Upgrading Motherboard

[Mike]

Hi all,

I'm currently looking to upgrade my rather lame setup. At the moment
I'm running an AMD K6-2+ 550Mhz CPU on a DFI K6XV3+ motherboard.

I'm looking to upgrade to an Athlon XP 2400+ 2Ghz. What's the best
motherboard for this speed chip. How do I tell what's the fastest
speed CPU the motherboard will support? What other factors do I have
to take into consideration when reattaching my components e.g.
Graphics Card - ATI Rage 3D Pro AGP 2x, CD Drives and Hard Disk?

Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

[Jan Alter]

Hi,
Be considerate that whatever mb you get will probably not handle your 2X
AGP card. For the CPU note the FSB speed of the board. I believe the XP2400
had a FSB of 266 mhz. Notice that if you went to the next Athlon size of
XP2500 (Barton core) you'd be using a FSB of 333 mhz.
I've heard excellent sonsumer reviews about the Abit NF7-M and NF7-S.
Overclocking the Barton to an XP3200 is almost a routine move by simply
changing the FSB to 400 rather than the standard 333.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...=22&manufactory=1283&DEPA=0&sortby=14&order=1

 

[DaveW]

If you change the motherboard in an existing computer, then you MUST
reformat the harddrive and do a fresh install of the OS. Otherwise you risk
getting ongoing nasty Registry errors.

 

[J. S. Pack]

If you change the motherboard in an existing computer, then you MUST
reformat the harddrive and do a fresh install of the OS. Otherwise you risk
getting ongoing nasty Registry errors.

Wrong. Evidently this "DaveW" is a troll.

 

[Dave C.]

Wrong. Evidently this "DaveW" is a troll.

That's an odd kind of troll who offers good, accurate advice. YES, you can
change a motherboard without reinstalling windows. You can also jump out of
an airplane without a parachute. It's possible. Not usually a good idea,
but it's possible, dammit!!! So let's kill the guy who suggests that a
parachute should be used, as he's obviously a troll.

There is a right way to do things and a shortcut. Most of the time,
choosing not to reformat is going to cause major headaches, kind of like
jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. You'll only make that
mistake once. -Dave

 

[David Maynard]

That's an odd kind of troll who offers good, accurate advice. YES, you can
change a motherboard without reinstalling windows. You can also jump out of
an airplane without a parachute. It's possible. Not usually a good idea,
but it's possible, dammit!!! So let's kill the guy who suggests that a
parachute should be used, as he's obviously a troll.

There is a right way to do things and a shortcut. Most of the time,
choosing not to reformat is going to cause major headaches, kind of like
jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. You'll only make that
mistake once. -Dave

Simply untrue.

 

[Dave C.]

There is a right way to do things and a shortcut. Most of the time,

Simply untrue.

Ya rolls the dice, ya takes yer chances. -Dave

 

[David Maynard]

Ya rolls the dice, ya takes yer chances. -Dave

It's only a 'roll of the dice' if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[Dave C.]

It's only a 'roll of the dice' if you don't know what you're doing.

If you'd even entertain the idea of trying it, then you know just enough to
be truly dangerous. I could replace a motherboard without formatting the
hard drive. It's easy to do. It's also very stupid. Eventually, it WILL
bite you in the ass. It's not possible to completely clear everything out
of the registry. You might think you have a working system . . . for a
while. It's a time bomb, though. -Dave

 

[David Maynard]

If you'd even entertain the idea of trying it, then you know just enough to
be truly dangerous. I could replace a motherboard without formatting the
hard drive. It's easy to do. It's also very stupid. Eventually, it WILL
bite you in the ass. It's not possible to completely clear everything out
of the registry. You might think you have a working system . . . for a
while. It's a time bomb, though. -Dave

I've done it many times and not one of the systems has ever had any related
problems of any kind.

It is simply that you do not know of what you speak.

 

[Art]

I've done it many times and not one of the systems has ever had any
related problems of any kind.

It is simply that you do not know of what you speak.

Based upon my own experience involving the installation of dozens of new
motherboards and/or hard drives in an XP environment, I'm in complete
agreement with the view expressed by David Maynard. At the most, all that is
necessary is to undertake a Repair installation of the XP OS. I say "at the
most", because in a significant number (albeit minority) of cases we found
that the system would boot after a motherboard change even though the new
motherboard was completely different from the one being replaced. We've
never been able to explain the reason for this although we happily accepted
it.

In any event we have never found it necessary or advisable to reformat the
drive after a motherboard change. Like David Maynard, we have never
experienced any subsequent problems that could be traced to a motherboard
change followed by a Repair install of XP.

Having said all this, if the user feels more comfortable reformatting his or
her drive following a motherboard change and doesn't mind the subsequent
time & effort expended in reinstalling their programs and data, then they
can go right ahead and do so. But again, to say this is necessary to prevent
future problems with the OS just ain't so based on our experience.

Art