Help with motherboard upgrade

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magickalshadow

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Okay, I have to admit to being new to upgrading motherboards...I usually just do minor stuff to my system like new drives, sound cards, memory, video cards...etc.

I bought a new system in January that has an Athlon XP 3200+ and later this year I would like to upgrade to an athlon 64 so I can take advantage of 64 bit software as they start to release it. Since my motherboard supports Socket A processors, I need to upgrade.

My question is, how can I tell if a board will fit into my case and is there any other considerations I should make like, will my HD, DVD-ROM, etc will be compatible?

My current motherboard has the Nvidia Nforce 2 chipset and the board I really have my eye on is an Nforce 4 chipsetÂ…donÂ’t know if that would tip me off in anyway on size and mounting of the boardÂ…

Thanks for any help....
 
most cases now-a-days are designed to fit all types of mobo's. and you should have no problems with the drive compatibility.
 
That sounds good, thanks....I just thought of another questions though...

Granted after a motherboard upgrade I will have to update divers, is there usually a boot problem when you boot up the first time after upgrading? If so, is it easier to just format your HD and start over like that?
 
magickalshadow said:
Granted after a motherboard upgrade I will have to update divers, is there usually a boot problem when you boot up the first time after upgrading?
A little while ago I was swapping parts with 2 of my computers(actually I think I was swapping the cases... but anyway.)... during the process I lost track of which HD belonged with witch mobo. When I got them put back together and turned them on there was an error in the boot screen that said something like “mobo has been changed” or something... I hit enter and it continued booting. It loaded windows and worked just fine...

I did not do anything with the computer other than turned it back off and re-swapped the HDÂ’s so I cant tell you if there would have been driver problems with devices I was not using.... but .......

magickalshadow said:
If so, is it easier to just format your HD and start over like that?
formatting and re-installing windows is always the fastest way of fixing things. I would rather spend 45 minutes re-installing windows than days looking for “fix-it” programs on the net.
 
I was just told that since I have an E-Machines case, I can't upgrade my motherboard without buying a new case. I am not sure this is true since I have, what appears to me to be a standard Micro ATX motherboard. Shouldn't I just be able to buy a new Micro-ATX board for my case? This is my current MoBo:

http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/FIC/AU31/

I want to doubt this since the person that told me this also told me a few weeks ago that I can't have DDR DIMM RAM because it had to be either DDR or DIMM but not both...lol
 
Shadow,

Unless your eMachine is a lot bigger than mine, the mobo you're looking at will not fit. From what I have seen, eMachines use micro-ATX cases, and will only hold a micro-ATX mobo.

What model number is your eMachine? I have a W2040. I can look up the specs on your system, and see what it says.
 
Yeah, I realized that I needed a Micro board after I looked at the specs. I have a T3256...

thanks for your help
 
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