Upgrading motherboard

[immy3]

I plan on putting a Dell dimension 8400 motherboard in my 4550 case with new hard drive, processor, RAM, and video card.

I have a lot of questions about installing the motherboard. Firstly, since it's a brand new hard drive and motherboard, windows XP won't be installed. Does the mobo need drivers? How do I get windows XP installed? Do you have any other suggestions in general?

Please help, it is greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot

 

[peterhuang913]

You better google for "xp install guides" and read some "computer building guides" to get started. Yes the motherboard need drivers and you can get them from dell support. You mention a new processor, that could be a problem because Dell motherboard are proprietary.

 

[immy3]

No, the processor isn't a problem with the propritariness of Dells, I know that. It's the motherboard that I had to painstakingly find that would fit in my dell case..

Would I have to boot to a disk with the motherboard drivers on them, since my hard drive will be completely new when the motherboard goes in? Also does the hard drive need drivers, and the memory as well? Any other tips?

Thanks a lot

 

[hercules_upw]

just put the components together and fire it up with the XP disk in the drive. You may have to set the cd rom as the first boot device in the bios.

Windows should provide generic drivers for all components until you can get to the basic windows desktop. Then proceed to load drivers as necessary.

Final tip: Follow peterhuang913's advice and do some googling.

 

[immy3]

Really?

The one thing I was worried about is having to have drivers for everything, and how I could possibly do that cause I'm no expert. But if XP gives you basic drivers for everything then I should be set.

I can put the components together, it's just getting XP set up and all the components working that worries me. But if that's all I have to do, then I'm very relieved.

Thanks a lot

 

[hercules_upw]

don't get me wrong, the drivers are very basic. Your video will be in 16 colors, screen size (from my experience) will default to 600 x 800, there is a good possibility that there will be no sound until you install that specific driver. There will be a few other things too, but every computer is a little different.

The generic drivers provided by windows are just meant to get things going so you can actually put the correct drivers in place. You wont be able to install windows and thats it, you'll have some work to do afterwards.

 

[danielackerman]

three words.
Asus
Abit or
DFI


you cant go wrong with any of those name brands. all the rest are just cheap.