Upgrading Motherboard+CPU

Kotenk

So I'm about to take the plunge on a new mobo and CPU. I've never upgraded these two items before and was wondering if.there was a solid guide on how to do so anywhere. My tech level is fairly high and am mostly intimidated by the software side of things.

It will be on Windows 7 and with a new sandy bridge processor.

Raern

You mean a solid guide for the physical install process?

It's actually fairly straight forward.

Major things to watch for:

-Install the CPU, heat sink and RAM onto the motherboard outside the case, sit the motherboard on something that doesn't conduct electricity. The MB probably came in an anti-static bag which works well enough.

-Static electricity. You probably know this much, but don't wear wool overalls while standing on a wool carpet and installing parts. Touch the metal case occasionally to try and discharge what static you might have into that instead of something delicate.

-Thermal paste of some sort on the CPU. Probably provided automatically, but the CPU will fry without a compound preventing air pockets insulating the CPU from the heat sink.

-When you put the MB into the case make sure the stand-offs that keep the MB from short-circuiting are in the right places for you MB. This is usually a non-issue with upgrades since the stand-offs are already in the case in the right places, but if the MB is grounded the system won't start.

mehmehmeh

re software: are you planing on moving the old hard drive to the new motherboard with the system intact? I'm not sure about win7 but xp hated having the motherboard switched on it. I think I had to do a repair install (installs a new copy of windows over the existing one) when I tried migrating a drive between motherboards. Even after that there were some odd issues with other applications I think. Some worked some didn't.

If you are wiping out the system drive and starting with a fresh install then there won't be any issues, it will be like you're building a new computer at that point. Now I tend to keep all my data off the C partition so I can fully reformat the system partition but still have most of my personal files safe and accessible even though they can be on the same physical drive.

I

Kotenk

I run off an SSD for Windows 7 that has just it and WoW, basically. I wouldn't cry if I had to wipe it. I'll back it up just in case.

And no - hardware wise I feel okay. I'm actually going to be running caseless for the first few days so I'm not too worried on that front. Mostly worried about migrating the Win7 install and the BIOS setup.

spool32

If you're going from single to dual core , or dual to quad, you'll need to reinstall Windows.

DanMach

Uh.. disregarding some terrible information in here... just reinstall windows 7. Its the right decision.

PC repair dude - 5 years but to be fair, that was before windows 7.