Can I upgrade to this motherboard?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2315790&Sku=I69-2124

This is the motherboard I wanted to upgrade to in my current HP Desktop PC.

It's a HP Pavilion a1224n. And I wanted to use the processor,memory,hdd, DVD Burner/DVD-Rom drive from the old mobo with this new one. Specs are:

3.066Ghz/533MHz fsb/1MB Cache P4 (Not sure if 64-bit support is here or if there's hyper threading. The HT part isn't on the P4 sticker though.)

2 x 512MB DDR 2 SDRAM PC2-3200

200GB Seagate ST3200822AS. I think it's only 1.5GB/sec SATA.

Basicaly I'm doing this because the current motherboard only has three PCI slots, and I wanted a motherboard around $100 with a PCI Express x16 slot.

And if this board won't work, is there another I can use? Yes? No?

Just asking here first to be sure I can use it. And anything I need to know when installing it. I think it's fairly easy to install. But I wanted to be 200% sure on this here.

Also I'm greatful for any help here. =D

 

You should have provided a link to the specs page for your motherboard, which I found here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...c=us&dlc=en&product=1140029&docname=c00487776

Chances are, that motherboard will NOT fit into your HP case; look at the photo of the backplane of the new motherboard, and compare it to the backplane of your existing motherboard; if everything doesn't line up properly, you probably won't be able to use it in the HP case.

Socket 775 CPUs are VERY fragile, and I don't recommend moving one from one motherboard to another if you've never done it before. I've been repairing computers since 1993; I've installed and removed countless CPUs since then, and Socket 775 CPUs are not for the uninitiated to work with.

Of course, you'll probably have to wipe the drive and do a fresh install of WinXP; IIRC, the version of XP you have will NOT work with a different motherboard. The HP motherboard was made by Asus with the Intel 915GV chipset; the new board is made by Intel and uses the 945G chipset, so you'll have to factor in the cost of a new copy of WinXP. You'll also need a utility to zero-fill the existing drive, in order to remove the hidden partition HP installed; if you can't wipe the drive COMPLETELY, you'd better plan on buying a new harddrive.

To recap, you'll most likely need the new motherboard, a new case, a new copy of WinXP, and a new harddrive. Figure on spending about $350 to $400 dollars on everything, and that depends on NOT destroying the CPU when you try to move it; otherwise, add the cost of a new CPU to the total.

Bottom line is, this probably isn't as cheap an upgrade as you think it might be...

Good luck; let us know what you decide to do. I tried to cover the major details here; there might be other pitfalls to this that I'm overlooking, so give this a lot of thought before you decide to make this switch.

 

Well before this computer, I had a custom bulid pc for a while. From a 1.2 Ghz AMD Duron, to a XP 2500+, and then a XP 3000+ late as early this year. And I removed 3Ghz P4 processor recently from the socket and put it back recently with no problems.

Reason why I wanted to use the same processor is because both had the same socket 775. Also I have the copy of XP covered. Could I just install it to a different partition to save having to wipe all my data? Most of that 200GB is full too. And transfering all that off the backup DVD+R's could take a while.

I'm hoping with that experince, I'll be ok with transfering the processors. Just to cofirm too, it can still be transfered to the new board right? Also I was just thinking of getting a around $50 or so mid tower case anyway.

Also thank you for all your help! =D Very very detailed, and very very helpful. =D

 

Well, of course, this is up to you, but I don't see any reason why you can't move your Socket 775 CPU; you seem to have some experience, you understand the need to be cautious, and you're footing the bill for the parts, so go for it. You'll get some new features from the new motherboard, and you can migrate the rest of your hardware over without a lot of heartburn.

I would URGE you not to install WinXP into another partition on your existing harddrive; you will be MUCH better off buying a new drive and installing XP from scratch. Once you have everything set up properly, you can install your old harddrive as a backup to the new bootdrive, and COPY your old files (do NOT try to MOVE the old files) to the new drive. If you MOVE the files, and something goes wrong, the moved files will be corrupted, and you won't have a backup copy on the original harddrive (because you MOVED those files to the new drive). If you COPY the old files to the new drive, and something goes wrong, you should still have the original files safely stored on the original harddrive, so you can RECOPY them.

Bottom line is this; you seem to have an excellent grasp of what is required to accomplish this, and the willingness to see it through, so I can't see any good reason NOT to do this. Best of luck to you; you still have a LOT of work in front of you, but if you take your time, and use a logical, methodical approach to this, you should be able to get it done, and have a better system in the long run.

Keep us posted, OK?

 

Just checking again about the memory question just to be 200% sure here and not screw up this motherboard. The memory I have is 2x512MB DDR2 sticks at PC 3200 200mhz witch I assume is double to 400mhz in dual channel. (I used the program Cpu-Z to check this.) The mobo's manual says I can use 4 x 240-pim DIMM sockets support unbuffferred non-ECC DDR2-667/DDR-533 memory modules.

Again thank you guys for all your help! =D

 

Hi,

I hope this aint a dumb question but can the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI Motherboard take the older DDR 400Mhz chips... or shld it only go with the DDR2 chips? not lookin for dual channel yet and have a couple of Kingston 512MB 400Mhz around.