Mobo Swap

[2cats]

g'day

I need to build i new pc for the office. Based on an intel e6600, but i don't want to spend a lot of money on the motherboard and ram.
What I plan on doing is to swap out the mobo(asus p5b deluxe/wifi) and ram(2gb ocz pc 6400) from my HTPC and and use those with my new e6600.
What I will put back in the htpc will be a cheaper asus p5v-vm-se-dh mobo and 1 gig or 512mb of budget ram.

I think this would be the most cost effective solution to for a new pc build. I don't think I need anywhere near that amount of ram and mobo for watching and recording tv/dvds, it's just being wasted.

Anyone reckon I could do a clean swap with out reinstalling mce?
Apart from changing drivers etc.

[IceFragmatic]

Whenever you change a major component (mainboard or CPU) it is always best to reinstall the software. You may get starnge crashes and your system may well not work as well as a new installation.

Leave hot swaps to the shady fly by night dealers and do the job properly.

Ice

[2cats]

Hey Ice

Do you think there will be problems with re-activation of mce? Its been installed for more than 120 days.

[ruffy01]

G'day 2cats.
Usually, if it's been longer than ~90 days since you last activated & you've only activated that key a few times then it should reactivate online no probs.
Worst case scenario is a free call to MS, say you've changed motherboards & then still no problems.

I've reinstalled/activated a version of XP I have no less than 12 times. I'm not sure what the actual number of activations allowed b4 needing to phone MS is but even if I let it go for more than 90 days now I still need to make that phone call. I think it was after ~4 installs.
Either way, it's never a problem just a hassle.

I tend to agree with Ice. You could get away with a repair install & loading the new mobo' drivers but issues can arise. A fresh install is always preferable

Cheers,
Ruffy

[scottsos]

Hi,

The biggest issue you will have with a motherboard swap is the hard disk controller driver, if the new motherboard needs a different one than you will get a BOD at startup. There are ways that you can use to fix this without going through a windows repair install. This method replaces the disk controller drivers with a standard IDE driver that should work with all controllers.

DO NOT REBOOT AT ANY TIME

1. Take an image of your PC.
2. Open device manage and expand the IDE ATA... section.
3. Right click controller and update driver
4. Install from a list
5. Don't search
6. Select "Standard......" driver.
7. Do this for both drivers.
8. Shutdown.
9. replace motherboards
10. Startup. If it doesn't work than rebuild or restore motherboad and image.
11. Install drivers.
12. Re-activate windows

I have done this a few times with IDE drivers (not sure about SATA) and it has worked for me.

If you have issues you can always do a re-install but this is worth trying.

[2cats]

Thanks all

I'll do a complete reinstall (may as well) that way i also can get rid of all the unnecessary crap on the os partition it also gives me a excuse to get another hdd.

Anyone used the asus p5v-vm-se-dh?

2cats