Upgrading - half rebuilding my PC, just a question

The_One · 01/12/10 - 19:20

My motherboard is broke so ive decided to get a new one. Im also upgrading the graphics card from a geforce 9800 gtx to an SLi 2x geforce 470 gtx. Also upgrading the PSU from 650 to 1000 watt. Im keeping my CPU, memory, and solidstate harddrive.Windows 7 home 64 bit installed.

Question:
By using my old harddrive will the PC load up as normal so after the windows load screen has finished, will all the "found new hardware" "Drivers are being installed" etc on system tray next to the clock... will everything go smoothly like that? or would i have to reinstall windows after i first boot up? or something else?

Mystic Eddy · 01/12/10 - 19:24

Theoretically it should boot up fine. If it does, expect 'This copy of Windows is not Genuine' messages because of the amount of hardware change that has taken place. Sometimes you have to phone Microsoft's automated hotline or it will do it online.

zx50 · 01/12/10 - 19:50

I'd also unistall any drivers that are related to any hardware you're removing BEFORE you remove anything. This is what I'd do anyway.

psionic · 01/12/10 - 20:01

Personally I prefer to do a clean install when changing something as significant as the motherboard (unless there is not much difference in the MB chipset, SATA chip etc.). Time consuming I know, installing all the apps and restoring data. But ensures everything runs smoothly. Also a great opportunity to junk any software etc. you don't use/need.

Ethan Rayne · 01/12/10 - 20:21

psionic wrote: »

Personally I prefer to do a clean install when changing something as significant as the motherboard (unless there is not much difference in the MB chipset, SATA chip etc.). Time consuming I know, installing all the apps and restoring data. But ensures everything runs smoothly. Also a great opportunity to junk any software etc. you don't use/need.

I've found Windows 7 is really good at sorting itself out ,incudeing changing chipsets from nvidia to amd, that its no longer a requirement to do a clean install, both times i've done it required ringing the automated reactivation line though

Pugwash69 · 01/12/10 - 20:32

I recently changed my whole machine and kept the old hard drive installed, and was quite suprised Windows 7 even worked. I was planning to install fresh on my new SSD and forgotten to swap the boot settings. No blue screen for me.

[Deleted User] · 01/12/10 - 21:42

if you're changing the motherboard, you'd be a fool not to reinstall Windows, Unless you're swapping it out for the exact same make & model.

[Deleted User] · 01/12/10 - 23:28

Times have changed since a decade ago when you'd have to do a clean install to avoid problems. Personally, I would still back everything up and format the drive as a major hardware change like you are planning is the ideal time to start with a clean system.

GetFrodo · 01/12/10 - 23:50

The_One wrote: »

Also upgrading the PSU from 650 to 1000 watt.

Bloody hell guv, is your heating on the blink?

max99 · 02/12/10 - 01:50

As you're presumably wanting to get the maximum performance out of this machine, I would avoid taking a shortcut and just go for the clean install.

The_One · 02/12/10 - 21:13

I did as i originally posted. No problems at all

Windows 7 is awesome.
All i had to do was upgrade the graphics drivers and job done, i couldnt believe it. I was sort of expecting things to act slightly slower or not at all, but if anything things seem a little faster.

Windows performance test gives me a score of 7.3... due to the slowest part - my old 160GB solidstate harddrive lol that was so expensive for a harddrive.

The geforce 470 gtx gives a score of 7.8. the score cap is 7.9. Then i enabled the SLi feature in the nvidia tool window, retested and i think the score mustve gone off the chart.

Pugwash69 · 02/12/10 - 21:19

I think the scores only go up to 8.0

Mine does quite well too, although my boot into W7 on the old drive was accidental so I did a clean install on SSD afterwards.

W7 is, without a doubt, a good-un.

zx50 · 02/12/10 - 22:28

The_One wrote: »

I did as i originally posted. No problems at all
Windows 7 is awesome.
All i had to do was upgrade the graphics drivers and job done, i couldnt believe it. I was sort of expecting things to act slightly slower or not at all, but if anything things seem a little faster.

Windows performance test gives me a score of 7.3... due to the slowest part - my old 160GB solidstate harddrive lol that was so expensive for a harddrive.

The geforce 470 gtx gives a score of 7.8. the score cap is 7.9. Then i enabled the SLi feature in the nvidia tool window, retested and i think the score mustve gone off the chart.

Are you sure you're talking about an SSD there? SSDs are quite recent.

whoever,hey · 02/12/10 - 22:47

The_One wrote: »

Windows performance test gives me a score of 7.3... due to the slowest part - my old 160GB solidstate harddrive lol that was so expensive for a harddrive.

that is based just on the size of it, not its speed!

ClarkF1 · 03/12/10 - 01:31

It is based on disk transfer rate not size.

My setup has a rating of 5.9 based on Disk Transfer rate.

That's based on 3 Hard-drives totalling 1.75TB.

I reckon it uses the lowest reading of the three

The_One · 03/12/10 - 13:48

zx50 wrote: »

Are you sure you're talking about an SSD there? SSDs are quite recent.

Old as in 1 year. The newer drives are even faster, this is mine:
http://www.dabs.com/products/intel-x25-m-160gb-2-5--mlc-sata-ii-68PQ.html

zx50 · 03/12/10 - 15:21

The_One wrote: »

Old as in 1 year. The newer drives are even faster, this is mine:
http://www.dabs.com/products/intel-x25-m-160gb-2-5--mlc-sata-ii-68PQ.html

Flaming heck! You must have one expensively built desktop.

The_One · 03/12/10 - 16:18

zx50 wrote: »

Flaming heck! You must have one expensively built desktop.

Haha well, I built it a year ago and cost me about £1450 without a graphics card as i used an old graphics card (geforce 9800 gtx) which i was using as an upgrade for my previous PC which i gave to my sister and i put a £40 graphics card in there.

That 9800 graphics card fried last week. So as i said previously i upgraded the motherboard, power unit and got 2x 470 gtx's in SLi. I decided on 2x of those because the 470 is soo much cheaper than the 480 and perform almost equal, the new 580 isnt much different in performance so getting 2x 470's seemed best considering reliability, cost vs performance for high end cards. I say reliability because the best/fastest cards seem to die quicker than the model below.

Total price of my PC, not counting the old mobo and psu:
£1800.

The most expensive PC maker, Alienware, a similar spec PC already built from them costs £2500-2900.

zx50 · 03/12/10 - 18:46

Bloody hell! Well, enjoy then

Hey there!

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