Replacing motherboard.

ObeseCamelz

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Sep 3, 2012
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Hello,

my motherboard on my pc recently went to poop.
I'm either looking to replace it or get a different mobo that might work better.

The mobo that I had was a MSI 760gm-E51 : http://www.msi.com/product/mb/760GM-E51.html
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2 Ghz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103921
Memory: 8 gb G-skill DDR3 RAM 1600 mhz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314
Graphics card: WAS a radeon HD 5670, I bought (and have) a radeon HD 7870 and I want to use my 7870 instead of the 5670 - this is one of the main reasons I'm posting. Not sure if my old mobo will still support it. :http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Edition-1000MHz-Graphics-FX787ACNFC/dp/B007MJGMXQ/
PSU: Corsair CX500 ( JUST bought this so if I need to get a better one let me know.) : www.amazon.com/Corsair-500-Watt-Certified-Compatible-Platforms/dp/B004W2T2U6/

and I use a 7200 rpm 1 tb hard drive and a dvd +rw

So yeah, basically I would like to know if my old mobo ( a fresh, not shorted-out one) would work with this new setup, or if I need to get a new mobo. Leave suggestions please!

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

(edit forgot a couple of important things)
-I don't care about overclocking. At all.
-I am looking to spend under $120. THe less, the better, as long as it runs well with my parts.
 
Solution
I would definitely get that ASRock board instead of a direct replacement for what you had. I don't like MSI personally and that's a very old chipset. The only thing you might need to worry about with that is the need to re-install Windows (or at least do a repair install) because you will be using a different motherboard with a different chipset from a different manufacturer.

As to the graphics card question, you don't even need to worry about that. It'll work as soon as you install the card (at first boot, no need to do anything). Windows will install "basic" drivers to begin with, but you'll just need to install the AMD drivers when you get a chance.

ObeseCamelz

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Alright, excuse my newbiness, however I am slightly confused as to how you boot up a computer with a motherboard that doesn't have integrated graphics. Do you simply install the card and the mobo starts using it even though there are no drivers for it?
If you're able to do that then I'm looking at this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

If I would have to boot my computer up, install the drivers for my 7870 and then install the card, I'm looking at this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138293

Input?
 
I would definitely get that ASRock board instead of a direct replacement for what you had. I don't like MSI personally and that's a very old chipset. The only thing you might need to worry about with that is the need to re-install Windows (or at least do a repair install) because you will be using a different motherboard with a different chipset from a different manufacturer.

As to the graphics card question, you don't even need to worry about that. It'll work as soon as you install the card (at first boot, no need to do anything). Windows will install "basic" drivers to begin with, but you'll just need to install the AMD drivers when you get a chance.
 
Solution

egilbe

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Nov 17, 2011
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Old mobo will work fine with the new card. PSU is good. You shouldn't have any problems replacing it. BIOS loads rudimentary video drivers that work with every video card until the boot process can find the correct video drivers on the boot partition. It's part of the boot process. That's why you can see your BIOS on the monitor and make changes to your BIOS if you need to well before Windows is loaded.
 

ObeseCamelz

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Thanks! So what would you suggest doing with the hard drive? Should I try booting from it first? If that doesn't work would you suggest getting a different, small hard drive (maybe an ssd?) and installing windows on that and still running my programs from the other hard drive? Would that even work? haha thanks for the help :)
 
A SSD would be great, if you can afford it, but yeah, you can try booting from the old HDD to what happens. The worst that will happen is that it'll just BSOD and refuse to boot (meaning that you would definitely need to do a reinstall, in that case).

And you could definitely use a SSD as the boot drive and the HDD as the storage/program drive. You would have to reinstall all of the programs to work with the new Windows installation, though.
 

ObeseCamelz

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That's what I was really wondering I guess - my internet is super slow and 90% of my used HD space is steam games - so if I would have to reinstall them anyway I would just do a HD clear.

Thank you good sir! I greatly appreciate your help
 

ObeseCamelz

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I know I'm necro'ing a dead topic, but in case anyone in the future is reading this who had the same problem - I installed my new mobo and graphics card today, and everything went super smoothly! No problems whatsoever, I uninstalled my old graphics card drivers, restarted, installed my new drivers, and it works GREAT. My new mobo even has a few new awesome features and my computer is running better than ever. (I think the chipsets on my old mobo were causing some bottlenecking.)
Thanks to everyone who helped me, I appreciate it a ton!