a brick screaming piracy every time you turn it on. I wish I could give you guarantees but you have a 50/50 chance. It should work with just a quick comment during start up that the system configuration has changed press F1 to continue like mine did but again no guarantees. If your concerned about the hyperthreading that shouldn't be a problem since the board supports it. Or you might be able to go into the bios during startup and disable it. Get a good boot and everything looks fine, then you can go in on a later restart and re-enable it. But I really don't think you're going to have any problems. You can always turn it off real quick if it looks like trouble and restore the old processor. I don't know, easy call for me cause I already did it and am happy with it. In fact, my daughter is still using it. I put 4 gigs of memory in it, only uses 3.25 of course but who cares? I put an ATI X1900 pro video card in it with 512 ram, bumped up the power supply to 450W to support the vid card and it is running windows 7 ultimate nice and smooth. Of course she mainly surfs the net, updates her facebook and downloads pics on it and every now and then might do some homework in word and excell but it runs great. Anyway, all that talking just to say it's a chance you're going to have to decide on. Please let me know what you decide and when it works let us know - of course if it don't you won't be able to for a while I guess. sorry bad joke,
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram