Switching some parts with another computer's?

[RevCor632]

Hi guys

So right now, these are my specs:

Intel D845GBV motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 at 2.53 GHz (socket 478)
512 MB of DDR266 RAM

And my parents have:

Dell 02Y832 motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 at 2.4 GHz (socket 478)
512 MB of DDR400 RAM

My idea was to switch my motherboard and memory with theirs.

My question is, if someone changes out the RAM and motherboard of a computer, do they need to reinstall the operating system (Windows XP in this case) ?

And does anyone see any problems with my plan ?

The point of it is to get a little bit more life out of my computer before having to do a real (and costly) upgrade.

 

[JohnnyX]

I don't see why you would do this.
Yes if you switch the mobo you will need to reinstall the op sys.

 

[RevCor632]

Well my main reasons were

- The other mobo accepts DDR400, where as my current one can only take DDR266.

- My current mobo has only 2 memory slots, which are both taken up by 256MB DIMMs, so to upgrade to 1GB of RAM, I would have to buy the full 1GB. With a mobo with 4 slots, I could just buy 512MB and add it to the existing RAM.

- My current mobo has AGP 4x, whereas the other has AGP 8x.

 

[macdude425]

Oh sure, it can be done, but you'd have to:

• Saw off the back part of your case and make a new faceplate for the back because Dell uses proprietary cases
• Take your parents' very likely underpowered PSU and put it in your case because Dell uses proprietary PSUs: there's also a chance it won't fit in your case, and you'd have to fix that
• Saw off the back of your parents' Dell and make a new backplate because as I said Dell uses propreitary mobos
• Get your parents an off the shelf PSU to go with your mobo; oh, and there's a chance it won't fit either, for reasons mentioned above

If any of this goes wrong (esp the mobo and PSU parts) there's a good chance you'll blow something and have to buy it again. I would just buy new parts...

 

[RevCor632]

Well dangit. There goes my plan!

I don't really have much money =(

When you say the back faceplate, could I just switch the I/O shields? Or did you mean the entire backside of the computers?

 

[macdude425]

Nope, because of the way most of their boards are designed, you'd have to chop a big hole in the back of your case to make it fit.

 

[RevCor632]

Well nuts.

This saddens me.

Anybody have a computer that they're willing to give away or sell for something like ten dollars? =P