Building New PC, Beginner Question

[Hapx4.0]

Hi, I'm putting together my first PC, i have always just bought PCs but decided it was time lol.

i was wondering if there is anything i need to know on putting it together, i have a hard drive I'm going use from my old PC, but i think someone said before that i will have to reinstall windows. if so when i do will i still have everything on the HDD like programs? bookmarks? games?


And i need to know a little help on putting CPU Thermal Compound for a AMD 3200+ 2.0ghz

any advice would help, thanks!

 

[brady]

You will need to reformat the drive b/c of the driver conflicts that will occur with your new system. If you still have your machine working, make sure you save the files you want. Programs will need to be reinstalled completely.

As for the thermal compound, whats your question ?

 

[schulz269]

The thermal paste is easy to apply jsut but a little drop the size of a pincel tip on the cpu and but the heatsink on it the heatsink well spread it out evenly as it needs. artic silver 5 is the one you should get.

 

[Hapx4.0]

Ok, thanks guys

 

[Hapx4.0]

OK i got the CPU fan on, but it was hard, and now i cant clip the lever down, it feels like its going to break, did i put it on wrong?

 

[kmote]

no, they are a pig, as long as you carefully follow any instructions included with the processor then you will be fine (be careful to make sure the clips are in the correct position)

 

[Hapx4.0]

k pushed hard and it cliped, phew! thanks

 

[Apokalipse]

You will need to reformat the drive b/c of the driver conflicts that will occur with your new system.

if it's 2000 or XP, you can just do a repair install.
repair-installs put generic drivers on everything, so you won't see any driver conflicts

 

[brady]

I know its possible, however I have never had any luck with that. I would rather tell someone to reformat to save time, incase of conflict.

2nd. Depending on the "Repair" option they choose, they can really ruin the entire install.

 

[schulz269]

the last time i tried to repair it was a mess everything kept poping up with errors and junk so it is better to format it and a freash install cause u well get nothing but errors if you try to repair it.