Upgrade from Intel to AMD issue.

[ksheeran]

Scuse me if this is more than obvious but I have been looking around for an hour and been unable to get an answer.

I am currently looking to Upgrade my Pentium 540 3.2G and Gigabyte 915p Mobo for an AMD x2 4600 939pin processor and ASUS A8N SLI SE Mobo.

I have been told by my supplier that I will need to reformat my hard drive and reinstall windows XP Pro, I don't really want to reformat and reinstall all the s/w I have , is there anopther way around this?

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Trotter]

I'm at work right now. When I get home I'll post a link to an article that will help you.

But, odds are you will have to either reinstall or repair Windows.

 

[Dr DMoney]

Don't if you want the best get yourself a conore. the e6300 is only 193 and you pick yourself a borad for 175.

 

[Trotter]

Going with either AMD or C2D will require a new mobo, thus a repair/reinstallation of Windows.

Here's the link:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1910093,00.asp

Read the article and follow its advice.

 

[Blind_Arrow]

you are changing the entire chipset (motherboard), you definately require windows re-installation. though in some cases, it will work, but you'll have so many problems afterwards that you'll curse your hardware.

also, windows while installation extracts the necessary hardware architecture files out of the packets, while you'll be inserting a new system into existing installation, where the nVidia board doesnt comes with Southbridges. consider the possibilities of problems afterwards.

 

[CrazeD]

Don't if you want the best get yourself a conore. the e6300 is only 193 and you pick yourself a borad for 175.

Why is it that in every thread where someone even remotely suggests buying AMD, the annoying conroe freaks jump out of the woodwork and start yelling, "GET CONROE, GET CONROE"

God that gets annoying. Just answer his question, and let him decide what he wants.

 

[ksheeran]

I use the box for rendering/video editing and I am going with the AMD because of the existing DDR Ram - I'll get better value for money here (I'm not in the US) for a performance hit of 5%.

Thanks for all your help, the web site is a gem.

 

[The General]

Yeah Windows is pretty lame because of that ... Linux doesn't care what hardware you change, but for some reason Windows does...

EDIT: And if you want to keep your DDR ram, but still get the blazing speed of a Core 2 Duo, you could always get the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810