Computer Question #1 : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

Fred1369 · 11-03-2012, 07:21 AM

I want to upgrade my CPU and motherboard from socket AM2 to AM3+ . This will double my speed.
I am running Windows 7. Upgrade disc from XP to 7, not a new 7 installation.
My son says I will have to reformat my hard drive because of all the change in drivers. I thought just installing the disc that comes with the new motherboard would be adequate. Will I have to put the Win 7 upgrade disc back in and will I lose all my data and stuff?

James · 11-03-2012, 07:31 AM

I'd buy or build a whole new system before paying to replace those items. You can buy one from any major manufacturer for cheap nowadays. You'll also get the faster memory and video card available now. And remember, the other parts are getting old and deteriorated.

If you already have a pre-built system from a major manufacturer you probably can't upgrade those anyway. As far as I know most of their components are proprietary. I could be wrong. Anyhow your power supply is going to be old, video card, sound card, hard drive, dvd/cd-rw, keyboard and mouse... plus you will probably have a bottleneck in speed because of your older slower memory.

What are your computer specs now?

Seriously Fred, spend a little more and get a whole new system or just build one if you know how. It's not that hard. You will also have to buy a new Operating System if the one you have is OEM. OEM Windows software is married to the original motherboard in most cases, so you need to buy a new one.

PS. The Geeks are going to tell you to build your own and put a form of Linux instead of Windows on it. Just ignore them.

Seriously, ignore them.

NJ Rider · 11-03-2012, 10:39 AM

I get attached to old computers. The one I use now was built in 2002, it's a P3 with windows XP, 1 gig of memory. Unfortunately, it's old and slow and need to be replaced, so I was forced to go to the teenagers in the house and ask about building a new one.
Seems with the advances in computers the old stuff just won't work. With a new hard drive, the motherboard has to be replaced, etc, etc. Apparently a new operating system is also required, and the old hard drive can't be downloaded into the new one without an external something.
Maybe for Christmas I'll buy the parts and spend some time building the new one. Then I'll post newb computer questions here.

Fred1369 · 11-03-2012, 04:49 PM

the computer I have now is home built, no proprietary items. There is nothing wrong with it, I just want faster because I am an impatient fool. The RAM is 4 gigs DDR2. The new board will have 8 gigs DDR3. The CPU will go from 2.5 GHz 4-core to 3.8 GHz 6-core. The video card is NVIDA GT430 and works just fine. The CD/DVD is a new LG. The lowest ranking Windows score is the HD but it has 149 GB and is only 1/3 full. Since I have an upgrade disc from XP>Win7 I don't have a full OS disc for a new HD. That would be another $100. I want to keep all of the info on it. Will the installation disc of the new motherboard overwrite the drivers of the old board? BTW, Windows 7 will be supported by MS until 2020.

James · 11-03-2012, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred1369

the computer I have now is home built, no proprietary items. There is nothing wrong with it, I just want faster because I am an impatient fool. The RAM is 4 gigs DDR2. The new board will have 8 gigs DDR3. The CPU will go from 2.5 GHz 4-core to 3.8 GHz 6-core. The video card is NVIDA GT430 and works just fine. The CD/DVD is a new LG. The lowest ranking Windows score is the HD but it has 149 GB and is only 1/3 full. Since I have an upgrade disc from XP>Win7 I don't have a full OS disc for a new HD. That would be another $100. I want to keep all of the info on it. Will the installation disc of the new motherboard overwrite the drivers of the old board? BTW, Windows 7 will be supported by MS until 2020.

I have heard of people doing the hard drive switch like you want to do with mixed results. I'd back my files up and do a clean install if I was in your situation. I don't know what you use your computer for but I doubt you will notice much if any speed increase if you already know your HD is your bottleneck. You could upgrade your hard drive to a SSD drive and then you should notice an increase.

The system you have now is decent if all you do is surf the Internet and watch videos on youtube.

James · 11-03-2012, 05:17 PM

Here is what my desktop looks like. I do a lot of video converting while multi-tasking and it works great.

James · 11-03-2012, 09:45 PM

I'd like to see some others chime in here. I know their are a lot of people more knowledgeable than me and I appreciate their opinions.

cllsr · 11-03-2012, 10:20 PM

James is right. You should do a fresh install. Buy another faster hard drive and keep your old one as a slave for the data. You can use your windows 7 upgrade disk and still do a clean full install. It will ask you for the old XP disk as your installing. Just my opinion.

Chris

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred1369

the computer I have now is home built, no proprietary items. There is nothing wrong with it, I just want faster because I am an impatient fool. The RAM is 4 gigs DDR2. The new board will have 8 gigs DDR3. The CPU will go from 2.5 GHz 4-core to 3.8 GHz 6-core. The video card is NVIDA GT430 and works just fine. The CD/DVD is a new LG. The lowest ranking Windows score is the HD but it has 149 GB and is only 1/3 full. Since I have an upgrade disc from XP>Win7 I don't have a full OS disc for a new HD. That would be another $100. I want to keep all of the info on it. Will the installation disc of the new motherboard overwrite the drivers of the old board? BTW, Windows 7 will be supported by MS until 2020.

my laptop specs

Nitram_b4 · 11-04-2012, 09:07 AM

I have done this a number of ways in the past, windows vista and windows 7 are a little easier to deal with on hardware changes than older versions of windows.
I just did this on two computers in the last few weeks.
I boot the computers in safe mode before switching hardware and gut all the drivers, shut down and remove power cord, install new hardware and boot up. It will take a while for the system to straighten it's self out on boot and you will need to make sure you have all your drivers handy as you will have to clean a few things up in Device manager.

They next thing to be aware of, Microsoft will give you a warning that you will have to register once again, only this time, they will have to give you a code. you will need to call them while you have the screen up that is waiting for you to enter the code.
The will ask you if you have a legal copy and if it is installed on more than one computer.
Just tell them, no it is only on the computer in question and you had to replace some of the hardware.....takes all of 5 min.

Fred1369 · 11-04-2012, 06:25 PM

Thanx everyone for your help. Ever since I upgraded the XP to 7 with the upgrade disc I have been having trouble with freezing and frequent boot up difficulties. My son thinks it's the hard drive messing up but I think it might be an upgrade defect. So, I'm biting the bullet and ordering a Corsair 90 GB SSD and a gen-u-wine Win7 OS disc. Along with the ASUS mobo and a AMD FX-6200 and 8 GB RAM (G-skill Ripjaws blue). This sucker will boot up in less than 15 seconds. Newegg and Tiger Direct were within $5-$10 of each other.

Nitram_b4 · 11-04-2012, 06:33 PM

you will be better off, I would of still used the upgrade disk for a fresh install

Fred1369 · 11-04-2012, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nitram_b4

you will be better off, I would of still used the upgrade disk for a fresh install

well, that's because you know what you are doing.

Rendell · 11-05-2012, 08:56 AM

That "8 Gig" of memory won't do you any good unless you go 64 bit OS. A 32 bit OS will only take "4 Gig", it will actually only utilize roughly 3.56 GB. I'm on my 21 year of Computer /network support and I'd recommend you buy a new system with 6 or 8 gig, a 256 solid state drive and stay with windows 7 for now. Windows 8 is a trip. It seems to be a decent system but then so did windows ME when it was first released. We are on the crap side of the windows OS release cycle. So, I would wait for a while until the bugs are worked out, or they release at least 1 or 2 Service packs..

Fred1369 · 11-05-2012, 10:12 AM

my XP>7 upgrade is 64 bit and the Win7 OS I ordered is 64 bit.
The new HD is a Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD). Force Series GT SSDs use a Sandforce SF-2200 Series controller.

My concern is that when I load the new OS onto the SSD and put in the SATA drive as slave will I be able to retrieve things like my "favorites" in Google Chrome and all the Windows Live Mail on the old C drive?

Rendell · 11-05-2012, 11:34 AM

It may say that you do not have access, but should open. I would do a good back up of the data before doing the update just incase. Copy the info to a flash drive or something.