upgrading advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ted
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Ted

My present system consists of
A7A266 mobo
athlon 1800 xp
geforce3 graphics card
creative SoundBlaster live platinum

My new setup will consist of
new mobo ?
athlon 2700 xp
2 x 500 meg 2700

The question is
will there be any advantage in me getting onboard sound and/or graphics
what problems am I likely to have if just swap board for board using my
present hard drive with currant system i.e. windows xp pro
any advice would be appreciated because I have never done this before.
Regards Ted
ps there will be more questions I'm sure :)
 
My present system consists of
A7A266 mobo
Click to expand...

ali chipset ?
athlon 1800 xp
geforce3 graphics card
creative SoundBlaster live platinum

My new setup will consist of
new mobo ?
athlon 2700 xp
2 x 500 meg 2700

The question is
will there be any advantage in me getting onboard sound and/or graphics
Click to expand...

Yes, the sound on the asus nforce2 is very good. Graphics, no. 3Dmarks
with onboard mx400 or so is about a 4th of a really good card. Good
enough for some, but not for a gamer.
what problems am I likely to have if just swap board for board using my
present hard drive with currant system i.e. windows xp pro
any advice would be appreciated because I have never done this before.
Click to expand...

Never heard of repair install ? Well, when you change motherboard to a
new one with another chipset XP will not boot. Then fetch the windows
xp cd or whatever you have installed from, boot on the CD or whatever
and start installation as usual. Then just after the F8 agreement
screen is offered Repair for the second time. Choose repair then, and
your registry will not be overwritten.

It has worked for me. Actually my current windows XP has survived 3
different motherboards.

best regards

John
 
Thanks for that JK next question should I go for a 3rd party heatsink and
fan or will the one supplied be ok I cant see myself trying to overclock.
Ted
 
Ted said:
Thanks for that JK next question should I go for a 3rd party heatsink
and fan or will the one supplied be ok I cant see myself trying to
overclock. Ted
Click to expand...

At stock speeds or for mild overclocking the retail AMD heatsink and fan
will be fine.
 
Ted said:
Thanks for that JK next question should I go for a 3rd party heatsink and
fan or will the one supplied be ok I cant see myself trying to overclock.
Click to expand...

AMD's boxed coolers do their job, but they are usually not particularly
quiet. A good heatsink (say, SLK800 or something like that) with a
slower (~2000 rpm) 80 mm fan is likely to do a better job if you're
after a quiet system.

Stephan
 
Ted said:
My present system consists of
A7A266 mobo
athlon 1800 xp
geforce3 graphics card
creative SoundBlaster live platinum

My new setup will consist of
new mobo ?
athlon 2700 xp
2 x 500 meg 2700

The question is
will there be any advantage in me getting onboard sound and/or
graphics what problems am I likely to have if just swap board for
board using my present hard drive with currant system i.e. windows xp
pro
any advice would be appreciated because I have never done this before.
Regards Ted
ps there will be more questions I'm sure :)
Click to expand...

The Nforce2 chipset is currently a popular choice for the Athlon XP. Abit,
Asus,Gigabyte, and others make an assortment of boards with varying
features. You can use your current hardware on any new motherboard, with the
possible exception of memory. The XP2500+ Barton core is likely a better
bang for the buck than is the 2700+. As for RAM, good quality PC2700 is fine
if you do not have plans of overclocking. Otherwise, PC3200 is the way to
go. Depending on your computing needs, 512MB is usually enough, even using
Windows 2000/XP.
 
okay got all that sorted now the final question. which motherboard :)
Click to expand...

I already assumed a nforce2 from asus. They have several versions and
without and with onboard graphics. That is your own choice.

The best is with 2 ram sticks, so that dual channel ram is used.

best regards

John
 
first of all I would like to thank you all for taking the time to answer my
questions on this project I have in mind. As this is the first time for me
in this news group; I have been reading all of the post's. It seems that a
lot of people are having problems with sound on the A7N8X Del which is the
mobo that I was looking at. I do have a reasonable sound card and my
graphics seems okay for now. so what Im looking for is a board that will
support an upgrade. I used to try and get a system that was future proof but
as you all know the next upgrade will still need the latest motherboard, cpu
etc. I know nothing about motherboards except without one there is nowhere
for my cpu to live.
Regards Ted
 
I just upgraded to an A7N8X deluxe with AMD 2800+ and 512 meg of
Corsair XMS memory this past weekend in place of an MSI K7T turbo2
with AMD 2000+ and 896 meg of pc133 ram. Upgrade, including the power
supply swap and recovery install of XP pro took 2 hours 15 minutes or
so. booted up off the xp pro cd to be safe and 30 minutes later was in
and running. This board/chip/ram combo has been rock stable, factory
heatsink does fine (low 40's idle, high 40's low 50's after a couple
hours gaming). Overall very impressed with ASUS. Had a P/I-P55T2P4
board of theirs years ago that was a classic. This is my first ASUS
board since then. Both were the smoothest upgrades I'd ever done. ASUS
has a customer for life with me...after MSI, shuttle and tyan, ASUS is
a dream.
 
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