This weekend I'm finally going to upgrade my PC from the 1.3gig Celeron ageing PC to a much better 2.5gig Celeron with DRAM and new mother Board. I'm not in to PC gaming so a 2.5gig will do me fine as far as video and audio work goes. What I'm worried about is XP being a right pain in the arse. My plan is to remove the old mother board from my PC then insert the new one with new CPU, new memory and the old hard drives and PCI cards such as my capture card, 5.1 sound card, HDMI & TV out card and a few others. Although all the drivers for the PCI cards is already on the old hard drives I wouldn't be surprised if I had to install everything again but what about XP. Is it going to tell me to register it again? Or will it behave and just boot up as normal? What other problems do you think I could face? In an ideal world I could just change the mother board, CPU and memory then boot everything up as normal but some how I don't think this is an ideal world. Yakumo
OK - the biggest problem is that XP considers your motherboard to be the main part of your computer, so if you change it (especially replacing the processor and RAM too) it'll more than likely lock you out. I got away with it as I replaced the mb in mine but kept all the original extra parts - so it whined a little but it eventually worked OK. Plus - if you've had it more than 1.5 years (I think!) the system is more tolerant to change. Finally, part of the 'Genuine Advantage' thing is based on the serial number of your hard drive(s), so if you're not replacing those you might be OK. The biggest hurdle is that you'll probably have to reinstall Windows with such a big adaptation (else you end up with lots of drivers that get loaded on boot but are for your old mb - thus, really slow computer), and when you reinstall you might have to ring Microsoft to activate it when it asks... but then the 1.5 year rule might come into play. Last time I did this, however, I just read them the number on screen and they read me one back. Unfortunately, upgrades can be an inexact science as to what will happen. Most likely it'll chunder away as all the drivers are installed and that's it. But then again it could throw a wobbler and force you to reinstall. Who truly knows?
Nothing more to add, it's just a matter of testing. But most likely it will install the new drivers automatically and that's it (it's not the best way to go tho)
It can also depend on the chipset on the mobo, usually if its the same chipset (sis, via etc) then swapping the hdd and cards over should work, but this isnt always the case, at any rate its worth a try before doing a full reinstall
What I did when I changed my 866 MHz PIII with XP for my 1.7 GHz PIV about a year ago was a lot like it, only with the difference that my old PC was a Compaq came with XP preinstalled and only the drivers it needed. Maybe in your case it can be easier, but in mine I had to get all the needed drivers BEFORE putting the hard disk in the new machine. You should check your parts manufacturers sites for new drivers (lots of old drivers didn't work well in my case, specially the mobo and video ones) or sign up here, I always get all my drivers from this site. Anyway, remember that the best thing to do when you switch your computer is formatting your HDD, I know that backing up and reinstalling everything can be a huge pain in the ass but you'll have to do it in some moment.
If you're doing audio and video editing and you're upgrading your CPU and motherboard anyway, might I recommend a dual-core processor? Celerons are okay and all, but I went from 6 hours to encode a movie (Pentium 4) to 1 hour (AMD X2 4600+). You can still use your computer on top of this since one of your cores is still free.
Taemos & WoverineDK: Um - cost could be a factor here. What's the point of spending 5 times the amount if you don't want it?
Thanks for the info guys. So basically I may be lucky but more likely than not everything will go tits up and have me ripping out my hair as I have to sort everything out. I will be keeping all my old Hard Drives so maybe XP will be fine since I've had it for well over 1.5 year but like you guys said, who knows. The reason why I've gone for a Celeron is because I can get a 2.5gig CPU for only 2000 yen ! That's about 10 pounds or 20 odd dollars. A pentium would cost way more Here's a list of costs in building this new PC. Mother Board = 3000 yen Samsung PC800 DRAM 512 MB = 8000 yen x2 Celeron 2.5GB CPU = 2000 yen CPU fan with cooling block = 900 yen Total = 21'900 yen :thumbsup: (The DRAM is the expensive part) This is the fan I bought. I take it that the gold looking part on the bottom of the cooling block sits on top of the CPU with some cooling gel between them. Yakumo
I don't know if wou're talking about a rare kind of memory, but if is a common 512 MB DDR2 with 533 MHz of data rate, 80 dollars is way too expensive. Here that prices are high as hell you can get one of those for 20-25 bucks...
DRAM is not the same as DDR. The price is justifiable by its performance. Notable consoles with DRAM include the PS2 and the N64 - naturally by Rambus =)
mooseblaster: While there is a fair price difference in a Celeron vs. a dual core processor, it's not crippling by any stretch of the imagination. I could afford to build an AMD X2 machine and I'm a college student, whereas I'm sure Yakumo actually has a job. If you really don't want to spend a lot of money on this, Yakumo, then go for what you want. All I'm saying is that for maybe (and this is stretching it) $150 (~16,000 yen) you could have a much faster processor, essentially cutting your encoding times in half. I'm referring to AMD X2s, however; Intel's offerings are far more expensive.
Japan is one of the most expensive 1st world countries for PC stuff. Even Europe is cheaper. The memory I'm getting has a 800MHz rate of data. Maybe it's different than the stuff you are thinking about. These memory "blocks" are covered with a metal case so you can't actually see the chips however if you touch it you'll probably burn your fingers. Yeah, but I have a family, going to build a house (23 million yen / 212,548 USD !!) and will buy a new car as well. So, I'm not actually swimming in cash as it would seem. More like swimming in dept if this house plan goes ahead I do however see your point on the dual core CPU and do think it's a good rout to take but I'm getting the mother board and CPU from a friend so I'll be doing him a favor and getting parts cheap. As for encoding times that's ok. i leave the PC on 24/7 anyway so most if not all my encoding is done when I'm asleep. Yakumo
I know Japan is expensive when you talk about PC stuff, but everything except the memory stuff is cheaper than here anyway, that was why I got so surprized. By the way I was looking for some of those RAMs and I found them worthing around 40 dollars here, something weird when I must pay about 60 bucks for a 2.66 GHz Celeron (I'm gonna buy a 2.8 HT PIV at 75 dollars)... Wouldn't a 1GB RAM of the same kind be cheaper than two 512MB ones?
Whoa. Just noticed this thread. Yakumo, where did you buy your motherboard? If you can, I'd return it and get a motherboard with DDR1 RAM, better yet, go for an LGA-775 motherboard that has DDR2. For about $160, you can get yourself a $50-$60 motherboard, $50-$80 CPU (Celeron, etc), and CHEAP DDR2 RAM. And I mean CHEAP. 1gigabyte 667mhz RAM (which is A LOT faster than DRAM, DRAM is slow as shit compared to whats out there even though its rated at 800mhz) will cost you no more than $25 a stick. Look into the Asus P5L-MX (intel chipset of 945G, very reliable motherboard) motherboard or Asus P5VD2-MX motherboard (Via chipset, also reliable, but not as much, just cheaper than the P5L). Also, for your main concern about XP. Can you please tell me the 'chipset' of the old motherboard, and the chipset of the new motherboard? In case you don't know what I'm talking about the chipset of the motherboard can be identified via two chips located on the motherboard. The first one is usually covered by a heatsink and it is near the CPU socket, the second one is almost on the other side of the motherboard away from the CPU socket and it usually does not have a heatsink attached to it. If it says Intel on your old motherboard, and if your new motherboard's chipset says Intel on it, then you might get lucky and Windows XP will boot into your desktop, otherwise you will get a blue screen and that means you'll have to do an "Automatic Repair" on your windows installation via booting off of the XP CD. This method WILL NOT ERASE your main hard drive's data. It will simply repair the OS installation, and you'll still have your programs installed. All you have to do is simply install the motherboard drivers and then reactivate it (you will have to call Microsoft, which I explain further down). Now, if XP does not give you the blue screen and boots up into your desktop, you might be prompted to reactivate windows or else it won't let you in, OR it might tell you that you have 3 days left to activate. Now when you activate 9 times out of ten it will not go thru and you will have to call them. If you do call them, simply say that your motherboard became defective and had to be replaced. They will give you a new activation code to activate XP. It takes up to 15minutes and it's all automated. But yeh, look into current generation hardware if your budget allows it. A pentium celeron D 2.5ghz 533mhz FSB (from what I recall, your motherboard might not support it if it's RDRAM as they can take up to 533mhz FSB Intel CPUs) is faster than what you own, but not nearly as fast as a 1.8ghz Celeron 420 (LGA 775, 800mhz FSB) and runs a lot cooler. You won't be disappointed whichever way you go with this upgrade...
Not really, maybe just a little cheaper but also harder to find. Yesterday I got another 1 gig of memory for 10'000 yen. I guess Japan is just very expensive for memory :-( Anyway, all my parts have arrived so I might put it all together tonight or tomorrow depending on how I feel tonight. Fingers crossed.ray: Yakumo
Totally agree on the RAM, DDR2 800 is £20 for a 1Gb stick... a much better choice. There's a 60% chance windows will just crash when you turn it on. It is pretty much down to the chipset - if you're using the same chipset, it should boot. Even if you're using say another Intel chipset, you may be ok. If it crashes, it's format time.... although I would HIGHLY recommend a format, anyway!
madhatter256, I just noticed your post. you must have wrote it when I wrote mine. Thanks for that info on the Blue Screen. I'm going ahead withthe update tonight so if I'm not online for a few days then you'll all know why :lol: yakumo
You bought RDRAM, which is expensive and way harder to find. For the price you paid for, that is a pretty decent price for RDRAM. We sell 512mb RDRAM for $170 a stick. 1gigabyte RDRAM? Enough to buy a new mobo/cpu WITH 1gig of DDR2 RAM 8).
